Sudan's Anglican archbishop, Daniel Deng, said Tuesday that gay American bishop Gene Robinson should resign for the sake of unity within the Anglican Communion, the BBC reported. Deng blamed Robinson for the boycott by 230 traditionalist bishops of the Lambeth Conference, an Anglican event that takes place every 10 years.
Deng said Robinson's decision to attend the conference from which he had been barred has "violated Anglican norms" and is responsible for dividing the communion, of which the episcopal Church is the U.S. wing, according to the report. He also urged the 60 bishops who took part in Robinson's 2003 ordination to apologize for creating "an outcry for the whole Anglican world." Deng did not take part in this year's boycott because, he said, Anglicans needed to be united.
Deng said Anglicans in other nations, like his home country, Sudan, face discrimination because of the American bishop's ordination.
"We are called 'infidel' by the Islamic world," Deng said, according to the BBC. "When they are hearing our brothers and sisters from other parts of the Christian global, when they are talking to the same sex to be blessed. Immediately it gives them the way out to tell people, these people are evil and they can even harm our people more." (The Advocate)
