Anti-gay Anglican archbishop speaks in Wheaton

In an impassioned Sunday morning sermon to more than 2,000 worshipers at a Wheaton church, a leading critic of the Episcopal Church's liberal stance on homosexuality spoke against sexual sin, saying unity must come from transformation and obedience to God.

Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola, a Nigeria-based cleric who leads the largest church in the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, is perhaps the fiercest critic of the U.S. Episcopal Church's stand on gays.

His controversial visit to Edman Memorial Chapel coincides with a meeting in New Orleans of Episcopal bishops who must respond to a demand from Anglican leaders that they stop consecrating gay bishops and ban the blessing of same-sex unions.

Last week, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, attended two days of closed-door meetings with bishops in New Orleans, in hopes of avoiding a painful schism of the church.

Though Akinola did not mention the gathering in New Orleans or Anglican differences over homosexuality, the Nigerian archbishop said that the church is clearly divided and that those divisions stem from a failure to obey the word of God.

"Two thousand years ago, Jesus prayed that they all would be one, as we are one," Akinola told congregants in the chapel at Wheaton College. "Where is that unity? Has God not answered the prayer of his son?"

"Those who are working for the unity of God's people lack one thing: the word of God," Akinola continued. "Whoever loves God, will obey God.

"Fornication is fornication. Adultery is adultery. ... These are the areas of primary evangelism," Akinola said.

Outside the chapel, a group of about 20 protesters held signs that read: "Reverend Akinola is a dangerous bigot" and "Akinola preaches hate and division." Many demonstrators criticized Akinola's past comments on gays, in which he has stated homosexuality is contrary to the teachings of the Bible and "a perversion of human dignity."

The archbishop also supports a bill in Nigeria that would make homosexual sex and any public expression of homosexual identity a crime punishable by imprisonment.

"He refers to his views on gays as Scripture. Well, I refer to them as outright bigotry," said Jim Beyer, a member of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in La Grange.

Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network, said: "Akinola preaches hate and division. He's trying to split the worldwide Anglican Communion and he's making scapegoats of gays in the U.S. and especially in Nigeria."

Other demonstrators expressed anger that Akinola was trying to disrupt the bishops in New Orleans as they attempt to forge reconciliation within the Anglican Communion.

"The bishops are over there trying to come up with something and he's here instigating a schism," said David Fleer of St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Barrington. "I think he's trying to offer himself up as the alternative archbishop to Rowan Williams." Anti-gay Anglican archbishop speaks in Wheaton
Chicago Tribune