FROM THE EDITORIAL TEAM: This post on the “Elmina Consultation” continues the discussion on LGBTQ issues in Africa begun on The Blog two weeks ago. Rev. Canon Trisk discusses ongoing developments in the Anglican Communion. Check it out–we look forward to your comments!
by Rev. Canon Janet Trisk, ACSA
In 2007, the Chicago Consultation was formed to address the exclusion of LGBTI people in the Episcopal Church. Apart from face-to-face meetings, the Consultation works to produce study material. Early on in its existence the Chicago Consultation teamed up with Ujamaa Centre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, to foster conversations about sexuality and religion, primarily, but not exclusively, in the Anglican churches in sub-Saharan Africa. The Elmina Consultation (2015) is a result of the third meeting convened by the collaboration. The first meeting took place just outside Durban, South Africa, in 2011 and the second at Limuru in Kenya in 2013.
The process of the three African meetings appears to have been shaped very much by the methodology of contextual Bible study promoted by the Ujamaa Centre, allowing as much opportunity as possible for participants to speak and listen to one another, rather than the delivery of formal academic papers.
It is significant that this statement from the third meeting again promises the development and publication of theological and Bible study material. This is to be welcomed. However, the real challenge will be to publish material and distribute the material which is easily accessible to “ordinary” people in the pew.
It is also good to see that the collaboration has adopted the Anglican Communion’s concept of creating “safe churches” – in this instance for LGBTI people. It is to be hoped that the Elmina Consultation participants will work together with the Anglican Communion Safe Church Network in training and promoting the envisaged places of sanctuary.