DATED 15 FEBRUARY 2006

Sudanese church leading the way, right down the middle

        RENK, Sudan – More than two years ago, the American Episcopal Church consecrated Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire. That action set off a firestorm in the Anglican Communion, one that burns to this day.

        Robinson, you see, is a gay man living in a long-term relationship with another man.

        For many in the Episcopal Church in the United States and in the Anglican Communion around the world, this was too much. Several Episcopal churches in the United States left the national church. Around the world, various parts of the Communion decided to cut ties with the American church.

        In Africa, where homosexuality is considered by many to be both a sin and a crime, several of the Anglican provinces cut ties with the American church; discussion between both sides has been limited and, far too frequently, quite nasty. All sides of this debate over homosexuality have said things they shouldn’t have said, and that cannot be taken back.

        So it would not have been a surprise if, at the Provincial Synod of the Episcopal Church of Sudan in January, the Sudanese church had made the same decision as many other African churches.

        But it didn’t.

        Instead of cutting ties, the Sudanese church found the famous Anglican “middle way,” both strongly pointing out its feelings toward the American action while also saying it would stay in communication with those same Americans.

        The full statement issued by the synod: “We strongly oppose actions recently taken within the Anglican Church in USA and Canada in consecrating a practising homosexual as bishop and in approving a rite for the blessing of same-sex relationships. We reject homosexual practice as contrary to biblical teaching and can accept no place for it within ECS (Episcopal Church of Sudan). We believe that human sexuality is God’s gift to human beings which is rightly ordered only when expressed within the life-long commitment of marriage between one man and one woman. We require all those in the ministry of the Church to live according to this standard and cannot accept church leaders whose practice is contrary to this. Valuing our belonging to the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church and out of love for our brothers and sisters in these churches, we will continue to call for repentance while listening to all voices within the Anglican Communion.”

        (The reference to Canada concerns an Anglican diocese in Canada which in 2003 approved the blessing of same-gender unions, an action that also has been condemned in many areas of the world.)

        In other words, the Sudanese do not like what the Americans did in 2003. They condemn – quite strongly – the actions that have taken. They call for repentance.

        And then they say they will listen to ALL voices within the Anglican Communion.

        Unlike other provinces in the communion, which have firmly turned away from both the American and the Canadian churches, the Sudanese have said that they can do two things at once: Condemn and continue to talk.

        There are many in the Anglican Communion who want to read only the first part of the statement, and assert that the Sudanese have turned their thumbs down and their backs on the Americans. There are others who want to read only the last part, saying that the Sudanese will continue to listen to all voices in the Communion.

        But to read only one part, while ignoring the rest, does injustice to the action taken by the Episcopal Church of Sudan. This statement is a both/and – a condemnation and a continuance of the relationship between two groups of people.

        It should be looked at as a way forward for a Communion that has been riven by dissent and discord for the past several years. The feelings of the Sudanese church are quite clear and cannot be denied. Neither, however, can anyone ignore the fact that the Sudanese refused to cut all communications or end all ties.

        The Sudanese have applied their own recent history – a devastating civil war that lasted more than two decades, followed by a peace that is both new and still quite tenuous – to a problem affecting not just the Anglican Communion, but the whole world:

        How to live together in times of disagreement?

        The Episcopal Church of Sudan, which struggled so valiantly during the civil war to be witnesses for peace and hope, once again is leading the way in those same areas.

        We don’t have to all agree. We can rebuke each other for actions taken that are not acceptable in various cultures.

        But we also can live in hope that some day, as Jesus said, all will be one.

        Until then, we keep talking and listening.