Aug 13, 2010

AFRICAN ANGLICAN BISHOPS: Are YOU ¨spearheading and participating in global initiatives that seek to address the threats to human dignity?¨

Dear African Bishops of the Anglican Communion,

You are from over 400 dioceses in Africa. You are Anglican Bishops who are expected to gather together with the Archbishop of Canterbury at a one-week All African Bishops' Conference that will take place in Uganda from August 23 to 29. Bishops, are you prepared to minister pastorally and sensitively to ALL, irrespective of sexual orientation?

Please meet Pule*, aged 16 of Botswana. Pule and hundreds of thousands of other LGBT´s like him, need your HELP.

Pule walks from one place to another scraping together accommodation for the night or the week. He was thrown out by his stepfather after he told him he was gay HERE

(not real picture of Pule)

Pule*, aged 16, was chased from his home in Jwaneng by his stepfather last year after he told him he was gay as he forced him to come clean about his sexual orientation which he had been curious about since he first saw the boy more than two years ago. The stepfather met Pule when Pule's mother invited him to dinner to meet her children after dating him for six months.

His real father passed away. Although he lived with his stepfather they barely had a conversation and had no connection at all, he claims. Pule even overheard his step father complaining to his mother on several occasions that he did not understand him, and claiming that he was not well disciplined. "This boy is very spoiled and needs to be guided. He needs to stop being weird and start behaving like a man. Otherwise I cannot have him around my children!" his father said to his mother in the kitchen.

Pule did not think his sexual orientation would cause so much tension in the family, and even get his parents to threaten each other with divorce. The family started having serious problems when the stepfather confessed that he wanted him out of the house. "I do not want this boy in my house or anywhere near my children. He should go and be gay somewhere, not in my house," he said furiously face one morning over breakfast.

Pule thinks that his mother got to a point where she had to choose between keeping him in the house or kicking him out to save her marriage. "My mother does not care about me anymore because she wants to protect her marriage. She has rejected me and allowed him to kick me out of my home," he said with a shattered voice. He has always been blamed for every problem in the house, and got to the point of accepting that he was responsible for all frustrations in the house. However, he partly blames his parents for their promiscuous behaviour and negligence at the time he needed them all. "They all had relationships and did not even hide it from us. They consequently had fights and they would somehow blame me for their problems," he said.

Pule has been in and out of Sabrana Psychiatric Hospital after he attempted to commit suicide, he claims. He got severely depressed six months after his mother failed to come looking for him even after hearing that he had been raped by one of the patients at the hospital. "This patient targeted me the first time he saw me. He asked me in which room I was staying because he wanted to come and have sex with me. I refused to tell him but he finally got my room number. He came by during lunch time and locked me in the room," he narrates.

Pule was a student at Morama Junior Secondary School in Jwaneng until last year when his parents chased him out of his home.

*Not real name



Bishop Musonda Trevor Mwamba, The Anglican Diocese of Botswana

Bishop Mwamba is by no means pro-homosexual however he has on a number of occasions stated that he calls on Anglican people to minister pastorally and sensitively to ALL, irrespective of sexual orientation. This is the stand of the Province, Diocese and the Bishop of Botswana. HERE

Building Schools for the Future Builders and Leaders of Africa. Our organization supports co-ordinated, sustainable and inclusive human development


Think Tank Thuto is a non-profit educational organization building schools for the future leaders and builders of Africa. The organization - co-founded by Rt. Reverend Trevor Mwamba, Bishop of Botswana and Annelize Bester - in collaboration with the Anglican Diocese of Botswana is building eco schools that will serve children of all economic backgrounds, religious beliefs and nationalities by providing a model, state of the art educational system for the benefit of all. Official Site HERE Blog of Think Tank Thuto HERE Twitter HERE You Tube HERE


"Securing Our Future: Unlocking our Potential," (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Bishops of the Anglican Communion from over 400 dioceses in Africa are expected together with the Archbishop of Canterbury. A one-week All African Bishops' Conference (AABC) will take place in Uganda from August 23 to 29. HERE

According to Edward Gaamuwa, the chairman of the organising committee, the council of Anglican provinces of Africa meeting in Pretoria, South Africa in 2001 resolved to hold an African Anglican Bishop Conference to focus on African needs.

"The Anglican Church is very old in Africa but African problems and issues are still being treated as an appendix to other issues at the church's international forum," Gaamuwa said in an interview.

Some of the aims for this conference include mobilising the bishops to tackle the obstacles that continue to keep the continent in conflict, poverty, corruption, poor leadership and disease.

There is also the need to create a platform for interaction and partnership development and also to expose church leaders to various models for resource mapping, investment, management and global technology.

And how the Anglican Church in Africa is spearheading and participating in global initiatives that seek to address the threats to human dignity...read it all HERE


LGBTI Anglicans and others are murdered in UGANDA HERE, and HERE, and you must read HERE, Nigeria HERE,
Kenya HERE, Sudan HERE and the Anglican Province of Central Africa HERE.

Lord have mercy


· Thanks to Mmegi Online, Africa
· Thanks to The Anglican Diocese of Botswana
· Thanks to African Activist
· Thanks to Maranyane Ngwanaamotho
· Thanks to Trevor Mwamba, Bishop of Botswana and Annelize Bester
· Thanks to Think Tank Thuto
· Thanks to Box Turtle Bulletin, sidebar
· Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing

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