African church leaders warn PCUSA that they may cut ties
The Layman Online, July 13, 2006
The already shrunken mission program of the Presbyterian Church (USA) may shrink further because of concern that the denomination has given tacit approval to ordaining practicing homosexuals.
Ecumenical News International (ENI) has reported that leaders of the Presbyterian Church of Central Africa in Malawi say they may consider cutting ties with the PCUSA due to a perception that the U.S. church now allows the ordination of homosexuals under certain circumstances.
That impression was deduced from the decision by the 2006 General Assembly of the PCUSA to allow ordaining bodies to declare that the constitutional prohibition against ordaining homosexuals is nonessential.
According to ENI, the Rev. Maurice Munthali, moderator of the Malawi church’s northern Livingstonia Synod, told media that his denomination is praying that the General Assembly’s action has no impact on the church in the central African nation.
Munthali also said homosexual practice is not ordained by God and that the ordination of homosexual clergy demeaned the faith and doctrine of the Presbyterian tradition.
ENI quoted Munthali Munthali as saying, “We feel it may not only divide the church but it will disorganize our administration and doctrine. We preach that marriage is between a man and a woman, and for us to suddenly change and say otherwise would mean we will lose our dignity as a church.”
Another Central Africa moderator, the Rev. Lackson Chingadza, agreed with Munthali, saying the local church would not associate itself with its U.S. counterparts if they embraced homosexual clergy. “The fact that we are Presbyterian does not guarantee that we agree with them. We cannot be one when we don’t believe in the same things. Eventually, we may have to part ways because of this.”
Harold Kurtz, a long-time missionary to Ethiopia and the retired director of Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship, has repeatedly warned the denomination against repealing or diluting its constitutional “fidelity/chastity” ordination requirement. By doing so, Kurtz said the PCUSA would isolate itself from the burgeoning Christian communities in the two-thirds world.
Recently, David Gitthi, the moderator of the 4.5-million-member Presbyterian Church of East Africa, indicated that his denomination is considering the formation of a U.S. presbytery that would welcome evangelical PCUSA congregations that do not believe they can remain in the mainline denomination.