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 [Episcopal
News Service] A Jamaican newspaper reports
that Bishop Alfred Reid of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands has
said his diocese does not support the decision of the members of
two prominent Virginia parishes to leave the Episcopal Church
and affiliate with the Church of Nigeria.
"The Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands wishes to
state that it is not a party to, nor does it support the action
of the two congregations in the Diocese of Virginia, USA, which
have voted to secede from the Episcopal Church of the USA over
the issue of the ordination of Gene Robinson, a self-confessed
homosexual, as bishop of New Hampshire," Bish op Reid said
in a statement issued late December 18, according to the Jamaica
Observer .
"The Church does not agree with the action of the Archbishop
of Nigeria - Peter Akinola - in seeking to create a schism
within the global Anglican Communion by facilitating the two
Virginia chu rches in their break away," Reid said.
"Archbishop Akinola knows full well that the leadership of
the worldwide Anglican Communion has been at pains to seek to
deal in a holistic and timely manner with the issues raised ever
since Robinson's ordination," he added.
Reid said that immediately following Robinson's consecration,
"the Church in the Province of the West Indies took a clear
position, in which we emphatically disagreed with that
ordination and took our stand on the agreement reached by the
bishops at the Lambeth Conference in 1998 - (Resolution 1:10)
which states that homosexual behaviour is contrary to Scripture
and therefore is inappropriate as a lifestyle to those who
aspire to leadership in the Church."
Reid pointed to the appointment of the Archbishop of the West
Indies, the Most Rev. Drexel Gomez, by the Archbishop of
Canterbury to chair a committee for the establishment of a
covenant to guide the entire Communion in the way forward.
"It should be emphasised that the Church in Jamaica, in
collegiality with others in the Province of the West Indies and
the rest of the worldwide Communion, seeks to work for
consensus, not divisiveness, and to maintain the fellowship of
the Communion without compromising its integrity," Reid
said. "It is in that spirit that ongoing discussions on the
most contentious and often painful matter will be
conducted."
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