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.
