The primate of the Anglican Church of Uganda, Henry Luke Orombi, has written a strongly-worded letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, protesting the decision by the Joint Standing Committee (JSC) not to allow an American priest who was appointed as the clerical representative of the Ugandan church to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) meeting here.
Archbishop Orombi called the decision “unjust, unbiblical, unconstitutional, ”¦short of imperialistic,” and appealed to Archbishop Williams in his capacity as president of the ACC “to help the Joint Standing Committee understand the limits of their authority.”He asked Archbishop Williams to recognize the appointment of Philip Ashey, a former priest of The Episcopal Church, who is now the chief operating officer of the Anglican American Council (AAC). The AAC is part of the Common Cause Partnership, which is advocating for recognition as a separate province in North America.
The decision to exclude Ashey+ seems even more imperialistic and biased this morning in light of the revelation in yesterday’s press conference that TEC had been allowed to seat a clearly unqualified delegate in 1999 based on the decision by the ACC to let member churches decide who should represent them: “the ACC left it to the member churches to determine who would be their representatives and placed the onus on the sending church to conform with the rules.”
Read the whole thing here:
http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/?p=10093
Here’s an excerpt:
[blockquote] At the press conference Canon Kenneth Kearon was pressed about the legitimacy whereby the sovereignty of the Church of Uganda in choosing its own delegate was denied. It was drawn to his attention that in 1999, at the ACC-11 in Dundee, the Episcopal Church in the USA was represented by a Bishop Mark Dyer who had retired in 1995. Canon George Conger writes: “The ACC’s constitution at section 4.d says: ‘Bishops and other clerical members shall cease to be members on retirement from ecclesiastical office.’ I asked John L Peterson, in my capacity as a reporter for the Church of England Newspaper, why Bishop Dyer was being seated at the meeting, when the constitution said he was not eligible to be seated. Canon Peterson said that the ACC left it to the member churches to determine who would be their representatives and placed the onus on the sending church to conform with the rules. My commentary would be, in 1999 the ACC (in the person of John L Peterson) said the member churches could pick whom they wanted to send, even if they weren’t eligible. In 2009 the ACC is now saying the member churches are not free to pick their members, even if the delegate is eligible under the rules laid down by the ACC.â€
When asked about a perceived change of policy, Canon Kearon stated that he had not been present in 1999. The situation now was that the Ugandan church had sent a delegate who was not qualified. There is no definition for what “qualified†would be in the ACC constitution, nor is there any definition of who would adjudicate who was qualified. In the light of such a gap, the Joint Standing Committee had determined that it was the body to make such decisions.
Canon Kearon stated that Rev Ashey was not qualified as his membership of the Church of Uganda was as a result of a cross-border intervention by the Church of Uganda in the United States, a practice which had been consistently disapproved of by the instruments of communion since 2004.
So far so clear. However, it was also drawn to Canon Kearon’s attention that another infringement of the requirements of the instruments of communion had been the continuance of the lawsuits against orthodox churches in North America by TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada. The cessation of these lawsuits was a requirement of the Dar-es-Salaam Primates Meeting in 2007 as part of the compliance required of TEC and the ACoC with the Windsor Report and thus a condition for the re-entry of TEC and ACoC delegates to the Councils of the Communion ( they had been asked to withdraw from ACC 13 at Nottingham, but attended as visitors). How was it that TEC and ACoC had not complied with a requirement of the instruments of communion, yet had been readmitted, and that Uganda was not complying with the embargo on cross-border jurisdiction and yet its selected delegate was barred? The answer given that Uganda as a province had not been barred, only its delegate who was a product of cross-border intervention.
What comes across in all this is the lack of fairness and even handedness. TEC and ACoC are in constant breach of Lambeth 1.10, and by the secretary general’s own admission at the Saturday press conference, had in some cases continued to authorize same-sex blessings in defiance of the moratorium. They have not complied with the Primates’ call from Dar-es-Salaam to desist from lawsuits, but instead have increased them. Yet they are readmitted to full membership.
The Church of Uganda exercises its sovereign right to appoint a priest under its oversight from among orthodox clergy in the USA who wish to abide by the Communion’s teaching and practice, but is denied that right on the grounds of the priest being unqualified according to criteria that are not specified in the ACC constitution, (as a product of a breach of the communion’s requests), according to the decision of a body which is not given the authority to determine membership of provincial delegations either in the constitution of the ACC or in the tradition of the ACC ( according to the practice of Canon Petersen in the case of Mark Dyer).
One cannot help gain the impression of an unfair lack of even handedness while making up the rules as they go along. [/blockquote]
So let’s summarize, shall we. Uganda was told they can not seat Ashey because he is “unqualified” – with no ability to cite any relevant criteria for qualification in the ACC constitution. When presented with hard facts that TEC had been allowed to seat a delegate who was ACTUALLY and CLEARLY unqualified according to the ACC constitution back in 1999 because it was “up to the member churches” then the ACC now says “oh it’s all about the Windsor report” – never mind the seating of +Roskam who was at VGR’s consecration, or +Schori who promoted SSB’s in her diocese and also has continued her scorched earth policy re: lawsuits.
Hypocrisy, thy name is the JSC / ACC, or Kearon or Peterson….
No, its about the exercise of raw political power. They have the votes and control the positions of power.
When we are suggesting that imperialist discrimination is being practiced here, we are in fact alleging immorality.
And that is the inescapable conclusion. What a shockingly blatant and political piece of prejudice. The Communion hierarchy has yet again covered itself in glory….NOT.
One wonders if Rowan Williams will grow enough of a spine to support Archbishop Orombi’s well reasoned position.
When the rules are fixed, there is little point playing on. The Gafcon primates need to learn from the utter rout of orthodox and “moderate” groups in TEC over 35 years. If the fix is in, leave while you can with what you can. Otherwise face slow strangulation.
This decision by Kearon is a direct slap in the face aimed at the Church of Uganda, and by extension, ALL of us who stand in opposition to Schori and Company……whose overreaching infuence is so blatantly evident. I consider Kearon’s action an INSULT. Hasn’t this guy ever heard of that little thing called “Canonical Residence?”
Perhaps the technical points are on the side of the Archbishop of Uganda — I’m not really sure. Further, this was a lose-lose decision, as far as the Meeting was concerned; under such circumstances, I suppose I would have preferred at least that Ashey be seated, if only because I am not immune from partisan feelings. But a larger question is why these circumstances were laid out in the first place. The entire episode, as far as I can see, was designed to do what it has done: create a lot of heat under the collar. I really don’t think Christianity, the Bible, or even the great Western Imperium has much to do with what has happened. The more smoke emerges from the neck, the more embarrassing this is for everybody concerned. Everybody. Nobody has scored any points on this one, and everybody’s stature has been diminished. I hope both those in Jamaica and those in Kampala realize this.