Ed. Note:  The consecration by the Episcopal Church of Rev. Canon Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, has set off a storm of controversy among the Anglican Church worldwide (of which the Episcopal Church is a member) because Bishop Robinson is an openly gay man living openly with his partner.  A few of the 38 separate Anglican national churches have threatened to leave the communion.  Among those is the church in Nigeria. 
     The following article is an abridged version of a response to this threatened schism by Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa.   In his plea that the Nigerian church not be so hasty to act alone, Archbishop Ndungane speaks eloquently of the need for all Christians to recognize our need for one another.  In our diversity as Body of Christ we reflect a significant characteristic of God.
     The unabridged article can be accessed at
                                                                www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/36/75/acns3683.html
 

“. . . . Christians don’t just believe in life after death, we also believe in life before death. Jesus builds his kingdom day by day, in us, and through us to his world.

Jesus came to bring us life in all its fullness, and calls us to share in that life now, and to share it with one another and with all around us. Christians are theologically bound together and ours is a ministry of reconciliation.

This is what it means to be the Church, ‘members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are also built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God’ (Eph 2:20-21).

Everyone who is a child of God is a ‘member of his household’ and, just like human families, in the Church we often find ourselves alongside people with whom it is all too easy to disagree. But God says ‘they are your brother and sister in Christ!’.

Sometimes, of course, we mistakenly think we can choose our family and we talk of schism. When any human family falls apart, it causes heartbreak, and when brothers and sisters in Christ try to go their separate ways, it grieves the heart of the Lord.

But God is the God of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:19) and in reality there is only one Church, only one body of Christ. The Church is not a club of the like-minded, a group of those who are happy to agree. We belong together whether we like it or not, and ultimately we cannot get away from one another.

 . . . .  The Church, like all of creation, reflects the life of the Godhead, rich and abundant in its unity and diversity. Three in one and one in three - God the father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Inextricably together, yet each distinctive in who they are and in how they operate.

Each of us is a member of the body of Christ, each with our own role to play. We are enriched and empowered by our common life and impoverished and weakened when we are divided. When we are tempted to think life would be easier if we went our separate ways, we must remind ourselves that Christ died for each one of us and the Holy Spirit wants to give something through each one for the sake of all the others - ‘to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good’ (2 Cor 12:7).

This Gospel imperative urges us to hold together as we work through disagreements. We must face the challenge to develop an ethic of together-in-difference. . . .”