A New Africanized Bishop for the U.S.

Anglican Communion Network has this news today from Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi of the Anglican Province of Uganda:

“In December 2006, the House of Bishops elected the Rev. John Guernsey to be a Bishop in the Church of Uganda, serving our American congregations on behalf of their Ugandan Bishop. Today at our House of Bishops meeting, we reaffirmed that decision and set the date for Bishopelect Guernsey’s consecration for Sunday, 2nd September 2007. He will be consecrated in Mbarara along with Bishop-elect George Tibesigwa, the new Bishop of Ankole Diocese.”

The annoucement goes on to describe how the new africanized bishop’s oversight will extend to the congregation he presently serves in the US, but not to a diocese. The congregation remains in the jurisdiction of the Ugandan diocese and it’s present bishop.

The announcment continues:

Admittedly, this is complex, and we hope this arrangement will be temporary until the Biblically orthodox domestic ecclesial entity in the USA is in place. But, I do ask that all of us – Americans and Ugandans – work diligently to make this work. We will all need to walk in the light with one another; to extend grace, love, and mutual respect to one another; and to be transparent in our communication. Bishop-elect Guernsey is now our front-line Bishop and should be your first point of contact about anything ecclesiastical. When in doubt, contact Bishop-elect Guernsey first and then, together, you can decide if and how your Ugandan Bishop may need to be brought into the situation.

Read the rest here.

UPDATE: Thinking Anglicans has published the Barfoot Memo from March 2004 – obviously this is the strategy of the sudden proliferation of offshore ordinations.

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