Ugandan bishop takes battle for Anglican soul to London

s the divisions in the Anglican faith grow wider ahead of the Lambeth conference in the UK over homosexuality, Uganda’s Archbishop was in London last week to drum up support for traditional Anglican teachings.

But Archbishop Henry Orombi denied trying to ‘poach’ traditional Church of England supporters.

Archbishop Orombi, who is Archbishop of Uganda as well as Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, Australia and Archbishop Greg Venables, Primate of South America’s Southern Cone, were in London last week to address a meeting of the Church of England supporters on the formation of a new grouping within the church known as the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans.

The meeting and the setting up of Foca drew strong criticism from the spiritual head of the Anglican faith, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

But the three clergymen denied that they were trying to “seize power” within the church. Archbishop Orombi said that he had travelled to Britain to ‘help restore traditional theology’ to the mother church.

The issues which have caused deep divisions within the church remain the ordination of homosexual clergy and proposals to allow the ordination of women bishops. Women priests are already widely accepted in many dioceses within the Anglican Church although not in Africa.

But in a striking development adding support to the African viewpoint within the church, a leading UK church man said the liberal theologians within the church should be wary of dismissing the strong feelings within the Anglican faith, particularly from those in Africa.

Canon Gregory Cameron, the top canon lawyer who helps run the headquarters of the world-wide Anglican Communion criticised the “dark side” of western Anglicanism which assumes superiority over Anglicans in the developing world.

In a lecture about the crisis facing world Anglicanism, Canon Cameron said that senior clerics in the Western church were in danger of adopting a Nato-style attitude of “intellectual superiority”.

He criticised the US church, which donates generously to the African and Asian evangelical provinces, for placing “implicit obligations” on the recipients of their largesse.

Urging understanding of the conservative evangelicalism which led to a rival Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans being set up in Jerusalem last week, Canon Cameron said: “The average Anglican is a black woman under the age of 30, who earns two dollars a day, has a family of at least three children, has lost two close relatives to Aids, and who will walk four miles to church for a three-hour service on a Sunday.”

 Ugandan bishop takes battle for Anglican soul to London
Daily Nation, Kenya -