Benjamin Nzimbi

Benjamin Paul Mwanzia Nzimbi (born Kitui District, 1945) is a Kenyan Anglican Archbishop. He was the Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya and Bishop of the Diocese of All Saints Cathedral, from 2002 to 2009. He is married to Alice Kavula and the couple has five children.

He was born in a poor family of eight children and went to attend Ithookwe Primary, Mulutu Intermediary and Kitui Secondary Schools. He later attended Kenyatta University, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in Education, with majors in Religion and Kishwahili. Afterwards he worked as a lecturer at Machakos Teachers Training College, where he was dean of students and head of social studies. He felt his religious call then and was trained and ordained as the college chaplain.

He finally decided to leave teaching to become a full-time priest. He studied for the priesthood at the Trinity and St. Francis College, in Karen in 1984. Nzimbi was elected afterwards the first bishop of the new Diocese of Machakos, which he was from 1985 to 1995. In 1995 he was elected the first bishop of the newly created Diocese of Kitui. Nzimbi was elected the fourth Archbishop and Primate of Kenya and Bishop of the Diocese of All Saints Cathedral, on 16 August 2002, and served from 2002 to 2009.^[1][2]

He opposed the acceptance on non-celibate gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions in the United States and Canada branches of the Anglican Communion, becoming a leading name in the Anglican realignment as member of the Global South and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. He attended the GAFCON meeting in Jerusalem, in 2008, and supported the creation of the Anglican Church in North America, in June 2009. He was one of the Anglican Primates that attended the new church inaugural assembly in Bedford, Texas.

References

External links

• A profile of Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi, Anglican Mainstream, 9 November 2008