Friday, April 13, 2007

New Life for the Grace crew?

by Ralph Routon
Colorado Springs Independent
April 12-18, 2007

For those who have been paying attention, the sad internal strife at Grace Church has been enough to make a heathen shudder.

As of Easter Sunday, the highlight of the Christian calendar, the Grace members who feel loyal and committed to the Episcopal Church of the United States found themselves unwelcome at their own church building. Instead, they had to celebrate Easter in exile at Colorado College's Shove Chapel.

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And people wonder why churches aren't as large or influential as they once were. Especially when a congregation as established and deep-rooted as Grace's can split in such a deplorable manner—with the "breakaway" group seizing control of the church complex and embracing a Nigerian archbishop who believes homosexuals and their supporters should be imprisoned.

Let's be more specific. Archbishop Peter Akinola supports the idea of Nigeria's government making same-sex relationships criminal. He also favors Nigeria outlawing positive publicity for homosexuals "through the electronic or print media, physically, directly, indirectly or otherwise..."

snip

Here are some of Akinola's own words in a "message to the nation" of Nigeria, just last September: The Church affirms our commitment to the total rejection of the evil of homosexuality which is a perversion of human dignity and encourages the National Assembly to ratify the Bill prohibiting the legality of homosexuality since it is incongruent with the teachings of the Bible, Quran and the basic African traditional values.

Click here to read the rest.

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