By KRYSTEL ROLLE,Guardian Staff Reporter,krystel@nasguard.com

The Rt. Reverend Laish Boyd, who automatically became Bishop of the Diocese of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands on January 1, , affirmed yesterday that he intends to uphold the church's stance against homosexuality.

Bishop Boyd takes over the leadership of the diocese during a time when the issue of homosexuality threatens to split the worldwide Anglican Com-munion.

"The church's teachings remain that homosexual practices are contrary to the scripture. At the Lambert Conference (last) year, which was the meeting of bishops from all over the Anglican union, that particular position was not overturned. That remains the church's position and until the church by consensus does otherwise, that remains the church's teaching," he said.

The prelate was speaking at a press conference yesterday at the Anglican Diocesan Office on Sands Road.

Retired Archbishop of the Province of the West Indies and Boyd's predecessor as diocesan bishop, the Most Rev. Drexel Gomez was very vocal before his term ended on December 31 about his stance against homosexuality in the Anglican Church.

And Bishop Boyd said he intends to uphold Arch-bishop Gomez's policy.

"That's where we intend to stand on that issue," he said.

Over the years, Archbishop Gomez made several attempts to prevent any rifts in the church after Gene Robinson, a practicing homosexual, was consecrated as Bishop of New Hampshire, U.S., in 2003.

Robinson's appointment as bishop of New Hampshire sparked an angry reaction from Episcopal leaders in the U.S. and all over the world and propelled the church to the brink of a split.

Making matters worse, the Episcopal Church failed to vote through a moratorium on any more gay consecrations.

According to international reports, Archbishop Gomez said that a new formula had been found that would allow the disciplining of errant churches while respecting the traditional autonomy of the 38 worldwide Anglican provinces.

However, some African provinces and the Province of South East Asia have reportedly severed ties with the controversial churches. Additionally, the Anglican Church lost some members in the United States, England, North America and Canada.

In recent times, Archbishop Gomez called for a stop to the further promotion of homosexuals to the office of bishop.

In the meantime, Bishop Boyd reiterated that he does not believe that The Bahamas will change its position on that issue any time soon, if ever.

He said the Anglican Church's stance has also remained unchanged on the issue of capital punishment.

"The death penalty has not proven to be an effective deterrent. People feel a need for crime to be addressed and people feel a need for justice to be done -for the price to be paid but we do not see the death penalty as an effective deterrent," he said.

"We need to find and continue to work at other forms of restorative and curative justice," Bishop Boyd offered.

Over the past several months, several families of murdered victims have called for the implementation of the death penalty. The recent National Crime Advisory Council, headed by Bishop Simeon Hall also recommended in a special report to Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest that the death penalty should be carried out.

A March 2006 Privy Council ruling found that the mandatory death sentence was "unconstitutional". However, no one has been hanged in The Bahamas since David Mitchell was executed in January 2000.

The Bahamas hanged 50 men since 1929, according to records kept at Her Majesty's Prison.

Five of them were hanged under the first Ingraham administration; 13 were hanged during the 25-year governance of the Pindling administration and the remainder were executed between 1929 and 1967.

Various death penalty appeals are currently tied up in the court system.