| LOUISVILLE — An East African church has put the Presbyterian Church (USA) on notice that it will not continue fellowship with any church that supports homosexuality and has ordered one of its presbyteries to immediately discontinue its partnership with National Capital Presbytery.
“The idea of lesbianism or gay-ism … those are very new concepts to us. We’ve not even thought about it (as an issue here). We know it is unbiblical,” said the Rev. Samuel Muriguh, the executive secretary of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA), a 4 million-member denomination that is headquartered in Nairobi and has been tied to the PCUSA for at least 60 years.
Currently, 10 PC(USA) presbyteries are in partnership with the PCEA, which includes churches in Tanzania and Uganda as well as Kenya.
Muriguh sent a letter to the PC(USA) on April 21 saying that the denomination’s General Administrative Committee has decided that the PCEA “cannot have fellowship with any Church which advocates for homosexuality/lesbianism” and reported that it has instructed its Presbytery of Elburgon to “discontinue” its partnership with National Capital Presbytery “with immediate effect.”
The PCEA council also told Elburgon Presbytery — located in the Rift Valley in the western Kenya highlands — to cancel a planned trip to Washington, D.C.
The PC(USA)’s stated clerk, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick responded by inviting dialogue with Muriguh and the PCEA’s moderator, the Rev. David Githii, and lamented the order to Elburgon Presbytery to cancel its trip to the United States.
“It is abundantly clear that there will be ramifications resulting from this action. Because we cannot now tell what all of those ramifications may be, it is my hope that there will be opportunity for dialogue, sharing and learning from each other regarding this important subject,” Kirkpatrick wrote on April 28.
He also said it is the PC(USA)’s “hope and prayer” that partnership with the PCEA will continue and deepen.
The clincher appears to have been National Capital Presbytery’s vote in February to “concur” with an overture from Baltimore Presbytery to this year’s 216th General Assembly calling for the deletion of G-6.0106b — which prohibits the ordination of non-celibate gays and lesbians — from the Book of Order.
Muriguh told the Presbyterian News Service the PCEA has been stewing about the PC(USA)’s ongoing debate on ordination standards for more than two years but has been unable to decide how to respond. That changed at the 400- member General Administrative Committee’s meeting earlier this month, he said.
A harder line was articulated there, Muriguh continued, in which the PCEA wants to “cut ties” with presbyteries or Churches where people are advocating for acceptance of gay and lesbian relationships “because we believe … we have our integrity to uphold.”
He said the PCEA has made this decision without regard to finances. “It is better to go without the money,” he said.
Last year, the PC(USA) contributed more than $300,000 to ministries and projects of the PCEA, according to the Worldwide Ministries Division here.
The PCEA acted shortly after Anglican bishops in Africa voted to stop congregations from accepting funds from the U.S. Episcopal Church to protest that denomination’s consecration of an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson.
Murigah said that U.S. presbyteries backing ordination for gays and lesbians are off-limits to PCEA congregations and presbyteries. He says he is “telling the whole Church” the new limits in the PCEA and that any presbytery that ignores the order will be subject to “discipline or dissolution.”
That will come as news to the nine other PC(USA) presbyteries who have formal partnerships in Kenya. Those presbyteries are Blackhawk, Cimarron, Detroit, John Knox, Los Ranchos, Newton, Northern Plains, Redwoods and West Virginia.
Murigah wrapped up his April 21 letter to PC(USA) officials by saying, “We feel sorry and we are praying to God that our Brothers and Sisters in National Capital will rescind their decision of voting for these unbiblical acts. We are also praying that the 216th General Assembly of the PC(USA) will come out clear about these issues.”
But clarity hardly describes the feelings in National Capital Presbytery now.
The Rev. Bill Teng, the pastor Heritage Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, VA, and the presbytery’s moderator said the PCEA message came “out of the blue.” He said that Elburgon Presbytery sent a subsequent message to its National Capital partners saying that it does not intend to cancel its May 12-26 visit and its delegation wants to discuss the PCEA’s firm line face-to-face.
Mark Reimers — the clerk of the National Capital committee that coordinates the partnership — is continuing to secure visas, which is no small matter, for the four pastors and the four laypeople who are scheduled to arrive in two weeks.
Reimers has traveled to Kenya four times since the partnership began in 1988. He is personally taking the long-view in grappling with the PCEA’s reaction to the February vote and to other highly publicized U.S. policy wrangles — like the debate surrounding the federal marriage amendment.
PCEA visitors, he said, have been shocked by the numbers of divorced people in U.S. congregations, by the willingness of some to bless the unions of gay couples and by the increasing public acceptance of openly gay couples they’ve observed in the U.S.
The PC(USA) has frequently been out in front of the PCEA on issues with deep cultural repercussions, such as the ordination of women, Reimers said. Homosexuality, he thinks, falls in that category, too.
“They’d prefer not to talk about it,” he told the Presbyterian News Service, adding that he was in Kenya for a work camp last August when the Anglicans ordained a gay bishop — and the extensive newspaper coverage there conveyed shock.
“When I reflect back, it was like that when I was a young boy. And I am 60 now. This is all very sensitive,” he said, stressing that in Kenya’s more conservative church and society, the closet is definitely still closed.
Since 1988, Elburgon and National Capital Presbyteries have cooperated on new church development projects, outreach and health ministries. While the U.S. presbytery has supplemented Elburgon Presbytery’s work, the bulk of the resources have been paid for by the Kenyan churches. National Capital’s Presbyterians have helped with equipment and construction.
Teng is puzzled that National Capital is being singled out, when the constitutional ban on the ordination of non-celibate gays and lesbians is still in force. He said that while he personally doesn’t support changing the current ordination standard, he is aware that PC(USA) polity invites public debate. Teng said the PCEA decision seems premature.
“We feel very good about what we’ve accomplished,” Reimers said of the partnership. For now, he’s looking forward to more conversation with Elburgon Presbytery. The Elburgon-National Capital partnership may or may not stand, he conceded, “but we’ll do that after full discussion.”
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