African Bishops Call for Unity amid Anglican Gay Split Threat

Bishops within the Anglican Communion in Southern Africa have called for the worldwide Church to “choose to remain united” as the threat of a split looms over the issue of homosexuality.

A statement was released Friday following a gathering in Johannesburg, South Africa, in which the bishops said, “As bishops, we remain convinced that within the Anglican Communion what unites us far outweighs what divides us.”

The split over homosexuality was ignited globally when an openly gay clergyman, Gene Robinson, was consecrated as a bishop in the Episcopal Church in the USA in 2003.

Despite continued efforts to reconcile the two warring factions, the divide over the issue between the new liberalist wing of the Church, and those that remain with the traditional biblical interpretation has been ever-widening.