Why I rejected invitation to pray for a presidential candidate - Bishop Christopher Umane

 

Primate of the Orthodox Anglican Church, Bishop Christopher Umane, said yesterday, that he rejected an invitation to pray for one of the leading presidential candidates in order not to offend God.

 

According to him, “They approached me few months ago and wanted me to be part of a group praying for one of the presidential candidates and I asked them a question; if I am praying for one, but what about the other? I told them this is a wrong thing to do that they want to corrupt the image of the church. I asked them what about my responsibility because I have responsibility to all of them.

 

“In other words in my church, I cannot tell my members to vote for A or vote for B but what I will say is look at what they said they want to do and we are praying that God should give us a better candidate and a better candidate will come from the things they are telling us they will do.

 

“I will pray that God should give us the better one out of the two of them. If you are campaigning, give us the manifesto, don’t say you are going to do this or that and you are not going to tell me where the money is going to come from. There are so many things they are taking for granted.

 

“It is when they are bereft of ideas that they begin to personalize campaigns; they have nothing to offer us; that is why they are going emotional, attacking themselves instead of the issues.

 

“Our politicians are not ready to tell us the truth. For example, if I want to attack you, I will look for information about you and what you are not doing well and expose your weaknesses.

 

“Somebody who wants people’s vote should be able to say I will do this and that for you and the people will have a reason to vote for you or not. They should leave name calling; this one was a thief, this one is a thief, then I ask, who has not been a thief?”

 

Umane said the Orthodox Anglican Church was determined to go back to the basics of Anglicanism, which he said, was rooted in the Acts of the Apostle but present Anglican Church on parts of the world of corrupting God’s ordinances.