Conservatives' Links to Africans Questioned by Black U.S. Bishops

In yet another interesting twist to the ongoing soap opera within the Anglican Communion, black Episcopal Bishops have come out questioning the motives of the "conservatives" within the Episcopal Church who are suddenly seeking alliances with black African bishops as they seek to break away from the Episcopal Church. In this area, some of these conservatives are the same folks who have belonged to private clubs which excluded blacks until relatively recently and who typically only interacted with blacks they hired as domestic help. Yes, it is difficult for me to push the word "hypocrites" from my consciousness. One of these local "Godly Christians" is a former law partner of mine who chastises me about being gay because of phrases in the Bible, yet is divorced and remarried yet conveniently ignores the biblical prohibitions against divorce. He gets quite peevish when I respond by telling him he's an ongoing adulterer per the literal words of the New Testament of the Bible. But I digress. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post"

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CANTERBURY, England -- For five years, conservative Episcopalians eager to escape their liberal U.S. church have been building ties with African Anglicans half a world away. But they have few connections with black Americans in their own back yard, said black Episcopal bishops.
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It's something that I like to point out," said Bishop Eugene T. Sutton, the first black Episcopal bishop in Maryland, "the historical anomaly of dioceses that have nothing to do with the black community going all the way to Africa to make these relationships." Moreover, Sutton and other black bishops at the meeting said the use of Scripture to reject homosexuality in the Anglican Communion evokes previous eras' biblically based arguments in support of slavery and racism.

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In the small discussion groups that formed the backbone of the conference, some black Episcopal bishops said they have framed their support for gay rights within the context of a long struggle to include blacks and women in the church and in society at large. "As a person who knows what it means to be oppressed, I refuse to allow my brothers and sisters in the faith to be discriminated against," said Suffragan Bishop Gayle E. Harris of Massachusetts.

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"They're looking for black faces to give them legitimacy," Sutton said of U.S. conservatives, "because they can't find them at home." Harris said that the bonds between Africans and U.S. conservatives are a "political expediency" and that "connections made for the time being will not last across the huge gulf of understanding" between the groups.