QUIET PLEASE! The ¨Listening Process¨ amongst Christians, Muslims and African Traditional RELIGIONS is underway in KENYA.

MAY WE HAVE YOUR ATTENTION ARCHBISHOPS ROWAN of CANTERBURY, JOHN of YORK, OROMBI of UGANDA, GOMEZ of JAMAICA and ALL BISHOPS THROUGHOUT THE GLOBAL SOUTH/GAFCON OF THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION...you are paying attention aren´t you?


¨Other Sheep Kenya held a seminar on LGBTI issues, human rights, HIV/AIDS and religion in Kisumu on July 19, 2010. There were 45 participants drawn from diverse religious faith such as Christian, Muslim and African traditional religion and civil society. The purpose of the seminar was to address homophobia, reduce stigma, discrimination, and enhance tolerance towards the LGBTI community in Kenya.¨


Rev. John Makokha said that religious institutions and civil society movements should develop safe spaces for LGBTI community since gay rights are human rights. “Homosexuality is not a sin but heterosexism is a serious sin since it violates justice, truth and love. Discrimination breaks the heart of God”,he said.

“As a Christian leader, I felt I need to apologize to the LGBT community for the treatment they have received at the hands of Christians down the years in Africa due to ”, he said.

He said that celibacy is an option to all people, and those who seek to force homosexual persons into heterosexual behavior are guilty of sexual violence and violation of human rights. Celibacy is a vocation to which one is called, not a way of life to which one is condemned. Sexual energy is not to be repressed in either heterosexuals or homosexual people unless the persons choose freely to live in that manner.


He said that research in Africa has shown that there is a deep problem to homosexuality since it is considered a spiritual disease and a curse. Conservative Christian fundamentalists and moralists in Kenya have expressed the desire to reach out to the homosexuals but to recognize that homosexuals are not part of God’s family. We have to stop both physical and spiritual violence against our brothers and sisters who are LGBT since they did not choose to be what they are.


He said that the Bible calls us beyond human barriers and prejudices and there are stories of groups of people who were once excluded from the fullness of the church’s life. These are gentiles, Samaritans, lepers, ritually unclean persons, women, left-handed people, racial minorities and people who committed suicide. The church’s rejection of homosexual people is just one more prejudice. “I am fully persuaded that God has never been homophobic at any one time”, he said.

He said that there are those who regard homosexuality as a western perversion. There are difficulties in ascertaining this claim owing to different cultural perceptions of sexuality in Africa. However, all African communities have a descriptive vocabulary relating to what westerners would define as homosexual practice. Anthropologists and historians remind us of women in Akamba, Luo, Kalenjin and Abagusii communities in Kenya who cohabited to found a family...¨ HERE

· Thanks to African Activist
· Thanks to Other Sheep, Kenya
· Thanks to The Reverend John Makokha
· Thanks to Mrs. Anne Baraza
· Thanks to Riruta United Women Empowerment Programme

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TAKE ACTION AGAINST BIGOTRY, IGNORANCE and OUTCASTING/SOCIAL ISOLATION and THE ABUSERS of FELLOW ANGLICANS/others at The Anglican Communion:

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