Source:  IRD

December 16, 2011

By Jeff Walton

Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS) officials have withdrawn an invitation for a visit by the head of the U.S.-based Episcopal Church (TEC) because of TEC's liberal stances on sexual issues. It is a stinging rebuke of the official American branch of the global Anglican Communion. Equally striking, the Sudanese have recognized the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), the Episcopal Church's conservative American rival.

With about 4.5 million members, the growing church in Sudan outnumbers the declining U.S. based denomination, which has fewer than 2 million. Overwhelmingly poor and besieged for years by war and persecution, mostly from the Islamist regime in Khartoum, ECS is strongly theologically conservative, like most African churches. Many Anglican churches in Africa and elsewhere in the Global South have distanced themselves from TEC even as they remain in the global Anglican Communion of about 80 million believers.

The statement of recognition is a significant move for the Sudanese bishops, who, unlike other Anglican provinces in Africa, had been reluctant to distance themselves from TEC, even as they openly criticized TEC moves. Sudanese Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul Yak briefly visited the Episcopal Church's 2009 General Convention in Anaheim, California.

In a letter dated December 15 and addressed to TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Sudanese Archbishop Deng Bul Yak wrote of the decision of the Sudanese House of Bishops to withdraw the invitation, citing Episcopal Church disregard for biblical teaching on human sexuality.

"We acknowledge your personal efforts to spearhead prayer and support campaigns on behalf of the ECS and remain very grateful for this attention you and your church have paid to Sudan and South Sudan," the Archbishop wrote. "However, it remains difficult for us to invite you when elements of your church continue to flagrantly disregard biblical teaching on human sexuality." . . . 

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