UPDATE –
The former managing editor of the Episcopal Cafe, Jim Naughton, has alerted us that the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa has not accepted funding from the TEC Good Friday Offering for more than ten years. It seems that in promulgating this letter, Archbishop Anis and Bishop LeMarquand just wanted to put that fact before us all again, lest anyone was confused by the Presiding Bishops recent appeal for the Offering.
Earlier this week we posted a story about the Presiding Bishop’s call to contribute to the Good Friday Offering, which is directed to the Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. In response to +Michael’s call, one diocese of that province has responded with a rejection of the funds collected in the Offering.
STATEMENT REGARDING THE GOOD FRIDAY OFFERING
It has come to our attention that the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church (USA) has recently issued a Lenten appeal asking the churches of TEC to remember the Good Friday offering for Jerusalem and the Middle East. In this appeal he said “this tradition [The Good Friday Offering] is decades old and is an important statement of our solidarity with the members of the four dioceses of the Province of Jerusalem and Middle East.”
I would like to clarify the fact that the Diocese of Egypt with North of Africa and the Horn of Africa, one of the four dioceses of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East does not receive funds or grants from the Good Friday offering of the Episcopal Church (TEC) in the USA. The decision not to receive these funds came after the 2003 decision by TEC to consecrate as bishop a divorced man living in a homosexual relationship. The decision not to receive money from TEC is one expression of the reality that the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa was (and still is) in an impaired relationship with The Episcopal Church.
One of our clergy in Ethiopia states our situation in graphic terms: “We rather starve and not receive money from churches whose actions contradict the scriptures.”
+Mouneer
The Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis
Archbishop of Episcopal / Anglican Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa
Primate of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East+Grant
The Rt Rev. Dr Grant LeMarquand
Area Bishop for the Horn of Africa
Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa
Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East
The statement is from the diocesan website.