27th June 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Church of Uganda
At the request of the Rt. Rev. Andrew (Andy) H. Fairfield, retired Bishop of North Dakota, the House of Bishops of the Church of Uganda voted to receive Bishop Fairfield as a member of its House at its 21st June meeting. Bishop Fairfield will assist Bishop-elect John Guernsey in providing episcopal care and oversight to the 26 congregations in America that are part of the Church of Uganda.
Bishop Fairfield has written to The Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, and resigned from their House of Bishops.
In considering his new role as a Bishop in the Church of Uganda, Fairfield said, “Now, although I am ‘retired’ (from a jurisdictional and financial point of view), I seek further Christian service, especially in the process of this transition in Anglican orthodoxy.”
The Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi, Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, said, “It is an honour for us to receive into our House of Bishops such a man of God. At the 1998 Lambeth Conference, he proposed the resolution on The Authority of Scripture, which we passed. We believe he will be a great support to Bishop-elect John Guernsey and all the congregations in America that are under our care.”
Bishop Robert Duncan, Moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, said, “Bishop Fairfield is one of the most respected Bishops in the entire American Church, and has served the Network very well as our ordinations suffragan. I know his work has been especially valuable to congregations in our International Conference. I am delighted to know that he has found a new ecclesiastical home in the Church of Uganda, a Province which has declared a state of broken communion with The Episcopal Church’s majority, but embraces full communion with all in the Anglican Communion Network. We look forward to many years of continued fruitful ministry together.”
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Church of Uganda welcomes the Rt. Rev. Andy Fairfield to its House of Bishops -
27 June 2007 - Print Version
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28 June 2007 at 1:16 pm
May God bless Bishop Fairfield and the Church of Uganda.
And thank you, Archbishop Orombi, for acting in the best interest of orthodox Anglicans in North America. I was inhibited from priestly ministry by Bishop Stacy Sauls because I taught a Sunday morning adult class at St. Andrew Anglican Church in Versailles, Kentucky. (Sauls called this action “abandonment of Communion” Sound familiar?) St. Andrews thrives today because of your generosity in providing a faithful and caring bishop.
06 August 2007 at 10:54 am
Most Reverend Henry Luke Orombi;
You don’t know me. I am not a member of the Ugandan Church; in fact, I have never even been to Uganda. I am, however, an Anglican. I am also a medical doctor working and residing in the United States and am a member of the Episcopal Church.
Grace and peace of our Lord, Jesus Christ be with you.
I have just finished reading your open letter that was published by the Anglican Communion News Service some time ago. I must say that I was deeply moved by the experience of the Ugandan Church in Christ’s mission. Your words touched me by their eloquence and conviction and now more than ever I understand your position on the matter that has brought the Church to another place of crisis.
I pray that you will indulge me and continue to read despite my own lack of eloquence and scholarship, and that you will do so as a brother in Christ.
For many years I had strayed away from the Church. I was initially baptized as a Roman Catholic. I struggled with the discrepancies that fell before me as I pursued my studies in the sciences and ultimately in medicine. Then, at some moment during my 30’s I heard the words of Jesus; “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” It was my spiritual reawakening, to become like a child. So, it is with simplicity that I would like to address your letter.
The issue of sexuality has stoked the fire that has been dampened in our communion. I believe that it is not solely this issue that causes great consternation among those, such as you that whole fast to the authority of the Scriptures. It may be true that were it not for the ability to bring the Word of God to your people, they might be suffering all the more. However, as you aptly quoted from Hebrews, “ for us, the Bible is ‘living and active, sharper than a double-edged sword, it penetrates to dividing soul and spirits, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart’”. The words and actions of Jesus about one thing, Love. Jesus spoke only of loving the Father and loving each other. He ate with his friends and families, but he made a point of breaking bread with the outcasts of society. What does that say to you? Jesus is speaking here; will you let his words fall to deaf ears? Those that came before and after Jesus were less than Divine and their words, though good intentioned were meant for the time that they were living in. Jesus’ words are meant to exist from before time until time is no more.
“It is a most invaluable part of that blessed ‘liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,’ that in this worship different forms and usages may without offense be allowed, provided the substance of the Faith be kept entire: and that, in every Church, what cannot be clearly determined to belong to Doctrine must be referred to Discipline.” (BCP)
Jesus commanded us “To love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus also brought us to the table, to break bread and wine, to share in His Body and Blood as one in Christ; these are the Doctrine of our Church. Jesus was not concerned with circumcision or the work that a person did in society, but the compassion that a person did in His name.
We hold these things to be true and accepted parts of our faith because we know that they came from the lips of Jesus. All else is circumstantial. I doubt dearly that Jesus would have shunned the homosexual. I find it more likely that He would have broke bread with him or her and would have helped lead them on the road to Compassion. Does that mean that Jesus would have said, “now, I love you, go do good things, but don’t have relations with another man (or woman)”?
I honestly don’t know….can you say that you do?
I will not argue the laws put forth in the Hebrew Bible, nor the comments made by the writers of the New Testament, for we must see those in the light of their day and not forget that we are living in an era that is far different in time and need. I respectfully concede that I and the greater part of the Episcopal Church as well as the other members of our Body that choose to accept homosexuality as a part of God’s plan may be wrong. However, what is important is not WHO we share our love with both body and spirit, but THAT we share our love in Christ’s Name.
It was Jesus’ simplest command and the one that has brought us the Good News.
As you know, in the early Church, the Bible was barely read to the populace and the bishops and priests used their education, wealth and authority to oppress their people. It was only when people began to learn to read and to think on their own that this authority became threatened and indeed turmoil arose. The Bible, as you know from your own experience, has been a weapon in the fight against oppression as it taught that we are all God’s children and the Father loves us all. There is no one more special than the other; the living and active Word of God is the experience of God’s faithful and loving people. Jesus ate with the tax collectors, the lepers, and the prostitutes. Jesus favored the sinners to sit at His table. These were all very offensive people in His time; this was His experience of God’s spoken word to him. How it differed from that of those who in authority believed that they alone heard the true word of God!
It has been this battle over authority, God’s versus man’s that continues to fragment the bones of our Lord Jesus Christ over the centuries. Do we continue to crucify the Messenger? Are we responsible for thrusting the spear that will assure His death? I assert that the burden of our salvation as Christ’s church is weighted upon the unspoiled. For it is the unspoiled who are moved by His death and who are able to respond with love and compassion through the Living Word. They are the children of God.
I suggest you break bread with Bishop Gene Robinson as Jesus would. The message from scripture is this: Jesus loved all of us and we are all pleasing in God’s eyes.
This is our faith; this is what we are sure of.
Yours in Christ,
A Vaccaro, M.D.