Bishop's Wedding Announcement Stirs Controversy

A controversial local religious leader is finding himself at the center of a new controversy.

Archbishop George Stallings Jr. first made national news when he broke away from the Catholic Church to lead his own Afrocentric church. Now, Stallings is creating a stir among his church members over whom he has decided to marry.

Stallings, who leads the Imani Temple, is preparing to wed a young Japanese woman handpicked by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon.

The 53-year-old excommunicated Catholic priest, who was stripped of priestly privileges and functions after forming a breakaway religious movement called the African American Catholic Congregation in 1989, has denied that the marriage has been arranged by Moon. He also says denies claims that the Imani Temple is being indoctrinated by the Unification Church. Stallings says that the Imani Temple is not getting money in return for his union with 24-year-old Sayomi Kamimoto, whom he is scheduled to wed on Sunday at the New York Hilton hotel. He will be married along with 40 other couples.

Kamimoto is an employee and member of the Unification Church.

Members of the Afrocentric Imani Temple were so upset by the sudden announcement that some left in protest after Mass services on Sunday. They describe Stallings’ relationship with Moon as his "close affiliation with and adoption of doctrine of the Unification Church.”

In addition, followers of the Imani faith have expressed offense over Stallings’ recent comments on black women. In a published article, Stallings said that he wants to marry “a Japanese wife because . . . they are dedicated to their husbands, they are gentle and they work with them." He added that he didn't want a wife "who desired to party all the time."

But in a statement issued Tuesday, Stallings said, "I want to make it clear for the record that marriage to a woman of color who is not African American is a personal decision and not a public statement. If I had married Miss Linda Greene, some in the black community would not be up in arms, yet she, too, is a non-African American of Asian and Indian descent."

Greene, 49, is Stallings’ ex-girlfriend, for whom he abruptly dumped to marry Kamimoto.

Greene was among the several female Imani Temple members who walked out of Stallings’ Sunday Mass service.

But Stallings insists that his marriage to Kamimoto is for love, and that he is attracted to her “beauty, brains and spirituality.” He says he wants to have up to 13 kids with her.

Starting Wednesday night, Stallings will hold a three-day revival at Imani Temple sponsored by the Unification Church. Protests are expected.

Copyright 2001 ABC 7 WJLA-TV

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