Archbishop Orombi Responds to the Presiding Bishop
Thursday, May 15, 2008 € 10:25 am
via email
14th May 2008
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
The Episcopal Church USA
815 Second Avenue
New York, NY
Dear Bishop Katharine,
I received word of your letter through a colleague who had seen it on
the internet. Without the internet, I may never have known that you had
written such a personal, yet sadly ironic, letter to me.
Unfortunately, you appear to have been misinformed about key matters,
which I hope to clear up in this letter.
1. I am not visiting a church in the Diocese of Georgia. I am visiting a
congregation that is part of the Church of Uganda. Were I to visit a
congregation within TEC, I would certainly observe the courtesy of
contacting the local bishop. Since, however, I am visiting a
congregation that is part of the Church of Uganda, I feel very free to
visit them and encourage them through the Word of God.
2. The reason this congregation separated from TEC and is now part of
the Church of Uganda is that the actions of TEC's General Convention and
statements of duly elected TEC leaders and representatives indicate that
TEC has abandoned the historic Christian faith. Furthermore, as
predicted by the Primates of the Anglican Communion in October 2003,
TEC's actions have, in fact, torn the fabric of the Communion at its
deepest level.
3. May I remind you that the initial reason the Lambeth Commission on
Communion was appointed was because of unbiblical decisions taken by TEC
in defiance of repeated warnings by all of the Anglican Instruments of
Communion. The Windsor Re****t was produced and accepted in amended form
by the Primates at our meeting in Dromantine, Northern Ireland, in
February 2005. It is, therefore, quite ironic for you to be quoting the
Windsor Re****t to me. Nowhere in the Windsor Re****t or in subsequent
statements of the Instruments of Communion is there a moral equivalence
between the unbiblical actions and decisions of TEC that have torn the
fabric of our Communion at its deepest level and the pastoral response
on our part to provide ecclesiastical oversight to American
congregations who wish to continue to uphold the faith once delivered to
the saints and remain a part of the Anglican Communion. Your selective
quoting of the Windsor Re****t is stunning in its arrogance and
condescension.
4. You and your House of Bishops rejected outright the Pastoral Scheme
painstakingly devised in Dar es Salaam, and to which you agreed. You
have, therefore, left us no choice but to continue to respond to the
cries of God's faithful people in America for episcopal oversight that
upholds and promotes historic, biblical Anglicanism.
5. An im****tant element of the Dar es Salaam agreement was the plea by
the Primates that "the representatives of The Episcopal Church and of
those congregations in property disputes with it to suspend all actions
in law arising in this situation." This was something to which you gave
verbal assent and yet you have initiated more legal actions against
congregations and clergy in your short tenure as Presiding Bishop than
all of your predecessors combined. I urge you to rethink, suspend
litigation and follow a more Christ-like approach to settling your
differences.
Finally, I appeal to you to heed the advice of Gamaliel in Acts 5.38ff,
"Leave these [churches] alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or
activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you
will not be able to stop [them]; you will only find yourselves fighting
against God."
Yours, in Christ,
The Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi
ARCHBISHOP OF CHURCH OF UGANDA.
SOURCE:
http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/12495/
--
Charles Hohenstein (to reply, remove Gene Robinson)
"The sad huddle of affluent bedwetters, thumbsuckers,
treehuggers, social climbers, homophiles, quavery ladies,
and chronic petition signers that makes up the current
Episcopal Church . . ." -‹Thomas Lipscomb
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