Nigerian Anglicans protest

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Nigeria's Anglican Church held a day of fasting and prayers Monday to protest the confirmation of homosexual priests and bishops in the United States and Britain.

The show of opposition in Nigeria -- which has the largest Anglican population outside Britain -- comes ahead of an emergency meeting of the 38 primates, or leaders, of the world's Anglican churches.

The gathering, to be held Wednesday and Thursday in London, has been called by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the titular head of the 77 million-member global Anglican community. He is looking for a way to bridge differences that many regard as irreconcilable.

"We are not happy that the archbishop of Canterbury is being soft on this issue of homosexuals in the church," the Rev. Obi Ulonna told The Associated Press.

Nigeria has some 17 million Anglicans. Ulonna said tens of thousands of parishioners in the Nigerian commercial capital, Lagos, had pledged to fast and pray in special services held Monday. "Enthusiastic participation" was expected in other Nigerian cities, he added.

"It is sad that in our church today we find people who say it is right for a man to marry a man and for a woman to marry a woman. We have to pray against this," said Duro Akeju, a lay preacher speaking to hundreds at Lagos' St. Stephens church.

Many African Christian churches have retained the moral conservatism favored by the European missionaries who introduced the religion to the African continent in the 19th century.

The primate of Nigeria, the Most Rev. Peter Akinola, told parishioners in Lagos last week that "evil forces" were at work in the worldwide church.

"We Anglicans are against the ordination of gay priests, and I am vehemently against it," Akinola said.

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