By Oluwole Josiah, Abuja
New Primate of the Anglican Church, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, has restated the position of the Anglican Communion in Nigeria against the practice of gay marriage in the church.
This followed a call by Acting President Goodluck Jonathan on religious leaders in the country to collaborate with the Federal Government in transforming the country.
Jonathan was the special guest at the formal handing over of the reign of office to Archbishop Okoh by outgoing Archbishop Peter Akinola, on Thursday at the Cathedral of the Advent Church in Abuja.
In his short speech, the Acting President called on the church to shun corruption and discourage social vices.
According Jonathan, “As a nation, we are challenged. Over the periods, we have failed to do what we should have done and we have done those things we should not have done.
“We know our problems. We want religious leaders to join us in solving the problems. We promise to do our best and we are totally committed to transforming this country”.
Okoh, who is also the chairman of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission, while delivering the sermon of the day, said, “We do not approve of a homosexual lifestyle and same-sex marriages. Some want us to see it as a normal alternative lifestyle to marriage between male and female. We are saying we are sorry, we cannot accept this in the church.
“The recent statement by the bishop of Liverpool is also not acceptable to us. He said since in the past the church had to live side by side with those who say war is okay and those who say war is alright, they are living together in one church.
“If you say homosexuality is okay, you go on, and if you say homosexuality is not okay, we all should go on like that.
“My people, the danger in this kind of teaching is that it establishes two authorities in the church - the scriptures on one hand and the canon of deviant sub-culture. It is intended to destroy the established standard of morality as it is written in the Bible”.
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