Archbishop retires

Nairobi
As he headed towards retirement at the end of April, Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi, primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya, told the Anglican Journal that he hoped to leave behind “a strengthened, transformed province,” one that is “well-grounded in the word of God” and “well-equipped to meet the challenges of the new millennium.”

Archbishop Nzimbi, who was elected primate in 2002, identified corruption, poverty, quality of education, and HIV-AIDS as challenges that Anglicans in Kenya are helping to combat. (Anglicans constitute 2.5 million out of a population of 32 million.)

“What kind of education are we passing on to our children? There are issues coming on a daily basis because of westernization and new movements, and we ask ourselves, ‘What are our African values compared to what’s coming to the world today?'” he said in an interview. “The church must not sit and watch when the economy is going badly and the rich are becoming richer, the poor are becoming poorer. We have to be the voice of the voiceless.”

Archbishop Nzimbi, who in the past expressed support for the creation of a separate province for conservative Anglicans in North America, declined to say whether he would play a more active role on this front upon retirement.