A mural at Uganda Martyrs Seminary commemorates the young martyrs(Photo: (c)Paul Brown/CMS)One of Anglicanism’s least kept secrets was confirmed last week. The Church of Uganda formally announced its bishops wouldn’t be attending the Lambeth Conference later this year.
The news came in a statement issued by the Archbishop of Uganda, Dr Henry Orombi.
It said the boycott was due to a failure to resolve the crisis caused by the consecration of gay bishop Gene Robinson by the Episcopal Church of the USA in 2003.
"The Church of Uganda, by this decision, wishes to reaffirm our commitment to the resolutions of the 2006 provincial assembly and resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, which denounced homosexual practices and called upon the Church to remain faithful to the Holy Scripture."
This kind of language is not particularly new. What is important here is the need to understand Ugandan Anglicanism on its own terms, and some of the historical factors that inform it. Few Westerners appreciate that underlying this latest decision is an important folk memory that has shaped the communal psyche of the Church of Uganda from its earliest days.
It is a Church born out of martyrdom. Archbishop Janani Luwum, murdered by Idi Amin, is the most famous example. Another is the story of Bishop James Hannington (1847–1885). As a newly-appointed bishop for Eastern Equatorial Africa, an area covering what is now Kenya and Uganda, Hannington resolved to walk to the Buganda Kingdom. He made the fatal mistake of approaching from the north-west, a route traditionally taken by enemies of the state.
By order of the young King Mwanga II, the bishop and his party were captured. After eight days of captivity, Hannington's men were killed. Then on 29 October 1885, Hannington himself was executed by spear. As he died, his alleged last words to the soldiers who killed him were, "Go, tell Mwanga that I die for Uganda and I have purchased the road to Uganda with my blood."
But it is another martyrdom story that underlies the Ugandan decision on Lambeth 2008. Over the two years following the death of Hannington, the fledgling Church literally suffered fiery persecution.
Pageboys at the royal court bore the brunt. In all 45 (Anglicans and Catholics) were brutally killed, many of them burned after having their hands cut off. The king’s complaint against them was that having come to the Christian faith they would no longer accede to his demands for sexual favours.
It is to another African, the Christian Apologist, Tertullian (160–225), to whom we owe the aphorism “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” For many Ugandan Christians, the seed of their Church is the blood of these young men.
So still today most Ugandan Christians are bewildered by stories of homosexuals being ordained, granted positions of authority and offering blessings on gay unions. It seems to undermine their entire faith story.
It can be argued, of course, that the king’s relations with young pages was abusive and something altogether different from consenting gay relations. But should we expect Ugandans, many of whom are poor and face the daily challenge of survival, to explore all the nuances of the gay debate on Western terms?
I want to suggest, however, that staying away from the Lambeth Conference might be a strategic mistake. If the Anglican churches of the majority world are prepared to play the long game, they will shortly be in a position to shape the Anglican Communion as they wish it to be. It’s a matter of patience.
Take a look at this string of Anglican numbers and future projections from the International Bulletin of Missionary Research (1990).
| Year |
|
Number of Anglicans |
| 1900 |
|
30,573,700 |
| 1970 |
|
47,520,000 |
| mid-1999 |
|
74,500,000 |
| 2000 |
|
77,000,000 |
| 2025 |
|
110,000,000 |
We know Anglicanism is growing spectacularly south of the equator but is in recession in the northern hemisphere (and in Australia and New Zealand where the trends affecting the North apply).
Anglicanism is set to grow by 33 million in the first quarter of this century. If recession in the North continues as expected, by 2025 the Anglican churches of the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand will be dwarfed by the churches of the South.
If Anglicanism can hold together, by 2025 it will be a very different Communion. And those who reject what’s been happening in the in the North will by sheer numbers be in a position shape Anglicanism however they judge it to be right.
John Martin is CMS Head of Communication