Ugandan Cleric Backs Breakaway Parishes

The Anglican archbishop of Uganda declared his full support Monday for two Southern California parishes that have broken away from the Episcopal Church in the United States and affiliated with a conservative diocese in that African nation.

Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi, Anglican primate of Uganda, also denounced Los Angeles Episcopal Bishop J. Jon Bruno for threatening to defrock the disaffected parish clergy unless they returned to the Episcopal Church.

The statement marked another escalation in the tensions within the worldwide Anglican Communion over theological differences and homosexuality.

With Orombi’s intervention, the dispute has been elevated to one between two national churches, rather than a strictly local controversy. The Episcopal Church is the American branch of the communion.

“We condemn any attempt on the part of the Episcopal bishop of Los Angeles to depose our clergy serving at St. James Church, Newport Beach, and All Saints Church, Long Beach,” Orombi said in the statement. Bruno “has no jurisdiction over them, and we will not recognize his actions.”

Last week, the two conservative parishes broke with the national Episcopal Church over such issues as the national church’s decision to ordain an openly gay priest as a bishop. Orombi said Monday that clergy at the two parishes now belong to -- are “canonically resident” in -- the Diocese of Luweeroin Uganda led by Bishop Evans Kisekka. Orombi is Kisekka’s archbishop.

Orombi’s Ugandan province broke relations with the Episcopal Church last year after the U.S. denomination approved the election of a gay priest as bishop of New Hampshire, the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson. On Monday, Orombi took Bruno to task for his support of that decision and for officiating in May in Los Angeles at a same-sex blessing for one of his priests.

“We pray for [Bruno’s] repentance, and the repentance of all the Episcopal Church leadership who voted for the consecration of a man in an active homosexual relationship as bishop of New Hampshire -- and their return to the historic faith and communion of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church,” Orombi said.

Responding to Orombi’s statement that the Long Beach and Newport parishes have joined the Ugandan church, Bruno was adamant Monday. “I cannot and will not yield my authority over these priests and deacon,” he said in an interview.

The breakaway clergy are three from St. James: the Revs. Praveen Bunyan, who is rector; Richard A. Menees, who is associate rector; and M. Kathleen Adams, the deacon; and the rector of All Saints, the Rev. William Thompson.

So far, they have ignored Bruno’s order to return to the Episcopal Church and have refused to meet with him.

Thompson said that he was gratified by Orombi’s defense. “It was a very strong response in support of us, basically [saying] that he wants people in the Episcopal Church to keep their hands off us. Whatever effect that has, I don’t know.” Bunyan added, “We rejoice and praise God in having such a wonderful godly archbishop. We are encouraged.”

Bruno has asked Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and U.S. Episcopal Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold to block the African church from interfering in the affairs of the Los Angeles diocese. But Griswold is on vacation, his spokesman said, and considers the uproar a local matter for the moment.

However, Father Jonathan Jennings, a spokesman in London for the archbishop of Canterbury, who is the spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, said the decision by two parishes was an indication of the gravity of the problems facing a high level panel studying ways to hold the 77-million member communion together.

“It should be noted that this kind of situation and the questions that arise from it are precisely what has prompted the commission’s work and the archbishop would not have appointed a commission without the situation being serious enough to warrant it,” Jennings said.

Bruno said Orombi’s call for repentance for blessing the same-sex union of the Rev. Canon Malcolm Boyd and his partner of 20 years, Mark Thompson, provided “an opportunity to think about what sin is.”

“Sin means separation from God. I am in no way separated from God because I affirm the full humanity of two people who have been created as gay human beings and have lived in a single, monogamous relationship for 20 years,” Bruno said. “I blessed this union specifically because these men have been powerful, strong forces for love and reconciliation in the church, and desired to be acknowledged by the church.”

Orombi’s statement arrived the same day the two parishes were scheduled to amend their articles of incorporation to write out all references to their ties with the Episcopal Church.

The dispute could lead to a legal battle over parish buildings and property. Both congregations claim they have undisputed title to the property, but Bruno said that he has a responsibility to retain them for the Los Angeles diocese. Bruno said Monday: “My major concern is not the property of the church. My major concern is the unity of the communion I swore to uphold and the pastoral care of all people in these congregations.”

When four Episcopal parishes broke with the diocese in the 1970s, three were allowed to keep their property after court battles. The fourth had a clause in its deed that the courts found gave the diocese title. Earlier this month, a California appellate court decision involving a United Methodist congregation in Fresno that broke from that denomination ruled in favor of the local congregation.