Q: How did you end up a bishop with the Anglican Church in Uganda?
A: God has his ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts, and his ways are not our ways, but I've had a long association with the church of Uganda. I first went to Uganda in 1989 on a SOMA [Sharing of Ministries Abroad] mission trip, and I've been back many times. We had a long-term partnership with both the provinces and also with what became our jurisdictional diocese, the diocese of North Kigezi, and when we separated from the Episcopal Church in 2006 we went under that diocese, and so when the church of Uganda felt it was time to have an American bishop to help look after the churches here, they were led to call upon me to do that.
Q: Why did the church of Uganda feel it was necessary to have a bishop here?
A: Well, there are 33 congregations here, and new churches are being planted, and that number will doubtless increase. While the relationships have been extraordinarily fruitful between U.S. parishes and Ugandan dioceses and bishops, they are thousands of miles away, and they really felt the need for those bishops to be supported by a bishop on the ground here who can be more immediately available to their congregations.
Q: Are these congregations primarily Ugandan in makeup?
A: No. Actually they are almost exclusively ethnic American, though American congregations are a wonderful ethnic hodgepodge in and of themselves. They're not ethnic Ugandan congregations, but congregations that have been formed here.
Q: Why in 2006 did you make the decision to separate from the U.S. Episcopal Church?
A: Well, we [All Saints Church, Woodbridge, Virginia] had been trying to hang in there with the Communion processes of responding to the Episcopal Church's unprecedented actions in 2003 to depart from the teaching of the Anglican Communion, and it became clear to us that the Episcopal Church was clear in its path, and it was as a result of an extended period of prayer and negotiations with our diocese to come up with an amicable plan and process of separation, and that came to be concluded in 2006, and we made the move at that time.
Q: Some in the Episcopal Church saying they want to find a way to keep everybody at the table, that there's something they can still do. Why did you feel there wasn't anything they could do?
A: When the Church, really, in our view, departed from biblical authority and historic teaching of the Church, it was no longer a matter of simply staying together as if nothing had happened, and if the Church was willing to turn back and come back into historic teaching and conform to the requirements of the Anglican Communion, then that would have been a different matter. But the Episcopal Church has clearly made its decision and is moving forward full speed ahead.
Q: International church leaders had asked that there be a pause or a ceasing of some of these African churches from coming here and building relationships and trying to have oversight. Why hasn't that stopped?
A: I think that the feeling is there needs to be a provision of pastoral care and oversight for churches, many of which are very hard pressed. There are certainly, as you know, lawsuits and canonical actions taken against churches, and in turn the Episcopal Church has not paused from its course, and until there was a return to the status quo, really pre-2003, the Global South has felt that they were not going to abandon those who have taken a faithful stand here in the U.S.
Q: Update us on what's happening now since you separated from the Episcopal Church. Currently you're still in the building that you had been in, but you have alternative plans.
A: We agreed with our diocese to relinquish the building that we're in and that we're using. We've turned it over to the diocese, we gave the title to the diocese, but we have a lease to use it for up to 5 years to allow us time to build a new church on land which we own, which we got in the settlement, though it has a large debt on it. We were able to retain title to that property, and we're very excited about moving in as soon as finances permit us to build that new building.
Q: Was it a hard decision for people? Was there a feeling that "we've been here and we should be able to stay here"?
A: No. I think there's a real sense of excitement about moving ahead. We know we've outgrown this building and have plans to move ahead, and so I sense that we really -- that God answered our plans and made it possible for us to stay here as long as we need to be but really allowed us to move ahead with our vision and our future ministry.
Q: Other congregations in this area that found themselves in the situation you did chose to align themselves with other churches in Africa, such as the church of Nigeria. Why did you choose Uganda rather than Nigeria?
A: It was because of our long-term mission partnership and relationship with the church of Uganda. I had been there 6 times, it was very natural, we've had many people from our parish go on mission trips to Uganda, and friends including the bishop who was a mission partner, who became our diocesan bishop and visited us here -- and so it was really out of that relationship. There was nothing negative about any other province, or any other church, or any other option available to us, but only the most positive sense of draw and spiritual connection with the church of Uganda.
