Leading an army of 230 Anglican Church leaders, Ugandan Archbishop Stanley Ntagali has promised to maintain his firm stand against recognition and celebration of gay marriages in the global Anglican Communion. Speaking at Entebbe Airport, where Africa1 Tour & Travel agency CEO Paula Nahamya saw off the 230 Church leaders on Saturday, Ntagali told this news website that he was happy a fellowship of anti-gay Bishops (GAFCON) which started 10 years ago (in 2008) was rapidly growing to the extent of overshadowing and numerically overwhelming colleagues who tolerate secularism and solemnization of gay marriages under the guise of promoting human rights. Ntagali, who holds the position of Vice Chairperson in the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), said “I’m happy to be leading other church leaders from Uganda under the auspices of GAFCON which seeks to revive the Church of Christ to the original biblical teaching and traditions.” He added “it’s even more fulfilling that today we are travelling to Jerusalem to be part of the anniversary to celebrate 10 years of our existence as an orthodox movement within the Anglican Communion.” He was optimistic that the 600 Anglican Church leaders travelling from all over Sub Saharan Africa (230 of them from the Ugandan Province) will at the end of the month return when they are spiritually reenergized to continue standing firm against secularism, gay marriages, HIV/Aids and poverty which continue to afflict the Anglican faithful while fermenting divisions in the Church. He reiterated that the struggle that started in 2008 especially against solemnization of gay marriages will carry on into the next decade adding that the GAFCON message can only become more popular. In 2008, Ntagali’s predecessor (Orombi) joined others to enact the Jerusalem Declaration as a result of which the Fellowship of the Confessing Anglicans (basically GAFCON) was promulgated. The idea was to resist the Canterbury position then that every Bishop who resisted gay marriages, and subsequently lost recognition of the Archbishop of Canterbury, ceased to be an Anglican bishop. Dismissing this new Canterbury position as representative of “false gospel preaching,” the like-minded Bishops came together and formed GAFCON. Trouble had started in 2003 when Gene Robinson, who openly confessed being gay, was consecrated to become Anglican Bishop.
SHELDON SPEAKS;
According to Ankole Bishop Fred Sheldon Mwesigwa, who is among the many Bishops travelling with Ntagali, because of the clarity of its message and insistence on Bible truth, the GAFCON Fellowship has grown so fast that today it easily overshadows the other group of Anglican clerics who hide behind human rights to permit solemnization of gay marriages. “GAFCON has been embraced everywhere in Africa, Canada, Europe and United Kingdom to the extent that those Anglicans outside our Communion don’t exceed 8% on the globe. We in the GAFCON Fellowship are the majority now except that the 8% are very powerful because they are backed by their strong governments who believe in pro-gay legislations,” Mwesigwa said in an interview with this news website. “They have the money and are using the legal system to dilute the original authority of the Bible. But under GAFCON we are determined to ensure we encourage our fellow Bishops who get expelled or persecuted because of their stand against gay marriages,” added Bp Mwesigwa who will be presenting a paper sharing experiences on how the Christian revival movement’s messages has over the years been used to diminish the influence of traditional African religious beliefs in his Ankole diocese. Mwesigwa further hopes Uganda stands a very high chance in future to host the all-important GAFCON conference (happens once in 4 years) because, in the GAFCON circles, our country is renowned for its outspokenness against gay marriages and rights. “Our Speaker Kadaga has been very outspoken in international foras and her views were recently buttressed by Gender PS Pius Bigirimana who led Africa in rejecting homosexuality during the international labor movement meeting. As a Province, our leaders from Orombi and now Ntagali have been very clear as to where we stand on this matter,” said Bp Mwesigwa adding “even numerically we are very strong because Uganda is only 2nd to Nigeria when it comes to having a large number of Anglican Christians.”
WHERE ELSE?
According to tour and travel expert Paula Nahamya, whose Africa1 Tour & Travel agency was hired by GAFCON to oversee the clerics’ logistical needs throughout the trip, a total of 600 African clerics are participating in the conference and the Ugandan delegation (of 230 clerics) is only second to Nigeria. The 600 that Africa1 is responsible for are from Uganda, Ghana, Rwanda and South Sudan. She says after the GAFCON conference in Jerusalem, the clerics will be taken on a historic tour of the pyramids in Egypt, St. Catherine and Mt. Sinai among other holy places. Herself a practicing Anglican, Ms Nahamya says participation in the GAFCON is important for the Ugandan church leaders because they will return when they are spiritually reenergized to stand firm against secularism manifested in immoral practices like homosexuality and celebration of gay marriages. She says the team flies back on Friday 29th June. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755.
