Gay Anglican leaders bridge continents and stand united

Nigerian gay Anglican leader Davis Mac-Iyalla and New Hampshire gay Bishop Gene Robinson spoke last week at the Church of the Holy Apostles about their shared commitment to freedom.

By Andy Humm

Out gay Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire and Nigerian gay Anglican leader Davis Mac-Iyalla, who are at the center of the schism of the U.S. Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion, shared their stories and messages of gay liberation last Tuesday night at the Church of the Holy Apostles, in Chelsea.

In his sermon, Robinson spoke of the crucifixion of Jesus and how that kind of torturous execution was used by the Romans because they “wanted it to be very clear how any challenge to the powers that be would be dealt with. He was a threat and he was nailed to a cross. Shouldn’t we be more of a threat?” Jesus’ challenge to the status quo “was very political,” he said. “We have got to do systemic political work.”

When Robinson’s consecration as bishop was affirmed by the majority of Episcopal bishops in 2003, the fact that he was in a sexual relationship with another man, Mark Andrew, led conservative parishes and dioceses here to threaten rupture with the American Church and try to place themselves under the jurisdiction of right-wing Anglican bishops in Africa. Nigeria’s Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola has been agitating within the loose worldwide Anglican Communion to expel the U.S. Episcopal Church and any others who affirm gay people in any way.

Mac-Iyalla, 35, who was designated a knight in the Nigerian Church, is the greatest challenge to Akinola from within it. While the archbishop denies the presence of LGBT people within his Church, Mac-Iyalla’s courageous openness stands as a rebuke to Akinola and an inspiration to LGBT Africans. It has also led to arrest, beatings by police, what he calls “a smear campaign” by Akinola, and a new life in exile in neighboring Togo as well as involvement in the global group Changing Attitude to win acceptance of LGBT people in Anglicanism.

Mac-Iyalla told the congregation that he came out publicly in 2005 after an English friend asked him how the “listening process” around homosexuality that had been called for in Anglicanism was going in the Nigerian Church. He was unaware of the process, but when he talked about it with his weekly Bible class. “I told them, ‘I want to come out. I am here!’” he said. “They said, ‘This will cause big trouble.’”

But Mac-Iyalla was undaunted. By October, the national press was giving him massive coverage. “I challenge the Archbishop of Nigeria for telling lies that there are no gays and lesbians as members of the Church,” he was quoted as saying.

“You can imagine the result,” he said. “My phone kept ringing with messages from friends from all over the world asking if I was still alive.”

Later that month, a meeting of him and nine colleagues was raided by police. They were beaten and put into cells without roofs. He believes the only reason they were not killed was because the police had just killed six people in custody two weeks before and international human rights groups had protested.

In November, he organized a meeting of a thousand LGBT Nigerians in Abuja, an unprecedented gathering. That really threatened Akinola who began a campaign to discredit Mac-Iyalla’s bona fides as an Anglican and to support draconian legislation, still pending in Parliament, to ban any form of association by LGBT people or even the hint of support for gay rights.

“I am here telling the other side of the story,” he said. “They are telling more and more lies.” He confronted Akinola personally at the international Anglican gathering in Tanzania in February.

Contrary to assertions by African conservatives that Western colonizers brought homosexuality to the continent, Mac-Iyalla said, “Westerners brought homophobia to Africa. When the missionaries came, they saw same-sex relationships there and that is where the laws against homosexuality came from.” He noted that there are Nigerian words for gay people that pre-date the colonial era — “supe” in the south where he is from, “gbowo” in the west, and “dandaudu” in the north.

Mac-Iyalla believes that Akinola is scapegoating gay people to distract from his failure to deal with his Church’s responsibility for confronting poverty and inequality in Nigeria.

Mac-Iyalla plans to be at the international Anglican Lambeth conference in 2009 as does Bishop Robinson, who has yet to be invited. “I will be there one way or the other,” Robinson said.

The executive council of the U.S. Episcopal Church just voted to rebuff demands by the primates of the Anglican Communion that they stop ordaining gay bishops and blessing gay unions and questioned the authority of the primates to do so.

In his sermon, Robinson said that African Americans “knew they would have to pay a price” for challenging segregation. “We [gay people] want to do justice and still have time for Sunday brunch.” African Davis Mac-Iyalla has put himself on the line. Whether the American LGBT movement will put itself on the line for him and others in such crises remains to be seen.