By Alex Bush
ROCHESTER, UK, July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Anglican bishop of Rochester, U.K., Dr. Michael Nazir-Ali, has come out in favor of the biblical interpretation of homosexuality in light of the developing crisis in the Anglican Communion over same-sex “marriage” and actively homosexual clergy and bishops. He said in a recent interview with The Sunday Telegraph, “We welcome homosexuals, we don't want to exclude people, but we want them to repent and be changed.”
Bishop Nazir-Ali called Anglicans to not be “rolled over by the culture.”
The bishop also told the Telegraph, “We want to uphold the traditional teaching of the Bible. We believe that God has revealed his purpose about how we are made.”
“People who depart from this don't share the same faith. They are acting in a way that is not normative according to what God has revealed in the Bible,” he said.
Bishop Nazir-Ali is resigning in September from his post to back a new community called The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. He said that there is a need for a new movement because the Anglicans are already divided, saying, “We're two different sorts of religion. One has a view of God and the Church and Christianity that is completely different from the other.”