Henry Orombi does it again

The Church cannot heal this crisis of betrayal (The Times)

In this article, Henry Orombi, the Archbishop of Uganda, explains why he and his bishops are not attending the Lambeth Conference this year. The areas of serious public disagreement within the Anglican communion are well known, but nevertheless I had expected more bishops like Orombi to go to the conference precisely in order to make themselves heard in this dispute. That said, Orombi had previously explained that he and the other Ugandan bishops would "definitely not attend any Lambeth Conference to which the violators of the Lambeth Resolution [1.10] are also invited as participants or observers", and in this article the Archbishop makes clear that he feels the best way to make his voice heard is precisely not to be there, as many bishops have, frankly, been treating him dishonestly,

[I]t is now hard to believe that the leadership in the American Church means what it says. They say that they are not authorising blessings of same-sex unions, yet we read newspaper reports of them. Two American bishops have even presided at such services of blessings. Bishops have written diocesan policies on the blessings of same-sex unions. It is simply untrue to say they have not been authorised.

That such blessings continue and seem to be increasing hardly demonstrates “regret”, let alone repentance, on the part of the American Church.

and the Archbishop of Canterbury is not the man to sort this mess out,

The peculiar thing is that this one man, who is at the centre of the communion's structures, is not even elected by his peers. Even the Pope is elected by his peers, but what Anglicans have is a man appointed by a secular government. Over the past five years, we have come to see this as a remnant of British colonialism, and it is not serving us well. The spiritual leadership of a global communion of independent and autonomous provinces should not be reduced to one man appointed by a secular government.

Sobering words indeed. Personally, I've been umm-ing and ahh-ing over whether or not to sign the GAFCON petition, but this might be enough to convince me in the long run. I'll wait until the end of the Lambeth Conference, though.

(Possible updates to follow as I think about this some more)

Related posts:
Henry Orombi on Anglicanism
Book review: God, Gays and the Church by Lisa Nolland et. al