Updated. The Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Henry Luke Orombi told the members of the three-day provincial Assembly in Mukono, Uganda that the Anglican Church is “broken” and that the Church of Uganda should participate in it at very minimal levels.
The Daily Monitor reports:
“What I can tell you is that the Anglican Church is very broken,” Bishop Orombi said.
“It (church) has been torn at its deepest level, and it is a very dysfunctional family of the provincial churches. It is very sad for me to see how far down the church has gone.” Speaking at the opening of a three-day provincial Assembly in Mukono, the head of the Church of Uganda noted that the church has lost credibility.
He proposed that the Church of Uganda engages church structures at a very minimal level until godly faith and order have been restored. “I can assure you that we have tried as a church to participate in the processes, but they are dominated by western elites, whose main interest is advancing a vision of Anglicanism that we do not know or recognise. We are a voice crying in the wilderness,” he said at the Church’s top assembly that convenes every two years.
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Translation: Since the Episcopal Church was not thrown out on its ear, and since the alternative churches in the USA that I put my church’s money and reputation behind are not recognized , and since the alternative international groups I’ve led my church into have not gained traction, I will not therefore participate in Anglican Communion groups or programs where I can’t be guaranteed I will always get my way. Because it’s broken.
But not so broken that he won’t accept American money. Stephen Bates of the Guardian notes that Orombi may have trouble interacting with other churches because of gay clerics, but he has no trouble accepting money from Trinity, Wall Street.
African Anglican bishops have long forsworn any contact with the US Episcopal church for its temerity in electing an openly gay bishop, and that goes for their filthy, tainted dollars as well. You can never tell where they’ve been. So it comes as something of a surprise to see who’s sponsoring the bishops’ meeting in Kampala this month: Trinity Church, Wall Street, New York. Trinity, probably the richest parish church in the world, is giving $1.4m, mostly to Africa, this quarter, including $25,000 to underwrite the gathering, to be attended by Rowan Williams. This is odd, because Henry Orombi, the archbishop of Uganda, is one of the church’s fiercest critics of gays, so much so that he claims he can’t walk down the street without being confronted by them. He claims: “The team of homosexuals is very rich … they have money and will do whatever it takes to make sure this vice penetrates Africa.” In the past he has ordered members of his church to have nothing to do with Trinity’s money because of the Americans’ “unrepentant attitude” to gay people and Americans’ “determined imperialism to impose their views”. But needs must – how else would the continent’s 400 bishops get to Uganda in reasonable comfort to hear Orombi’s anathemas?
Update h/t to MadPriest.
In a report on August 3rd about the Trinity grants, The Lead reported:
Although Trinity’s grant is to CAPA, and not directly to the Church of Uganda it is worth noting that in 2006 Orombi wrote in a pastoral letter,
We will no longer apply for grants from the Trinity Grants program of Trinity Wall Street, UTO (United Thank Offering), Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), or scholarships through the Episcopal Church Center (815). No Bishop or Diocesan Secretary should sign grant applications to these organizations.
In 2008 Orombi said gays threatened his life, he was forced to dress in street clothes to avoid notice by them, and he said, “The team of homosexuals is very rich. … They have money and will do whatever it takes to make sure that this vice penetrates Africa.”