Parker T. Williamson
editor-in-chief
NAIROBI, KENYA – The epicenter has shifted. No longer can
the United States – whose aging mainline denominations are inviting
extinction – claim to be where the action is. The gospel that was
dispatched to East Africa more than a century ago has caught fire among
its people. Millions of Kenyans, Ugandans and Tanzanians who comprise
the Presbyterian Church of East Africa are dedicating their lives to
Jesus Christ and taking places of leadership in his church.
On March 6, I preached to a burgeoning Nairobi congregation. Hundreds of
Kenyans packed the sanctuary, some of whom had traveled more than three
hours to attend the service. The occasion was an ordination, a sacred
ceremony in which African leaders were being commissioned by their
church to represent Jesus Christ to the people. No one here sees
ordination as a right. They understand it as a great privilege and
sacred responsibility to live and lead God’s people under the
tutelage of his holy Word.
Kenyans are baffled by ordination games now being played by
Presbyterians in the USA. They cannot understand how any human could
claim entitlement to this sacred rite. Nor can they comprehend how
persons who flagrantly violate God’s Word would dare assume the
mantle of authority in Christ’s Church. Kenyans shudder at the very
thought of homosexual behavior. In fact, they deem such acts
unutterable, for the Swahili language has no word to describe the things
that homosexuals do to one another.
What the Africans can say – and they say it very clearly – is
that Jesus Christ is Lord; there is no other; and those who claim him
are obliged to obey Scripture, which is nothing less than the Word of
God. Dr. David Githii, moderator of the Presbyterian Church of East
Africa, has minced no words in conveying that message to Presbyterian
Church (USA) officials. “You brought the gospel to us,” he
says. “You taught us Scripture. Do you no longer believe it?”
Good question. It is one that African Anglicans are also asking of the
Episcopal Church (USA). Enraged by that denomination’s “consecration”
of Gene Robinson, a man who left his wife and children and took up with
a homosexual lover, African Anglicans refused to take communion with
representatives of the Episcopal Church (USA) when they joined worldwide
leaders of the Anglican Communion in Ireland, Feb 22-26. Previously
controlled by the West, the Anglican Communion experienced a seismic
shift at that meeting. African, Asian and Latin American primates, who
represent the vast majority of its 77 million members, wrenched control
of the agenda from the clutches of American and Canadian bishops, who
represent barely more than 3 million members, and they voted to ask
American and Canadian representatives who bless same-sex behavior to
withdraw from their governing council.
Githii and his Presbyterian colleagues are paying close attention to
what Nigerian Peter Akinola and other African leaders are saying to the
Anglican Communion. A published author with an earned Ph.D., Githii is
offended by former Presbyterian Church (USA) Moderator Susan Andrews’
dismissive suggestion that he and his people are “adolescents.”
With great intellectual firepower, Githii finds the liberals’ slurs
deeply demeaning, and he has not hesitated to tell them so.
Moderator Githii will visit the United States in June when he takes the
podium as a keynote speaker at “Following Christ into the 21st
Century,” a New Wineskins conference. There, in a move that is not
unlike what the Anglicans have accomplished, Githii and other worldwide
Presbyterian leaders are expected to talk about relationships with
Presbyterians around the globe. Committed to the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ, they take no heed of pronouncements that emanate from
Presbyterian Church (USA) headquarters, and they are open to forging
connections with Presbyterian congregations that have not bowed the knee
to Baal and unequivocally declare “the faith once entrusted to the
saints.”
Historic Reformed faith was once entrusted to the West. Those who have
abandoned that fiduciary responsibility have breached a sacred trust.
But the Lord who governs this universe will not allow his trust to fail
because his trustee proved unfaithful. He is raising up Africans,
Asians, Latin Americans and Middle Easterners, Christians whose language
may sound strange to Western ears, but whose message rings true to the
gospel. As these new leaders assume the mantle that has been forfeited
by the West, we are reminded of Scripture’s promise:
“The Word that goes forth from my mouth shall not return to me
void, but it shall accomplish that for which I purposed it.”
Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ!
A column by Parker T. Williamson, chief executive officer of the
Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor in chief of its publications.