NAIROBI, Kenya (LifeSiteNews) – The Anglican Church of Kenya has strongly condemned the Church of England for its decision to bless same-sex unions.
In a letter published February 10, Anglican Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit of Nairobi condemned the decision of the Anglican Church of England to approve the liturgical blessing of same-sex unions. The English choice, the result of a vote, was praised by Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell in a joint statement. “For the first time, the Church of England will publicly, unreservedly, and joyfully welcome same-sex couples in church,” they wrote
Slamming the decision as a contradictory attempt to appease both sides on the Anglican same-sex “marriage” debate, Ole Sapit said,”It is ridiculous that the Church of England affirms to remain faithful to the traditional teachings of marriage, yet have sanctioned the so-called prayers of love to be used in their churches to bless unions between persons of same-sex. This is hypocritical and a blatant lie for there is only one truth and not many versions or opinions of it.’
Ole Sapit continued, ‘The unfortunate rise of the liberal churchmanship within the Western Provinces of our beloved Anglican Communion is devious and must be countered with the true gospel. Having lost all theological and doctrinal legitimacy, the liberal churches have used their political dominance to secularize the church by normalizing all manner of sins.”
RELATED: Anglican Church of Uganda blasts Church of England for decision to ‘bless’ same-sex unions
Firmly positioning the Anglican Church of Kenya as faithful to the Gospel, Ole Sapit called upon Anglicanism’s western branches to repent:
We in the Anglican Church of Kenya call upon these western liberal Provinces to repent and return to the one and only faith in Jesus Christ as revealed and taught in the canonical scriptures of the church. The rhetoric of political and secular correctness will only serve to undermine the one and only pure gospel, and unless these churches preach the gospel as we inherited it, they will soon be irrelevant, lose their identity as a church, and they will only be as good as that salt which has lost its saltiness to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by the world (Matthew 5:13). We make a humble call to these churches: “Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. Your actions do not meet the requirements of God”
The Anglican archbishop declared, “From the Holy Scriptures it is taught that marriage is between one man and one woman, monogamous and heterosexual. Any deviation from this God-designed covenant relationship is sinful and unacceptable. If there are people who are not called to marriage and are faithful followers of Christ, let them embrace celibacy, and live a life obedient to the teachings of the bible as they so profess to believe in.”
Ole Sapit made it clear that blessings of same-sex sexual relationship will not occur in Anglican churches in Kenya, saying:
We write to our Christians to note that:
- The General Synod of the Church of England makes legislation for the Church of England, and their resolutions apply only to the Church of England. Whereas we in the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) are saddened by the departure of our mother Church from the true Gospel, their resolutions do not apply to us and we do not recognize any teaching that is extra-biblical or contrary to the teachings of the Bible.
- We affirm that marriage, as taught in the Holy Scriptures is between one man and one woman, monogamous and heterosexual. Any deviation from this God designed covenant relationship, is sinful and unacceptable. If there are people who are not called to marriage and are faithful followers of Christ, let them embrace celibacy, and live a life obedient to the teachings of the bible as they so profess to believe in.
- We encourage and stand in solidarity with those marginalized Christians in the Church of England who is resolved to remain faithful to the Gospel of Christ and seek obedience to the teachings of the scripture in all its entirety. We pray for them that they will not surrender their light of Christ to the powerful secular voices that have captured the Church
Turning again to Scripture, the Anglican archbishop concluded, “We affirm that the Holy Scripture is authoritative in all matters of faith and any departure from the historic formularies and the plain teachings of the scripture is an error and must be corrected.’”
The archbishop’s strong condemnation of the Church of England’s blessing of same-sex unions comes amid an increasingly strong push for African countries to accept the liberal LGBT agenda that has taken hold of Western countries and churches. It also mirrors the Anglican Church of Uganda’s rejection of the Church of England’s decision.