Presiding Bishop Issues Statement on Criminalization of Homosexuality

The leadership of Integrity read with gratitude the statement issued January 30th by the Most. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, regarding the recent efforts to criminalize homosexuality by several countries in recent months.
The statement reads:

"The Episcopal Church has been clear about our expectation that every member of the LGBT community is entitled to the same respect and dignity as any other member of the human family. Our advocacy for oppressed minorities has been vocal and sustained.

The current attempts to criminalize LBGT persons and their supporters are the latest in a series, each stage of which has been condemned by this Church, as well as many other religious communities and nations. Our advocacy work continues to build support for the full human rights and dignity of all persons, irrespective of gender, race, national origin, creed, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability or inability. To do less is effectively to repudiate our membership in the human community.

No one of God’s children is worth less or more than another; none is to be discriminated against because of the way in which she or he has been created. Our common task is to build a society of justice for all, without which there will never be peace on earth. Episcopalians claim that our part in God’s mission is to love God fully, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. That means all our neighbors."

The Most Rev.
Katharine Jefferts Schori

Photo Credit:
Flickr user kirkamunga

Used under Creative Commons

"I am deeply grateful to the Presiding Bishop for adding her voice to the others around the church who are beginning to speak out against the inhumanities being endured by LGBT people around the world," said the Rev. Jon M. Richardson, Integrity's Vice President for National Affairs, who -- as our liaison to the Chicago Consultation -- traveled to Africa several times to meet and pray with LGBT Anglicans there. "It is especially heartening that she has set her words in the context of the larger vision that has been emerging in the Episcopal Church over the past few decades - we are not a church that will tolerate oppression against anyone. God has given us a higher calling: to respect the dignity of every human being."

Reports of violence against LGBT people in Russia, Uganda and Nigeria have been publicized since their governments enacted or considered laws intended to punish either those who are LGBT, provide assistance or support to LGBT people, distribute pro-LGBT "propaganda"  participate in a same-gender wedding, or even express same-gender affection.

Integrity president, the Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall commented that "these new laws and the consequent violence are in part due to a sustained campaign by Americans acting in the name of Christ. I am grateful that the Presiding Bishop has made it clear that The Episcopal Church has no truck with such homophobic activities."
The Presiding Bishop's statement follows commentary from the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, President of the House of Deputies, published widely earlier the same week. She acknowledged the western church's role in creating the intolerant climate many African LGBT people now face.

A petition by Davis Mac-Iyalla of the UK-based Changing Attitude calls for the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby, to speak to his Ugandan and Nigerian peers about their enthusiastic endorsement of the laws.  Archbishop Welby and the Archbishop of York, the Most Rev. John Sentamu, published a joint letter to the primates reminding of the commitment made in the Dromantine Communiqué of 2005 to "the pastoral support and care of homosexual people" but referring only vaguely to the situations currently unfolding.

Integrity urges all our members and partners to speak to your congregations and loved ones about the persecution of LGBT persons abroad and the plight of those who seek asylum in the United States.  Please contact us if you would like more information.

Christian Paolino is the Chair of the Stakeholders' Council of IntegrityUSA

Davis Mac-Iyalla challenges Bishop Orama's attack on lesbian and gay people

Wednesday, 5 September 2007
by Davis Mac-Iyalla

The Anglican Bishop of Uyo, Rt. Rev. Isaac Orama, has condemned the activities of homosexuals and lesbians, and described those engaged in them as "insane people''. In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) given on 2 September 2007 he said: "Homosexuality and lesbianism are inhuman. Those who practice them are insane, satanic and are not fit to live because they are rebels to God's purpose for man."

Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria, said today:

"As the time draws close for the Nigerian bishops to vote whether or not they will attend the Lambeth Conference, Archbishop Peter Akinola is at work lobbying the bishops of Nigeria to support his personal ideas about the future of the Anglican Communion. Even if bishop Orama needs to reward Akinola and the other bishops who lobbied for him to become a bishop himself, he doesn’t need to step on the head of innocent gay and lesbian people.

"Changing Attitude Nigeria is surprised that a bishop like Orama uses such language about homosexuality and calls people created in the likeness and image of God satanic. Bishop Orama is from the Niger Delta and knows very well that homosexuality existed in Nigeria even before the advent of western missionaries.

"Changing Attitude Nigeria challenges his authority to use those words about us. We ask, as LGBT Anglicans in Nigeria, whether this is his contribution to the Listening Process to which the Communion is committed in the Windsor Report.

"Bishop Orama has once more focussed the attention of church and society against an innocent and vulnerable minority of people in a hostile country like Nigeria.

"Changing Attitude Nigeria calls on the facilitator for the listening process, Canon Phil Groves, to take note of Bishop Orama’s comments. The Church of Nigeria has been denying our existence and is now using every means and tactic to silence us."

Click here to read the rest.

2 U.S. bishops consecrated in Kenya in dispute over gay clergy

By KATHARINE HOURELD
Associated Press
August 31, 2007


NAIROBI, Kenya — More than a century ago, Western missionaries began streaming into Africa looking for souls in need of salvation. Now, conservative American priests say it's their church that needs saving.

On Thursday, two U.S. priests were consecrated as Anglican bishops in Kenya, the latest in a string of priests who are defecting to African congregations because of the American church's liberal stance on gays.

snip

Six other U.S. priests have been consecrated as bishops in the Rwandan church and another in Nigeria. One more American priest will be consecrated in Uganda on Sunday, where a radio journalist was suspended on Thursday after he aired an interview with a lesbian guest.

Davis Mac-Iyalla, who heads Nigeria-based Changing Attitudes, an organization of gay Anglicans, said arguments were being used to mask political struggles within the church. African archbishops "are being used by Western conservatives because they want to control the church," he said.

Not all African Anglicans are opposed to homosexuality, Mac-Iyalla added.

"My Scripture has not condemned me," he insisted. "Jesus came and died for everybody."

Click here to read the entire article.

Gay Activists Want To Stop Abuja’s 2014 Commonwealth Games Bid

Monday, August 06, 2007

Gay activists in Nigeria are questioning whether Nigeria should be allowed to host the Commonwealth Games. A delegation led by Davis Mac-Iyalla, founder and leader of the Gay Christian group Changing Attitude Nigeria, an Anglican Church group which campaigns for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) human rights, presented the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) with an 11-page report setting out why it should reject’s Abuja’s 2014 Commonwealth Games bid.

Click here to read the rest.

Pray for Davis Mac-Iyalla's Family

Earlier today Father Jake posted the following on this blog...

Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude, Nigeria, has recently received some disturbing news.

Gun men invaded his family house in Nigeria and started shooting. They killed 20 people. The family was gathered for the swearing in ceremony for one of his brothers. He had just been appointed as Commissioner by the Rivers State Governor.

His mother was shot in the leg and is still in the local hospital. His cousin Opali was killed. Davis' brother, who was the main target, managed to escape.

Father Jake obtained this information from Josh Thomas (organizer of Davis' recent US speaking tour), who in turn obtained it from Colin Coward (Director of Changing Attitude UK).

Davis is currently in the UK and was not with his family at the time of the attack.

Details are sketchy as this point, but Father Jake later added this information from Josh...

Other new commissioners (members of the new governor's cabinet) in Rivers State were also targeted, not just the Iyallas. Several other people were also killed.

This appears to be the work of anti-government gangs. Rivers State is oil-rich and very violent.

Prayers, of course, are much needed. Davis is very close to his mother.

Which Bishop Is the Greater Danger?

This e-mail was sent to me and several others by Ben Lowe [bplowe1534@bellsouth.net]...

Dear friends,

I think we may be the victims of one of the greatest diversionary scams to hit the Anglican church in some time. When you listen to the interview here of Davis Mac-Iyalla at the end of the July 6 program you will wonder why the Communion is consumed with a compassionate gay bishop in the U.S. who preaches and lives the gospel instead of a primate who encourages violence toward a segment of the population that he believes doesn’t even exist. When you erase another person’s humanity you are acting so contrary to Christ that it is unimaginable to me that you would be permitted to lead any kind of church much less an archdiocese. And Mac-Iyalla’s words about Akinola are corroborated elsewhere; it’s just that to hear how they affect real human beings (yes, they are real) cuts deep into the soul and heart.

As someone who is currently researching and writing a book about an early Anglican bishop who was actually burned at the stake for standing true to the gospel, I am amazed at the contrast with today. There was a time when the church was not afraid to take action and deprive renegade prelates--who mock the gospel and damage the church’s mission--of their office and their platform to do harm. Perhaps it is time to stop playing defense and start to take action. No more rhetoric about accepting Akinola and others like him into the full body with no strings. This only serves to give their positions and behavior some validity. How long do you tolerate this and the misogyny that is also part of their message? And this is to not even mention the corruption that has been uncovered (see the most recent Advocate). Why is there no serious call for disciplinary action? Why are they the only ones being permitted to give ultimatums? They have made it clear that they have no interest in dialogue. (They have said that gay people don’t even exist in their own congregations.)

Instead let’s be willing to take a stand and say that maybe it is they, not the Episcopalians, who don’t belong in the church, or at least in a leadership position, even if their congregations are the largest in the world. Would the bishop of a small diocese be accorded this kind of servility? Remember, they are on record denying the humanity of some of God’s creatures and of abetting the violence being done towards them. And Gene Robinson is the problem? Where is Canterbury’s leadership on this issue? Why are they being invited to Lambeth when they’ve violated Anglican teachings far more than the Bishop of New Hampshire who can only come unofficially as a guest? Let’s be consistent folks. . .

You can hear the streaming audio of this podcast on your computer even if you don’t have an iPod. The interview is in about the last 20 minutes of the hour-long program. Listen and weep, but also take courage in the heroism of this man:

http://web.mac.com/depeche7/iWeb/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html

Regards,
Ben

Davis Mac-Iyalla meets Bishop Ben Kwashie at Church of England General Synod, York

Tuesday, 10 July 2007
by Colin Coward
Changing Attitude

Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria (CAN), arrived in England from Washington DC on Friday 6 July and has been present at the meeting of General Synod in York this weekend.

Davis attended a fringe meeting organised by Anglican Mainstream on Monday 9 July at which the speaker was the Rt Revd Benjamin Kwashie, Bishop of Jos in Nigeria. Bishop Kwashie presented a picture of the Church of Nigeria which Davis recognised as true to his own experience. The bishop said that homosexuality is not an issue for the Church of Nigeria and he acknowledged that there are many lesbian and gay people living in Nigeria.

When asked a question by Davis, Bishop Kwashie remembered him very well. They had met many times when Davis was the administrator of the Diocese of Otukpo, working with the bishop, the Rt Revd Prof. I Ugede. Davis visited the Bishop Kwashie’s house when the diocese of Jos hosted the meeting of the Province of in July 2003.

Bishop Kwashie revealed that he was totally unaware of the Disclaimer published on the Church of Nigeria web site in December 2005 by Canon Akintunde Popoola, Director of Communications for the Church. The Disclaimer contained a series of false allegations against Davis deliberately designed to destroy his reputation. The allegations resulted in at least one member of the Church of Nigeria issuing repeated threats to murder Davis.

Click here to read the rest.

Questions and answers with Davis Mac-Iyalla

By John Johnson
John Johnson, a member of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Washington, D. C., is the domestic policy analyst for the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations.

On the eve of July fourth, I wondered how many would actually attend: A Conversation with Davis Mac-Iyalla. The venue was St. Thomas’ Episcopal Parish in Dupont Circle and the event was sponsored by both St. Thomas’ and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill. As 7 p.m. arrived the sanctuary was nearly filled with some 75 Episcopalians and visitors. I didn’t know who all was there from St. Marks, but I was amazed by the number of non-Episcopalians that attended. Davis spoke to the congregation gathered for nearly 55 minutes before taking questions and answers and the evening was followed by the beautiful Compline service from the Book of Common Prayer.

The altar was adorned with a simple white altar cloth with several black-based candle holders and lighted candles for the evening’s event. The clergy, senior and junior warden were robed in traditional black and white Evening Prayer vestments seated in the first row. Davis, dressed in blue jeans with a cut off sleeveless shirt and rainbow wrist band, joined them.

Davis was invited to be part of the Altar party for Compline after his presentation. The plate was passed as he vested and he was presented with $1000 gift as he concluded his 60-event, 20-city tour or the United States and left for the Church of England’s General Synod meeting. The money is greatly needed because Davis has been hounded from his home in Nigeria and now lives in Togo, where he ekes out a living by running a small restaurant.

Davis sang the Doxology at a reception following the service. For someone who lives in exile, who has been jailed for speaking truth to ecclesiastical power and who has been beaten in Nigerian Police custody, he remains remarkably cheerful, favoring friends with a deep gregarious laugh.

Prior to the evening’s events, I had the opportunity to interview Davis...

Click here to read the rest!

Akinola's power play

By Kerry Eleveld
From The Advocate
July 17, 2007

The pews of Hylton Memorial Chapel in Woodbridge, Va., were alive with the spirit of an authentic revival on May 5. Alternately dancing, raising hands to the heavens, and bowing in prayer, roughly 1,500 worshippers witnessed the marriage between the Church of Nigeria and the recently formed Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a group of about 30 Anglican congregations scattered about the United States that have formally broken away from the Anglican Communion’s American branch, the Episcopal Church USA.

Peter Akinola, the archbishop of Nigeria, had come to Virginia to preside over the installation of the convocation’s leader, Bishop Martyn Minns. Decked out in a regal gold robe and miter, Archbishop Akinola exited the sanctuary at the end of the ceremony smiling, jubilant—singing the words of the recessional with his entourage of 10 or so trailing behind. For a gay reporter covering the event, it was a rare glimpse—a chance encounter—and I found myself fixated, studying him in not so subtle a way. He spotted me within moments. I clearly wasn’t there to celebrate. His smile dropped, his song fell away, and he walked on by.

The union between Peter Akinola and Martyn Minns was inaugurated in the summer of 2003 when a majority of 107 Episcopal bishops voted to approve the consecration of

V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as bishop of New Hampshire. Leading up to the vote, a growing number of evangelically inspired Episcopal conservatives had been voicing their displeasure with the direction of the Episcopal Church, but few as loudly as the congregation of Truro Church in Fairfax, Va., headed by then–Rev. Minns. Seven leading bishops from Asia, Africa, and Australia met with Minns and about 50 conservative Episcopal bishops in Fairfax and issued a statement saying Robinson’s confirmation could “precipitate a dramatic realignment of the church.” After Robinson’s installation, Akinola officially cut ties with the Episcopal Church, stopped accepting its donations, and, in a 2006 ceremony held in Nigeria, elevated Minns to the rank of missionary bishop.

Click here to read the rest. Includes quotes from Davis Mac-Iyalla.

Open letter to Archbishop Peter Akinola and Bishop Martyn Minns

Monday, 25 June 2007

by Colin Coward

Dear Archbishop Peter and Bishop Martyn,

The Daily Champion Newspaper, Lagos (June 17) and the Church of England Newspaper (June 22) have published reports of a statement issued by Rev. Canon AkinTunde Popoola, Director of Communications for the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion).

The Church of England Newspaper reports that Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria, met with the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church. It continues with a '"warning issued by the Church of Nigeria concerning confidence tricksters using the name of the church to fraudulently solicit funds, quoting the church's communications director as saying "we have even seen a situation where a supposed knight collects money to organise homosexual meetings that only take place on sponsored news reports"'.

Canon AkinTunde is repeating allegations against Davis Mac-Iyalla published on the Church of Nigeria web site on December 28 2005. This new statement is presumably timed to coincide with Davis's widely reported presence at the Executive Council and designed to undermine his authority and integrity.

Archbishop Peter and Bishop Martyn, you both met Davis Mac-Iyalla at the White Sands Hotel, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania during the Primates meeting. Both of you were present as, in conversation with Davis, Archbishop Peter remembered the official occasions when he had previously met Davis in Nigeria. Davis was then administrator for the Bishop of Otukpo, the Rt Revd Prof. I Ugede and accompanied him to national and diocesan meetings and services.

Bishop Martyn, I asked in Tanzania, in the presence of Canon Chris Sugden and Canon David Anderson, if you would contact Canon AkinTunde and ask him to stop publishing false allegations against Davis, allegations which have led to death threats against him. You agreed to do so.

Canon AkinTunde has nonetheless repeated the false allegations. He seems intent on destroying the reputation of a Christian brother, and has put Davis' life at risk. A member of the Church of Nigeria delivered a hand-written letter to Davis's place of work earlier this year, threatening to kill him by pouring acid over him.

We believe that you will be as horrified as we are that such threats are being made and we urge you to issue a statement condemning all false allegations made against Davis Mac-Iyalla and stating that any Anglican who contemplates killing Davis or threatens violence against him is disobeying the 6^th commandment and would commit a crime against God and humanity.

Yours faithfully,
The Revd Colin Coward
Director of Changing Attitude England
Davis Mac-Iyalla
Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria

The Revd Colin Coward, Director of Changing Attitude England, said on 25 June 2007:

"Canon Popoola, in repeating his allegations against Davis Mac-Iyalla, is challenging the honesty and integrity both of Davis and myself. Changing Attitude England has received documentation from Mr Mac-Iyalla refuting the allegations, much of which we have placed in the public domain. We have demonstrated that Davis Mac-Iyalla has told the truth about himself. He is not a confidence trickster fraudulently organising homosexual meetings as Canon Popoola has claimed.

"What Canon Popoola is continuing to do may reasonably be described as evil. He is deliberately publishing falsehoods and lies with the intention of destroying Davis's reputation, knowing that this might be achieved by murder. He has been the agent of a story which has put Mr Mac-Iyalla's life at risk, estranged him from his family and seriously affected his health and well-being.

"In restating the false allegations, Canon Popoola has compromised the integrity of Archbishop Akinola, Bishop Martyn Minns, the Church of Nigeria and the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. The allegations contravene everything the Anglican Communion has officially published about homosexuality since the Lambeth Conference resolution 10 of 1978. Paragraph 146 of the Windsor Report says '… any demonising of homosexual persons, or their ill treatment, is totally against Christian charity and basic principles of pastoral care.'

"The Episcopal Church is being judged because it elected and consecrated Bishop Gene Robinson in accordance with its own polity. Archbishop Akinola and Bishop Minns will be judged if they condone something far more serious - a deliberate attempt to destroy the reputation of a fellow Christian and to put him at risk of serious violence, because, as an openly gay Nigerian Anglican, he stands in the way of their attempt to prevent the full inclusion in the Anglican Communion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people."

END

Contact:
Revd Colin Coward, Director of Changing Attitude England
Tel. Office: 01380 724908
Mobile: 07770 844302
email: colin@changingattitude.org
Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria
Email: davis@nigeria.changingattitude.org

Source: http://www.changingattitude.org.uk/news/newsitem.asp?id=305

Other Sheep Reports On Davis' Visit to NYC

by Steve Parelli, Bronx, NY
Other Sheep

After meeting Davis Mac-Iyalla of Nigeria for the first time at the 2006 ILGA (International Lesbian and Gay Association) World Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, I had the privilege, as a party of one, of welcoming him at the New York City JFK airport upon his first visit to the United States, Wednesday, May 14, 2007.

He was here by invitation of the Episcopal Church for a speaking tour in the States on the topic of gay rights in Nigeria.

Mac-Iyalla's USA tour-host had asked that I keep the conversation light and not talk business: "Let him relax after his long flight." I agreed.

After Mac-Iyalla and I had gotten a bite to eat and were on the road cutting across Brooklyn towards Manhattan, to my delight he asked about getting the books to Africa, the topic I had introduced more than a year ago at Geneva.

Jesus MCC of Indianapolis, Indiana, and Other Sheep are in the process of getting copies of The Children Are Free to LGBT groups in Africa.

"Gay Nigerians know what we believe," he said. "We need to know how to defend it. Send us the books."

Go to http://www.othersheep.org/ and scroll down to "New Web Pages and Current Notes of Interest at Other Sheep" for a full coverage of Davis Mac-Iyalla's visit to The Church of the Holy Apostles and related articles of Nigeria and Changing Attitude, the Anglican ministry to LGBTs.

Photo caption: Davis Mac-Iyalla (left) and Bishop Gene Robinson. The Church of the Holy Apostles, June 19, 2007

Podcast of Davis Mac-Iyalla's Talk in Rochester

Davis Mac-Iyalla told his story on Friday, June 22nd, at St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene Episcopal Church in Rochester, New York.

Click here for the podcast!

Davis Mac-Iyalla Defends Himself Against Smear Campaign

In this video postcard recorded Friday night in Rochester, New York, Davis Mac-Iyalla refutes the lies being told about him by the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

Davis Mac-Iyalla Thanks Integrity

In this video postcard recorded Friday night in Rochester, New York, Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria, thanks Integrity for supporting his speaking tour of the United States.

A Reason for Pride

Rev. Astrid Storm
Posted June 20, 2007 10:06 PM (EST)
The Huffington Post

I didn't miss the significance of having to walk past the Stonewall Inn en route to a talk at the Church of St. Luke-in-the-Fields by the founder of Nigeria's first GLBT organization, Changing Attitudes Nigeria. The talk was the first of several Gay Pride events sponsored by this lovely little Episcopal church in the West Village of New York City, a church well known for its activism around gay and lesbian issues, and tonight it was full of men and women eager to hear a different voice coming from Anglicans in Nigeria.

Even as I've kept up with all the fracas in the Anglican Communion over gay and lesbians (about which I blogged here before), I'd only recently heard of Davis Mac-Iyalla, which, as he clarified tonight, is probably due to the prodigious efforts by the Anglican Church in Nigeria to deny his existence. As one Nigerian bishop said, "There are no gay and lesbians in Nigeria *not* to have as members of the church." And specifically of Mr. Mac-Iyalla, the Nigerian church issued a press release shortly after the successful gathering of over 1000 Nigerian gays and lesbians stating that he's not an Anglican, he's not gay, and that the group (despite some press coverage of it elsewhere -- including in the NYTimes) never, in fact, met.

Click here to read the rest.

Chuch of Nigeria Renews Attack on Davis Mac-Iyalla

Nigeria: Beware of Fraudsters, Anglican Church Warns
Daily Champion (Lagos)
17 June 2007
Posted to the web 18 June 2007

Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) has warned of the activities of fraudulent personalities who, it says, exploit Christian love and the good name of the Church in a bid to defraud unsuspecting people, especially foreigners, of money.

In a statement by Rev. Canon AkinTunde Popoola, Director of Communications, the church said the trend has become alarming recently as dozens of mails are received seeking to verify supposed priests administering bequests of none existing estates, missionaries selling pets that never get delivered or collecting aids for the sick or orphaned with seemingly convincing pictures.

He said, "we have even seen a situation where a supposed knight collects money to organise homosexual meetings that only take place on sponsored news reports".

Click here to read the rest.

And click here for Episcopal Life Online's edited version.

I don't usually comment when I post news articles to this blog, but the Church of Nigeria is again trying to discredit Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria, who is receiving much attention as he travels across the United States to share his story of persecution. JCB

Parsippany Postcard #3

Davis addressing Executive Council.

John Clinton Bradley
For Integrity
June 13, 2007
Parsippany, NJ

Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria, addressed a plenary session of Executive Council this afternoon. Davis was invited to share with the full council a 15-minute version of the testimony he offered to the International Concerns and National Concerns committees on Monday.

Episcopal Leaders Developing Response to Anglican Requests

By Lillian Kwon
Christian Post Reporter
Tue, Jun. 12 2007 01:03 PM ET

A draft of a response to the requests of worldwide Anglican leaders is ready for U.S. Episcopal bishops to consider.

Three months before The Episcopal Church's deadline (Sept. 30) to respond to the Anglican Communion's latest communiqué requesting the American church body to make an unequivocal pledge not to authorize same-sex blessings and confirm another openly gay bishop, the Executive Council began a four-day meeting Monday to discuss the draft report.

House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, who chairs a work group appointed earlier this year to draft a potential response, announced that the Executive Council – the Episcopal Church's governing body – reportedly discussed the draft report in private conversation Monday and will discuss it during an open plenary session on Thursday, according to the Episcopal News Service.

...

In the meantime, Davis Mac-Iyalla, an Anglican gay-rights advocate from Nigeria and founder of the country's only gay-rights organization – Changing Attitude Nigeria – is on a speaking tour across U.S. Episcopal Churches and met this week with the Executive Council's Concerns (INC) and National Concerns (NAC) committees.

He claimed that Church of Nigeria Archbishop Peter Akinola has been directly involved in a bill that would impose a five-year jail sentence for relationships, activism, advocacy and shows of affection among lesbian and gay people. The Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act 2006, currently pending before the Nigerian legislature, bans both same-sex "marriage" and those who advocate for gays.

Claiming 2,500 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members in his organization, Mac-Iyalla said, "It is wrong to say that homosexuality is a Western, imported culture," according to Episcopal News Service.

He urged The Episcopal Church to petition the Nigerian government to oppose the bill.

"Our hope is in The Episcopal Church," he said. "If you don't speak out for us, we don't know where we will take our voice."

Although Akinola initially supported the bill, he later expressed concerns "about individual human rights that must be addressed both in the framing of the law and its implementation.

Click here to read the entire article.

Davis Mac-Iyalla Speaking in Chicago

Davis Mac-Iyalla, founder and leader of Changing Attitudes-Nigeria, will be speaking at two Episcopal Churches in Chicago next week, as part of his six week tour through the United States.

Monday, June 4, Davis will speak at All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Chicago, 7:30 p.m. (4550 N. Hermitage Ave., Chicago, 773-561-0111, www.allsaintschicago.org)

Tuesday, June 5, Davis speaks at Trinity Episcopal Church, Highland Park, 7:30 p.m. (425 Laurel Ave., Highland Park, 847-432-6653, www.trinitychurchhp.org)

Davis will also preach at Trinity on Sunday, June 3, 10:00 a.m

Nigerian Gay-Rights Advocate Speaks Out to Episcopal Churches

By Lillian Kwon
Christian Post Reporter
Mon, May. 28 2007 10:27 AM ET
The Christian Post

An Anglican gay-rights advocate from Nigeria is currently visiting Episcopal churches across the United States on a speaking tour.

Davis Mac-Iyalla, founder of Changing Attitude Nigeria – the country's only gay-rights organization – spoke at Church of Our Saviour in Cincinnati, on Pentecost Sunday amid divisions in the Episcopal Church over homosexuality and Anglican tradition. Nearly two weeks into his six-week tour, Mac-Iyalla has visited three U.S. congregations and prepared a petition against the "persecution" of homosexuals in Nigeria.

Click here for the entire article.