GAFCON Next Week - But what about the Arch-bishop and the Mistress?

This article is about the GAFCON or Global Anglican Future Conference, to take place next week in Nairobi and about a very sad story of a woman possibly related to one of the main bishops. But I would like to situate it, by making a brief comparative analysis of biblical approaches by the environmentalists and Human Rights advocates. The former have successfully used the Genesis creation narrative to make a Biblical case for environmental protection while the latter have failed to do so, yet they can. Gen: 1:26 – 28. 

^“26 Then God said, “And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us. They will have power over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild,^[d] large and small.” ²⁷ So God created human beings, making them to be like himself. He created them male and female, ²⁸ blessed them, and said, “Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control…”

Environmentalists have been able to use the words “bring it under control” as reference to the need to protect the environment and this is now mainstreamed in our thinking. Human rights advocates however have never been able to mainstream the “created in the image and likeness of God….both male and female” as reference to the equality principle. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights may have this as the foundational thinking, but  the religious still find justification for discrimination. Let’s look at the story below;

But first about GAFCON

Next week, Anglican bishops from the global south (mainly African bishops) will hold a major meeting in Nairobi running from the 21^st – 26^th of October. The Anglican Arch-bishop for Nairobi, Rev. Eliud Wabukala will be their host. In his preparatory letter to the Anglican communion he reiterated why this meeting in Nairobi is important because the conference comes exactly after “ten years since the Episcopal Church of the United States consecrated Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, despite the fact that he had left his wife and family and then later entered into a sexual relationship with a man.” The Arch-bishop sees this consecration as a “spiritual cancer in the Communion, [that seeks] the overthrow by some Churches of the creation order of male and female.(GAFCON Website)”

Another bishop who will be in attendance is Rev. Julius Kalu of Mombasa. Last year the Bishop said that gays are worse than terrorists. That “Our greatest fear as Church should not be the grenade attacks, but the new teachings like same sex marriages.(East African Standard, July 23rd 2012)” There are two recent events that have provided us with video footage, that we can use to compare the two groups of people:

In this one (youtube video) we see very heavily armed and dangerous terrorists not just shooting at people at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi; we also see them taking time off their killing sprees to pray. They are clearly very religious people. They clearly do not seem to see any contradiction between their religious beliefs and their on-going exercise of killing innocent people at the Mall. Perhaps they even believe that, because of their religious beliefs, they are obligated to kill as many people as they can at the Mall. 

In this second video, (youtube video) we see two gay men from Mombasa, Kenya. One is on life support after he has had his throat slit. The other is his friend narrating of how difficult it was to get help from anyone including the police. He even inserts the infamous and much derided statement “…..tungeomba serikali itusaidie” [we are asking the government to help us…] which is largely a cry of helplessness. He continues to say, as a gay person, he is completely powerless in the society; his security and access to legal redress are completely at the mercy of any kindhearted person. 

For Bishop Kalu, the two videos, present two dangerous categories of people, but Kenyans are safer with the terrorists than with the gay men. That for the more than 500 people at the Westgate Mall, they were a lot better off with the 4 terrorists than if it were 4 gay people at the mall. But no one will pursue that story. Instead, the narrative of hate, is likely to take animatedly religious and cultural tone.  

What we will hear

As the GAFCON conference progresses next week, there will be calls to emphasize the commitment made in Jerusalem Declaration (http://gafcon.org/the-jerusalem-declaration) . Paragraph 10 of the declaration notes “We acknowledge God’s creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family.” Although they also acknowledge they do not always live up to that ideal “We repent of our failures to maintain this standard….” That failure to reach the ideal or even granting of penance is out of scope for the gay persons. 

We shall hear a lot about the need to preserve African culture and Christian religious purity in our respective countries. Of course no one will point out just how contradictory that statement is.

What we shall not hear.

We shall not hear about this lady who is currently staying with her daughter in U.K. She recently moved to London, to take some time off, after a traumatic experience she may have had with one of the arch-bishops organizing the GAFCO meeting. She had recently called a leading but retired arch-bishop to tell him of how she really wanted to kill herself. She told the retired bishop an unresolved issue with one of the leading arch-bishops organizing the GAFCO meeting next week. But let’s tell the story differently

It all started when the one of the arch-bishops organizing the GAFCON meeting was teaching at the Limuru Theological College – now St. Paul’s University. Though married, he still kept this lady from Limuru as a girlfriend. Unfortunately on two occasions, she got pregnant and on both occasions, the arch-bishop asked her to abort.

After a couple of years into their relationships, the bishop had graduated from being a lecturer to being a bishop, and then an arch-bishop. It was during this time that his official wife passed on and the said lady from Limuru, thought the time to formalize their relationship had finally come. But alas, she was passed over for another lady. 

So distraught, and needing to see the said arch-bishop, she camped outside his official residence, which unfortunately led to her arrest and even spending time as a guest of the State at Kilimani Police Station – Nairobi. She was later released because the complainants failed to file an official report.

After this incident, she decided to visit her daughter staying in London for some time. It is while staying in London, that she called the late Arch-bishop, telling him of how unfair she has been treated; that she feels she has lost her two children for the sake of this leading clergy man, and now he will not even see her for a simple meeting. And because of this, she wanted to commit suicide.

The Late arch-bishop told her not to commit suicide in foreign land, but rather to come back home and talk things over. He was willing to mediate between the two. Unfortunately he died before he could mediate between the two. It is unlikely that we shall hear the end of this story but we hope someone is courageous enough to reach out to this lady and even hold the leading arch-bishop accountable

Why tell this story

The relevance of this story in the context of upcoming GAFCON meeting is twofold:

• The inability of Human rights advocates to address religiously based justification for human rights abuses using the very tools used by the antagonists.  The GAFCON meeting could well employ the words of Amos: 5: 22- 24

“ 22"Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. 23"Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. 24"But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.…”

Human Rights advocates and even those working with Key Populations in HIV/AIDS prevention treatment and care need to ask of the GAFCON leaders to act responsibly. Kenyan MSM in particular who have progressively been making gains in accessing health, will have to endure weeklong rhetoric that is likely to reverse these gains. Bishop Julius Kalu of Mombasa will possibly but needlessly make the environment for MSM in Mombasa extremely violent, leading even to threat to life as seen in one of the videos above.  There is need to hold these clergy to a higher moral evaluation and accountability than has been the case in the past.

• Let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. The lady in question needs Justice. But more foundational, all women in Kenya whose reproductive rights have been denied due to legal and policy restrictions. It is wrong to advocate for abortion, only when it conveniently suits the agenda of the clergy. But condemn thousands of poor girls and women to backstreet quacks because the clergy in Kenya, working with equally self-righteous, inordinately male-dominated political class, will not allow for a positive legal and policy environment for maternal health – which should include safe, competent  and legal abortion care.

Women rights organizations, in particular should reach out to this lady in London, and help her move on with her life, even if she should choose to forgive the leading arch-bishop organising the anti-gay conference in Nairobi. This is an important story towards ending unsafe abortions in Kenya, because it demonstrates that the rich, including leading arch-bishops will procure safe, medically assisted abortions, but will deny the same for the poor – who are then left in the hands of quacks, often leading to needless deaths among our women – and no one is even talking about the consequences of these maternal deaths to the children left as orphans.

Somebody, please send this article to leading Women/Human rights giants like Anne Njogu, and Muthoni Wanyeki.