Update from the Companion Diocese Committee
From the Companion Diocese Committee:
The Rev. Chris Barnes has stepped down from the Chair of the Companion Diocese Committee. Chris served the Committee with commitment, enthusiasm and joy, and is much respected by the committee. We are thankful to Chris for his almost 6 years of leadership.
Rick Morgan, and long-standing committee member, has accepted the Bishop’s appointment as chair of the Companion Diocese Committee. We are grateful for Rick’s willingness to lead, especially at this time where we are at cross-roads.
Through 2023 and early 2024, our relationship with our companion Diocese dissolved. In July 2023 Bishop Geoff wrote to The Most Rev. Stephen Kazimba, Archbishop of Uganda, echoing the concerns of the Archbishop of Canterbury, that the recently adopted national law of Uganda criminalizing and penalizing not only 2SLGBTQIA+ people, but also their families and allies, was in contravention with the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, and support of such a law has deep moral implications for the Church.
In late 2023 Archbishop Kazimba and Bishop Lubowa wrote to call Bishop Geoff to an online meeting with the purpose of ending our joint Companion Diocese Covenant. We rejected the petition to end our relationship, and renewed our call for the province of Uganda to reconsider its position on the national Ugandan law. In March 2024 the Archbishop of Uganda and the Bishop of Central Buganda wrote, severing all ties with the Diocese of Rupert’s Land.
Since the March letter our Companion Diocese Committee, under Chris Barnes leadership, and in consultation with Bishop Geoff, has made every effort to complete our work with the Orphan’s program. On behalf of the Diocese, Bishop Geoff offered heartfelt gratitude for the committee’s generous time and effort in completing these very difficult tasks, and thanks to everyone in the Diocese of Rupert’s Land who has been involved in this ministry over the years.
Through our diocese and the Diocese of Central Buganda, rich, genuine and meaningful relationships continue among friends. The committee and Bishop Geoff encourage disciples to maintain, and make flourish, the individual relationships that were established in Christ’s love and blessing. Continuing in personal and corporate prayer for our link parishes, and individual sister and brother relationships is just as important, if not more so now in our time of the broken relationship of the covenant.
It is the hope of the Companion Diocese Committee to seek new companions within the world wide communion.
This change means that All Saints’ ties with our companion Parish St Paul Bessania Church, Mpigi have also been severed.
