Anglican Mainstream

By Chris Sugden, Church of England Newspaper

BISHOP Stanley Ntagali was installed as the eighth archbishop of the Church of Uganda in Namirembe Cathedral, Kampala on December 16th.

During the service outgoing Archbishop Henry Orombi signed a certificate of abdication and formally handed over the primatial cross, “which had become too heavy to bear” to Archbishop-elect Ntagali. Bishop Orombi, as he wants to be known, then spoke words of thanks and encouragement to his successor. Observers noted that a point might be being made to President Museveni who attended part of the service, who at 72 had had the constitutional provision for a limit to his term changed.

President Museveni urged the new archbishop to focus on young people, as 70 per cent of Uganda’s population are under 30. He noted that though the incidence of AIDS had initially dramatically declined since 1986 due to the Abstain, Be Faithful and use a Condom campaign, it was now on the rise. He urged the church to “use the pulpit to save our children”. He urged that sexual behaviour should be private and confidential, and that while they were not going to persecute or marginalise those who engaged in homosexual practice, they were not going to promote them.

Primates were present or represented from nine Anglican provinces, including Scotland. Archbishop John Sentamu brought a message of greeting from Canterbury and added one of his own in Luganda.

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The Most Rev. Robert W. Duncan, Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church in North America, was the preacher during the service of investiture and enthronement of the Most Rev. Stanley Ntagali as Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church of Uganda. The service was held on Sunday, December 16, 2012, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Namirembe, Kampala, Uganda. Archbishop Duncan’s sermon focused on Philippians 2:5-8 and John 21:18 to address the vocations (callings) for the Church of Uganda and the new Archbishop.
 
Archbishop Duncan reminded the Church of Uganda of St. Paul’s invitation to “have the mind of Christ” (Philippians 2:5). “God has especially called you to the humility – the servanthood – of the East African Revival. You know, better than most Christians that you are sinners saved by grace. You live into this identity. You rejoice in this identity…”
 
The Archbishop also noted that part of Uganda’s “vocation in 21st century Anglicanism” is to serve others as a model of servanthood “at home, in England, in North America and to the ends of the earth.”
 
“Please do not neglect any part of this call. Manifestly, and at every level, God has given you great grace for this servanthood in Him.”
 
Referencing John 21:18, Archbishop Duncan spoke directly to the new primate and his wife and the vocation of this new stage of ministry.

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By Wendy Wright, Turtle Bay & Beyond

Uganda was the great success story in reducing HIV/AIDS. Now, a member of the generation that benefited worries that Uganda’s “image of reversing the scourge in the early 1990’s has since dissipated.”

Is Uganda losing it via HIV Prevention?

 

I heard someone say at a conference the other day that Uganda was embarrassed at the recent 2012 World AIDS Conference in Washington.

 

Apparently, our image of reversing the scourge in the early 1990’s has since dissipated.

 

We no longer have a President and his wife on a Jeep upcountry telling 15 year olds that they can delay sexual debut until marriage.

 

Instead, we have a bunch of senior six vacists tossing off their blouses at a rooftop city hangout in the middle of the city while boogying to Ragga Dee’s “Am in love with a stranger” .

 

We now have a high school generation loaded with more rubber than character.

 

Parented by television, they have never witnessed a dying AIDS patient in their lifetime, to them, HIV is like the little bug they watched in a sci-fi movie last night. 

The Church of England Newspaper, July 7, 2012. July 9, 2012

John Sentamu is Uganda’s choice to be the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Stanley Ntagali said on 25 June 2012 in his first interview with western reporters following his election as Archbishop of Uganda on 22 June 2012.

“Leadership comes from God,” Bishop Ntagali told The Church of England Newspaper, and adding that he prayed “God will give Canterbury a man filled with the Spirit” to lead the Church of England and the Anglican Communion.

The leaders of the Church of Uganda – the second largest province after the Church of Nigeria in terms of active members – have been estranged from the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury since 2008.  Archbishop Orombi and the Bishops of the Church of Uganda declined to accept Dr. Williams’ invitation to the 2008 Lambeth Conference and Archbishop Orombi also declined to attend the primates meeting.

The appointment of a new Archbishop of Canterbury is likely to prompt a return to pan-Anglican gatherings of the Church of Uganda.  Bishop Ntagali told CEN that he hoped the next Archbishop of Canterbury would be a “god-fearing” and “obedient” man who can “revive the spirit of a crumbling Anglican Communion.”

“John Sentamu would be our choice, but we are depending on God” to raise up the right man, he said.

The new archbishop said he would continue his predecessor’s support for the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) movement and would take an active role in future GAFCON meetings.  He added that Uganda would also continue to support the Anglican Church in North America.  “Bob Duncan is my friend,” he said. “We support them very much and remain in strong partnership with them.”

The Ugandan leader said his province would also continue to remain in fellowship with the faithful dioceses of the Episcopal Church.  “They are my friends too,” he said and we are in partnership, very strong partnership” with god-fearing Episcopalians Bishop Ntagali said.

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Archbishop Henry Orombi has called for the election of a successor as primate of the Church of the Province of Uganda.

In an address to a meeting of the Ugandan House of Bishops on 7 Jan 2012, Archbishop Orombi said he would step down by year’s end, just short of year before his mandatory retirement at age 65.

In a statement given to Anglican Ink by the Church of Uganda, Archbishop Orombi said he was taken an early retirement to allow him to focus on pastoral ministry.  “I want to use my retirement to preach the Gospel single-heartedly. This has been my single passion and I want to fulfill the call while I can still do it."

Archbishop Orombi confirmed the announcement in Ntungamo on 8 January, during the consecration and enthronement of the new Bishop of South Ankole Diocese, the Rt. Rev. Nathan Ahimbisibwe.

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Read also:  Anglican Archbishop Orombi to retire in June from Uganda New Vision

By Brian Clowes, LifeSite News

The fatal danger of relentlessly pushing contraceptives on Uganda and other African countries was laid bare recently in an alarming new report showing that the most popular contraceptive in Eastern and Southern Africa may actually double the risk of contracting HIV. After experiencing success in combating HIV/AIDS in Uganda through an anti-contraception initiative, it’s not surprising to hear that contraceptives are part of, and not a solution to, the problem.

From Daily Monitor

By Timothy Shah, Christianity Today

From The Uganda Media Centre

[...]  FACTS ABOUT THE CASE

On 26th February, 2011 at aound 1430 hours, Kato was found unconscious in his bedroom by 3 neighbours bleeding with 2 wounds on his head. He was rushed to a nearby clinic but he medical officers there advised the relatives to take him to Mulago Referral hospital.

At the scene, police found the body of the deceased had already been taken to Kawolo hospital by the relatives for a post mortem.

At the murder scene, the police found a hammer with blood stains in the sitting room of the deceased. A trail of blood from the sitting room led to the bedroom which had been ransacked.

Among the clues followed by police are:

•    Robbery by Nsubuga Enock Sydney who had earlier been seen walking away a few minutes before the deceased was found unconscious and bleeding, was looked at as the principal suspect. Nsubuga has a long criminal record. He was on remand for theft of a phone but also had other criminal records in his home area.

•    One Senoga, a special hire driver whom the deceased used to hire, was also said to have visited the home of the deceased earlier in the day and behaved suspiciously.

Exhibits: A search was carried out by Government Analytical Laboratories (GAL) and Scenes of Crime Officers (SOCO) and the following exhibits were recovered:

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By Pat Ashworth, Church Times

AFRICANS must take their destiny into their own hands and address their own problems, bishops of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA) declared at the end of their week-long conference about effective leadership for sustainable development (News, 27 August).

The world must listen to the Churches’ unique voice, they say, in the first of two communiqués. One deals with the continent’s ills; the other, from the CAPA Primates, addresses the internal affairs of the Anglican Communion.

This second document, with its ringing endorsement of the con­servative Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), provoked a strong reaction from the provinces of Central Africa and of Southern Africa, which said that the majority of the provinces at the conference were being “ambushed”.

The 400 bishops, meeting in Entebbe, Uganda, acknowledged in their communiqué that, while “the centre of gravity of Christianity today appears to be shifting” to Africa, “the Church’s relevance and impact on global mission and to social, economic and political trans­formation of the continent remains a challenge.”

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By John Martin, The Living Church

So where does Entebbe 2010 leave relationships in the Anglican Communion?

The CAPA Primates Communiqué makes it clear that Anglican churches in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom will continue to be closely scrutinized on issues like sexuality and faithfulness to the gospel and the Scriptures. Even though the conference included bishops from provinces which are more “softly softly” on the sexuality issue, the prevailing position has not changed.

The presence of Archbishop Robert Duncan and other bishops of the Anglican Church in North America is significant. It suggests that at least some African provinces will continue to recognize and seek relationships outside what used to be the regarded as the boundaries of Anglicanism.

The majority of African provinces are financially self-supporting. There were strong signals that Africa wants to break reliance on Western churches. Expect that trend to continue.

A large and growing African-Christian diaspora will have a growing effect. African churches have more international connections than ever before, many of them non-institutional. Expect African churches to acquire increasingly nuanced understandings of the West, without compromising their cultural identity or key principles.

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Exclusive interview with David Virtue, VOL

VOL: What is your overall take on this gathering of African Bishops from 12 African nations?

DUNCAN: This, the Second All African Bishops Conference has lacked the clarity of the first All African Bishops' Conference. What I believe we learn from this conference six years later is that Anglicanism without a confession is in a troubled place. The contrast between the spirit of GAFCON and this conference was striking. The prayerful, joyful always aware that God-is-right -here attitude of the African Church was present only when we worshipped or shared relationally. The sessions at the conference were dominated by Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and social solutions where the gospel of Jesus is not the driving force.

By and large, the folks in Entebbe were the same folks at Lagos and many of the same folks in Jerusalem, but this conference lacked that great enthusiastic spirit that the joy of Jesus invariably displays. Conference presenters were more often good-hearted NGO's, but what exuded and continues to exude from the bishops of Africa was not so often on the podium since bishops were not so often on the podium. The agenda, apart from worship and Bible studies, was far more dominantly social than spiritual. Nevertheless and as always, the Lord did great things for many who shared in the conference and He is able to work all things together for good. (Rom. 8:28)

VOL: Did you feel accepted and affirmed as the new Anglican boy on the block?

DUNCAN: Over and over again, bishops all across Africa expressed to me their affection and respect for the stand that I and all of us have made and their sense absolute oneness in the gospel.

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From Thinking Anglicans

Preamble

The second All Africa Bishops Conference, organised by the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA), met in Entebbe, Uganda, from 23rd to 29th August 2010. Participants included 398 bishops representing the following Provinces: Burundi, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, Southern Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, West Africa and the Diocese of Egypt. Also in attendance were some invited partners and guests.

The Anglican Provinces of Africa would like to express their heartfelt gratitude to Our Lord God for His mercy and guidance during this conference; our host Archbishop Henry Orombi and the members of the Church of the Province Uganda for their kind hospitality and warm welcome; to the President of Uganda His Excellency Yoweri Museveni and the Right Honourable Professor Apollo Nsibambi Prime Minister of Uganda, and the Government and people of Uganda; the leadership of CAPA especially the Chairman the Most Rev Ian Ernest supported by the Secretariat.

The first conference, with the theme ‘Africa Has Come of Age’, was held in Lagos, Nigeria in October 2004. The theme for our second conference in Uganda was ‘Securing our Future: Unlocking our Potential’ (Hebrews 12:1-2). Its aim was to mobilise bishops to overcome obstacles to their ministry and mission and provide them with the information, skills and tools to accomplish their ministry.

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From Church Times

THE Archbishop of Canterbury has called on African bishops to listen more to the people they lead, and to put themselves at risk for the sake of their flock, as he addressed the first All Africa Bishops’ Conference to be convened in six years.

In his sermon at the opening eucharist on Tuesday, at the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA) gathering in Entebbe, Uganda, Dr Williams said: “We listen to Jesus, and then we must learn to listen to those we lead and serve; to find out what their own hopes and needs and confusions are. We must love and attend to their humanity in all its diversity, so that we become better able to address words of hope and challenge to them. We cannot assume we always know better.”

Although he did not mention homosexuality, many of his audience interpreted his words in that context.

Afterwards, the Archbishop of Uganda, the Most Revd Henry Orombi, who is hosting the confer­ence, said that he welcomed Dr Williams’s attendance. “We are going to express to him where we stand. Homosexuality is incompatible with the word of God.” The Anglican Com­munion was already broken, he said.

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By David W Virtue in Entebbe

[.....] Social issues are featured high on the agenda. The environment, poverty, HIV/ADIS and diseases of one sort or another are being addressed. However, one wonders if some of the speakers, many of whom are bureaucrats who struggle with resources, are adopting UN language to get UN dollars. Every Anglican province has an HIV office as well as development offices with huge staffs.

One of the criticisms of Episcopal Church bishops like John Chane of Washington and Tom Shaw of Massachusetts is that Africa is more concerned with homosexuality than the pressing issues of Africa. It is a lie, of course. It is the North American churches that are obsessed with homosexual behavior, not the Africans. Africans have no interest in the subject at all. They are being forced to address it precisely because it is being thrust upon them by the West's Culture Wars.

This conference is not shying away from addressing the subject, but this conference has dispelled forever the African church's alleged lack of interest on social issues that are tearing people apart including war and disease. Whole lectures have been devoted to HIV/AIDS, the environment, poverty, disease, war and the need for clean water and what local churches should be doing about it. One African bishop says he hopes to plant one million trees before he dies. (Has US Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori planted a single tree?) The Africans have the resources. What they need is help to mobilize and strategize them.

The problems are immense and the need is great. Many African nations have had a series of corrupt political leaders, which has made change difficult. Uganda is a case in point. The country has gone from Idi Amin to a solid Christian Anglican president today. Things can change. The church even has a provident fund for retiring clergy. No, it is not in the same league as the Church Pension Fund, but the African Anglican world is growing and changing. Constant whining about Western pansexuality will not hold them back. The evidence is in. The total Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) for the whole of North America wouldn't be one decent sized Nigerian diocese. So the question is: who should be listening to whom?

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By David W Virtue in Entebbe

In the heavily nuanced world of verbal gymnastics inhabited by Dr. Rowan Williams there lies a single truth: He is not on the same page with the vast majority of Anglicans in the Anglican Communion most notably in the Global South.

This was evident this past week when he made a guest appearance at the All Africa Conference of Bishops known as CAPA in Entebbe, Uganda.

In his address to some 400 Anglican bishops from a dozen African nations, Williams used his sermon to allude to the difficulties in the Communion, saying bishops have a "special responsibility to show the world the preciousness of those who are hated or neglected by others or by society at large".

Clergy need to listen to those they lead and serve, to find out what "their own hopes and needs and confusions are". They should not pick and choose to whom they minister, he added. "We must love and attend to their humanity in all its diversity. We cannot assume we always know better, that we always have the right answer to any specific question."

The subtext in Williams' words, especially when you see the word "diversity" is not merely those in poverty or with HIV/AIDS but also to homosexuals whom he believes met the criteria of "hated and neglected".

A deeper fiction could not be found. Williams has separated this out in his mind and, by his actions, his private views on the subject from what he must uphold as the church's received teaching. Never mind that no other single group in the world is winning the Culture Wars more decisively than those pressing the case for the full acceptance of homosexual practice. Anyone who dare opposes this behavior can find themselves losing jobs, businesses and going to jail.

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From Anglican TV

By Riazat Butt, Guardian

Most Rev Henry Orombi also used Entebbe meeting of 400 bishops to reiterate opposition to homosexuality

The archbishop of Uganda yesterday urged hundreds of African bishops to shake off their fears, shame and superficial dependency and re-evangelise the "ailing" churches of the west.

In a rallying cry to the biggest constituency of the Anglican Communion, the Most Rev Henry Orombi said it was time for Africans to "rise up and bring fresh life in the ailing global Anglicanism".

His call came on the same day that US Episcopalians published a guide on liturgical and ceremonial resources for clergy and same-sex couples.

Orombi was addressing the 400 bishops who are in Entebbe, Uganda, this week for the second meeting of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa.

He told them the "potentials" attending the conference must be free to go to Europe and the US and revive the "Mother Church desperate for the gospel".

One of those listening was the Archbishop of Canterbury, who faces an awkward week as he visits Uganda for the first time since he took office in 2002.

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by David Virtue in Entebbe, VOL

If placing means anything then you will be interested to learn that in the line up on the top platform at today's opening CAPA Eucharist where the Archbishop of Canterbury preached, the placing went like this. From left to right: Bob Duncan (ACNA), Archbishop Ian Ernest (Indian Ocean), Archbishop Rowan Williams (ABC), and Archbishop Henry Orombi (Uganda). Duncan's presence was publicly recognized by Archbishop Orombi.

The message was clear. Archbishop Robert Duncan, leader of the Anglican Church in North America, is a player whether Williams or the Anglican Consultative Council ever recognizes him or not. No such invitation was extended to Katharine Jefferts Schori who would have felt decidedly uncomfortable among 400 Evangelical African Anglican bishops who have a very different gospel from hers.

Duncan also shared in the distribution of Holy Communion. "The Anglican Church is expanding everywhere in Africa. There are now some 400 dioceses spread across the continent. As Archbishop I am here to learn and to stand in solidarity with this vigorous gospel mission," said Archbishop Duncan.

While Archbishop Williams told the gathered bishops that the 21st Century may well be the "African Century", he was met with only polite applause from the Africans who believe he has sided with Western pansexualists and does not hold fast to a biblical view of Christian morality.

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By David W Virtue, Virtueonline

Gospel and Social Justice will combine to bring needed change to the area

Some 400 African Anglican bishops including a small group of Western Anglican bishops and leaders of social service agencies, who together represent more than 80 percent of the shared faith of the Anglican Communion, are gathering here to confront Africa's pressing spiritual and social problems.

The weeklong conference will focus on issues of conflict, poverty, corruption and disease on the continent in the context of the gospel of redemption and change.

"It is a misreading of the conference agenda to suggest that we are all about social change without the gospel being at the heart of it," a Nigerian bishop told VOL. Changing peoples' outward circumstances while not addressing peoples' need for inner transformation by Christ is to misread the agenda here, a Ugandan bishop told VOL.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is here and will be the guest preacher at the opening Eucharist on Aug. 24.

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