He is Dr Eliud Wabukala, who is 58, has been Bishop of Bungoma since in 1996, and chairs the National Council of Churches of Kenya. Bungoma has a diocesan link with Peterborough. The Bishop of Peterborough, the Rt Revd Ian Cundy, described Dr Wabukala on Tuesday as “a reconciler both politÂically in the country and within the House of Bishops”. He succeeds ArchÂbishop Benjamin Nzimbi.
Thousands of Christians are reÂported to have thronged the streets of Bungoma to welcome the Archbishop-elect on his return home from the election. The election process at All Saints’ Cathedral in Nairobi last Friday was described by the local press as “peaceful, joyous and orderly”.
A very encouraging appointment. Ian Cundy has expressed the wisdom of many years of Diocese to Diocese links.
This brief article in the Church Times highlights the fact that the new archbishop elect, Eliud Wabukala, was one of only six Kenyan bishops to attend Lambeth as well as GAFCON last summer. And similarly it’s striking that while he enjoys the full confidence of evangelical leaders (like +Bill Atwood, American Suffragan Bishop of Nairobi in charge of Kenya’s rescue efforts here in the USA), +Wabukala is also a respected ecumenical leader, who has led the National Council of Churches of Kenya for over a decade. That strong evidence of being a peacemaker (without theological compromise) is certainly interesting and encouraging. He will need all his skills as a reconciler helping the Anglican Church and the nation recover from all the entrenched, internecine tribal stife that continues to plague Kenya, and many other African countries. He needs our prayers. And he shall have mine.
BTW, Dr. Kings, since you support international diocese-to-diocese links, is there one (or more) that already exists in the diocese to which you’ve just been appointed, Sherborne? Just curious.
David Handy+
Thanks, David, #2, for your question. The answer is that the [url=http://sudan.anglican.org/links.php]Episcopal Church of Sudan[/url] is the Partners in Mission link of the Diocese of Salisbury. The Bishop of Salisbury was one of the few visitors to The Sudan during the civil war there.
See also, for more details, the Fulcrum article, [url=http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/page.cfm?ID=340]’The Consequences of Climate Change in Sub-Saharan Africa'[/url], a paper given at the Lambeth Conference 2008 by Anthony Poggo, Bishop of Kajo-Keji, in The Sudan.
Would this Lambeth-attending +Wabukala be the same +Wabukala who said before Lambeth?:
[blockquote][i]“When the Rt. Rev. Dr. Eliud Wabukala, from Bungoma in Western Kenya, was asked why he was going to GAFCON, [b]but not to the Lambeth Conference[/b] in July, he told a congregation of Kenyans in his diocese that you don’t go to a place where men marry men…The bishop said it was a “[b]hard agonizing decision to make choosing not to go to Lambeth…We cannot go there[/b]”[/i][/blockquote]
http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/003040.html
Good to see he’s a man who sticks to his principles.
Dr. Kings (#3),
Thanks for responding. I’m glad the whole Diocese of Salisbury has a special connection with our much persecuted brothers and sisters in southern Sudan. They need all the support they can get. Blessings on your new ministry within the overall Salisbury Diocese after your consecration, and on archbishop elect Wabukala’s new ministry too. May you both be peacemakers, evangelists, and worthy successors of the apostles.
David Handy+