Ugandan Cleric Backs Breakaway Parish
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.
Larry B. Stammer, Times Staff Writer
August 24, 2004
L.A. Times
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.
Larry B. Stammer, Times Staff Writer
August 24, 2004
L.A. Times
posted by R7 | 8/24/2004 12:59:00 PM
2 Comments:
Two Parishes Bolt ECUSA, Join Anglican Province in Africa
Two biblically orthodox parishes in Southern California have dropped their affiliation with the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) and the Diocese of Los Angeles over the denomination's move away from scriptural authority and its stance on the role of homosexual clergy.
All Saints Church of Long Beach and St. James Church in Newport have aligned themselves with the worldwide Anglican Communion and are now under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Luweero, Anglican Province of Uganda. Rector William Thompson of All Saints says the Church of Uganda was the appropriate place to seek "safe harbor" from a denomination that has moved away from the teachings and the authority of scripture.
"For us at All Saints, we have over the years developed relationships with people in Uganda," Thompson explains. "We have sent short-term missionaries to Uganda; we have relationships supporting a public works project in southeast Uganda with a clergyman from the Church of Uganda there. I developed a friendship with Archbishop Henry Orombi [of the Church of Uganda]."
Thompson says his parish recognized that no matter what it did, the Episcopal Church USA was not going to repent of its support for homosexuality and other forms of heresy. He adds that the decision to leave is a "step of trust in Jesus Christ" -- and that his church does not fear a property dispute, a potential outcome of the decision.
"From our perspective ... they are our buildings; it was our money over the years that constructed them," he says. "The flow of money [historically] from the diocese has always been from us to them -- not the other way around. We feel that our property belongs to us."
The rector says he has no idea what some other entity might do from a legal standpoint regarding the issue of the property, but that the church is seeking to follow Christ no matter what the cost may be.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Father Praveen Bunyan of St. James explained that his church has been a long-time proponent of biblical orthodoxy. That is why, he says, many of his parishioners questioned him regularly about the church's continued affiliation with a denomination that has "departed from the authority of Scriptures."
The Times reports that in both cases, the vestries -- or board of directors -- of each parish voted unanimously to break from ECUSA, and that the parishioners backed those decisions overwhelmingly (131-10 at All Saints; 280-12 at St. James). Bunyan states that "many times" during the Monday night vote, members of his parish responded with great emotion, "in standing ovations, raising their hands, with tears rolling down their cheeks."
Jim Brown & Jody Brown
Agape Press
August 22, 2004
'A New Day' for Two Congregations
Two parishes that have separated from the Episcopal Church will mark fresh starts by rewriting their articles of incorporation.
Two breakaway Episcopal parishes in Long Beach and Newport Beach said Sunday that they will amend their articles of incorporation tonight, underscoring their breach with the national Episcopal Church.
All Saints Church in Long Beach and St. James Church in Newport Beach left the Episcopal Church last week because of differences over homosexuality and the role of Scripture. The parishes placed themselves under the jurisdiction of a conservative Anglican bishop in Uganda.
"It's a new day, a new life here at St. James," Father Praveen Bunyan told his congregation Sunday, meeting for worship for the first time since the dramatic departure. Despite the parish's new affiliation, Bunyan exhorted his parishioners to "stand by the word of God that is never changing."
At All Saints, the Rev. Donald K. White Jr., the associate rector, drew on the Gospel of St. Luke to speak about "who is in and who is out" in God's kingdom. Without mentioning the split from the Episcopal Church directly, he drew knowing applause when he declared, "I believe Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life!"
The parishes' decisions to break away were the latest flashpoints in an ongoing crisis within the 2.3-million member Episcopal Church, and the 77-million member worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch.
Since the national church's highest lawmaking body, the General Convention, consented a year ago to the election of an openly gay priest as bishop of New Hampshire, 22 of the 38 Anglican provinces or national churches worldwide — most of them in Africa, Southeast Asia and South America — have either downgraded or severed official relations with the U.S. Episcopal Church, according to Cynthia Brust, a spokeswoman for the conservative American Anglican Council in Washington.
But within the U.S., Bob Williams, a national church spokesman in New York, said he had been informed that fewer than 10 of the more than 7,300 Episcopal parishes had left the church since Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson was consecrated. In addition, a number of dioceses have aligned themselves with a new alternative, the Anglican Communion Network, which hopes to be recognized by the worldwide Anglican Communion.
For members of the two Southland breakaway parishes, the worship services Sunday were both familiar and different.
They sang Episcopal hymns. They recited prayers from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. They participated in Episcopal rites to celebrate Holy Communion. Yet parishioners and priests considered themselves anything but Episcopalians.
St. James' decision to leave the Episcopal Church prompted at least one man who had earlier left the church to return to the Newport Beach parish.
"I quit this church when they got so liberal. I'm back. Finally, someone has returned to the tenets of God," said Ben Carlson, 58, of Newport Beach, who had not regularly attended the church for 12 years.
In Newport Beach, police stationed four patrol cars around St. James. In Long Beach, parishioner Kristie Kuehnast, an elementary school teacher, said the decision to leave the Episcopal Church was right. "It's just going to keep us straight in what the path we've all chosen is," she said. "I'm happy to have a passionate pastor who's willing to follow up on what his beliefs are."
In amending their articles of incorporation, the two parishes intend to remove references on their ties to the Episcopal Church. Last week, they removed such references on their parish websites.
But at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, among the most liberal Episcopal parishes in the nation, most parishioners were "saddened" by the turn of events, the Rev. Susan Russell said in an interview. Russell, who heads a national gay and lesbian ministry and is in a committed lesbian relationship, added, "It's hard for me to understand why my inclusion at the table means they have to leave."
The dividing issues touch on theology, church governance and how accommodating the church should be to popular culture, particularly to views about homosexuality.
Combined, the three factors have converged into a vortex of controversy that could eventually result in a historic realignment within the Anglican Communion, the world's third largest Christian church after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.
Although conservatives have insisted that homosexuality is not the only issue, it was seen Sunday by All Saints Rector William A. Thompson as perhaps the most obvious example of what he called the Episcopal Church's departure from biblical orthodoxy and historical Christianity.
"I think [Robinson's election] wasn't so much the straw that broke the camel's back," Thompson told reporters Sunday. "I think it was one more thing. For some it was such a visible way to way to see that the Episcopal Church had made an official decision that seemed to many of us to be counter to the authority of Scripture."
St. James' Bunyan said in an interview: "Our loyalties as Christians primarily lie with God and Jesus Christ, and not a particular institution. When an institution no longer represents our understanding of God's word and his will, if it does not uphold the most basic, important tenets — the centrality of Jesus Christ and the authority of the word of God — we must have the courage and faith to stand by our convictions. That's what St. James as a church and the clergy here decided to do."
Larry B. Stammer, Times Staff Writer
Post a Comment
<< Home