Botswana Bishop asks for 'perspective' in debate on gays

He's not asking people to change their positions, necessarily, but an Anglican bishop says there can be middle ground in the lingering and angry debate over the ordination of an openly gay man as a bishop by U.S. Episcopalians.

"When I hear all these harsh tones being exchanged," said the Right Rev. Musonda Trevor Mwamba of Botswana, "... I ask if anybody is praying."

Mwamba, speaking Friday to the 192nd annual meeting of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina in Greensboro, has been working for mutual tolerance by speaking out about the things that he says should be drawing people of his denomination together: bringing people into the kingdom of God.

There has been much talk in recent years about a possible split in the worldwide Anglican Communion, of which Episcopalians in the United States are members, over the ordination of Eugene V. Robinson of New Hampshire, who lives with his partner.

Actually, Mwamba said, most of those who have been labeled as incensed over the ordination of a gay bishop really aren't wrapped up in whether God particularly cares about people's sexual orientation. The loudest voices do not constitute a majority of the thought in the Anglican community, as has been claimed, he said.

"The truth of the matter is ... we must understand the majority of African Anglicans, about 37 million, are not bothered by the debate about sexuality," Mwamba said.

"The majority of African Anglicans," he said, "they have their minds focused on life and death issues, like AIDS, poverty ... and not what the church thinks about sex or the color of your pajama pants. Villagers who live on less than $1 a day aren't aware this is going on. The majority of Africans who can afford TVs and radios, they don't want to see the communion incinerate." Read more
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