Primates’ statement on David Kato's murder brings them closer to the moment of truth

The Primates issued a statement following their meeting in Dublin, supporting the Archbishop of Canterbury’s response. They described the murder as horrific and joined him in saying that no one should have to live in fear because of the bigotry of others.

They quoted from three Anglican documents in support of their judgment:

“We reiterate that ‘the victimisation or diminishment of human beings whose affections happen to be ordered towards people of the same sex is anathema to us’” (Primates Meeting 2005).

“We reaffirm that ‘any demonising of homosexual persons, or their ill treatment, is totally against Christian charity and basic principles of pastoral care’” (The Windsor Report).

“We call on all our people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation and condemn irrational fear of gay people.” (1998 Lambeth Conference).

I’ve been highlighting the positive elements of Lambeth 1.10, The Windsor Report and other Anglican statements for many years. It seems to me that this is a huge development, the Primates themselves highlighting sentences that affirm the place of LGBT people in the Church and condemn anything that demonises us or provokes ill-treatment.

The next step is a difficult one to make for conservative Christians for whom the Bible is their prime source of authority, let alone for Global South Primates and bishops who believe the Bible judges and condemns lesbian and gay people and legitimizes our persecution. They wouldn’t have agreed the statement, of course, and I wonder what will happen if and when they return to the table.

But let’s stay with the conservatives, many of whom I meet often and count as friends. I think the Primates have drawn closer to the point where the conflict between so-called traditional Christian teaching and the Gospel demands of love and justice, including God’s love for ‘homosexual persons’ who are ‘full members of the Body of Christ’ becomes impossible to resolve.

The Anglican Communion will NEVER overcome its homophobia, NEVER be able to ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are free from persecution and demonisation, NEVER be committed to our welcome and full inclusion, until it changes its mind and rejects all aspects of teaching and Biblical interpretation which count us as less than others.

Changing Attitude England will never cease reminding the Church, Synods, bishops, Primates, Instruments of Unity, that there is no alternative but to commit to the full inclusion of LGBT people, admitting us to every order of ministry and blessing our relationships and lives which are marked by love every bit as profound, deep, complex and holy as heterosexual marriage.

David Kato’s murder marks the beginning of a new campaign which will not end until justice has been achieved.

Colin Coward

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David Kato RIP

David Kato, was attacked and beaten to death with a hammer at his home in Kampala on Wednesday 26 January 2011. David was known as ‘the grandfather of the kuchus”, a brave and passionately committed activist who had been campaigning for gay rights for more than a decade. He had been leading the campaign against David Bahati’s Anti-homosexuality bill, which demands that homosexuals be executed and which has intensified the climate of hatred and prejudice against LGBT people not only in Uganda but across Africa.

Changing Attitude England has been campaigning for fifteen years for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the Anglican Communion. By implication, we are campaigning against everything, every attitude, every theological position, every use of scripture, every sermon, teaching and episcopal attitude which allows or encourages prejudice and hatred against LGBT people.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, issued a statement following the murder. He said, in part: “No one should have to live in such fear because of the bigotry of others. This is a moment to take very serious stock and to address those attitudes of mind which endanger the lives of men and women belonging to sexual minorities.”

Changing Attitude England welcomes the Archbishop’s forthright stance. Following David’s murder, the time has come to demand that the Anglican Communion abandons the parts of the teaching enshrined in Lambeth Conference resolution 1.10 of 1998 that rejects homosexual practice as being incompatible with scripture (para. 4) and cannot advise the legitimizing or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions (para 5).

The Anglican Communion must move to adopt as policy the commitments made in paras 3 and 5 to assure homosexual people that they are loved by God and are full members of the body of Christ, and to minister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation.

The Most Revd Henry Orombi, Primate of Uganda, is one of 7 Primates who have absented themselves from the Primates’ meeting in Dublin this week because The Most Revd Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church is present and because of TEC’s policy which breaks the moratoria on ordaining gay bishops and allowing same sex blessings.

TEC has led the way towards the full inclusion of LGBT people in the Church and in the global Christian community, reflecting theologically on human sexuality and listening for over 30 years to LGBT people. TEC has committed itself to integrating us into every level of Church life. For doing this it is demonized. Conservatives, in the words of Canon Chris Sugden, bear false witness against The Episcopal Church and claim, wrongly, that Anglicans have been persecuted and driven from their homes, buildings and jobs in the USA and Canada.

In contrast, the Church of Uganda in a statement issued on 9 February 2010, whilst not fully endorsing the Bahati bill, argued that homosexual behaviour should be prohibited and penalized and the licensing of organisations which promote homosexuality should be prohibited. In conclusion it reiterated the Church of Uganda’s desire to provide love and care for all God’s people “caught up in any sin” (which is not what Lambeth 1.10 says).

A local Anglican priest, the Revd Thomas Musoke, at Friday's funeral for David Kato, grabbed the microphone in the middle of the ceremony and decried homosexuality, causing a fight to break out and leading villagers to refuse to bury the body. Reports say he screamed:

"The world has gone crazy. People are turning away from the scriptures. They should turn back, they should abandon what they are doing. You cannot start admiring a fellow man. It is ungodly.”

One woman responded:

"Who are you to judge others? We have not come to fight. You are not the judge of us. As long as he's gone to God his creator, who are we to judge Kato?"

Marking a stark contrast with the attitude of the Church of Uganda, the Kampala-based Daily Monitor carried an editorial comment which concluded:

“People like David Kato and others who might be gay are Ugandans and enjoy the same rights and protections of the law as heterosexuals. We cannot send them into exile neither, lock them away, or hang them. We need to have an honest discussion about how to ensure that their rights are upheld without violating the rights of other Ugandans. Peaceful and stable societies only emerge when we understand and try to accommodate those who are different from us, or who disagree with us – not by ostracising or killing them.”

Changing Attitude England calls on every Province of the Anglican Communion to urgently review attitudes to homosexuality.

The abusive use of Lambeth 1.10 which focuses on negative, judgmental attitudes towards LGBT people must be reversed.

Affirmation of the unconditional love of God for all people, pastoral care and support which is undiscriminating, and opposition to homophobia and all prejudice against LGBT people must become the policy of the Communion.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that this is a moment to take very serious stock and to address those attitudes of mind which endanger the lives of men and women belonging to sexual minorities.

The Primates who are meeting in Dublin have an opportunity to reflect on the effect of Christian teaching which diminishes the humanity of LGBT people and puts our lives in danger. They must initiate a review of Lambeth Resolution 1.10 in response to David’s murder, the continuing violence against LGBT people in the global community and the loss of so many faithful LGBT Anglicans who are abandoning the Church they love because of its deeply ingrained prejudice.

The Anglican Consultative Council and the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion must engage in a similar review of Anglican policy when they next meet.

The next meeting of the Lambeth Conference in 2018 will be too late. By then, more LGBT activists and individuals will have been murdered and more teenagers committed suicide, and tens of thousands of LGBT Anglicans will continue to live in secrecy and in fear for their safety and their lives.

The need for action to combat the evil of prejudice and violence against LGBT people is urgent and changes in Anglican Communion teaching and policy must be made NOW.

Colin Coward

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Time for change – in depth

The tensions in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion surrounding the space it allows lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people to occupy is reaching breaking point, I suspect. It is certainly driving many of us LGBT Anglicans who live within this insane dualism to the edge. In civil society we can contract civil partnerships (marriage in all but name) and create social lives which are largely free from anxiety about being gay, adult and equal. In the church we are a problem, a source of tension, guilt and embarrassment, a threat to unity and for some, a sinful body to be healed or an evil to be eradicated.

The practice of the Church of England encourages dishonesty, secrecy, collusion, fear, bad pastoral practice and bad theology. LGBT people either tolerate this unhealthy state of affairs, rail against it, or leave the church.

I don’t have the patience to wait while bishops revisit ‘Issues in Human Sexuality’ – it needs to be binned. I don’t have the patience to wait for the church to opt to treat the key biblical texts about same-sex activity in the same way it has treated texts about divorce, remarriage, slavery, the wearing of hats, the length of hair and the role of women in leadership, let alone the patience for the church to come to a common theological mind about homosexuality.

I want to be part of a church which no longer has an issue with my innate identity as a gay man, nor my visibility in church, nor my relationship with my life partner. I want to be part of a church which has overcome its uncertainty about the place of women and LGBT people in ministry, lay and ordained.

Tensions are reaching breaking point in the Communion, having been stretched in one direction by the Episcopal Church’s election as bishops of a partnered gay man and a partnered lesbian and in the other direction by conservative leaders and networks organising schismatic, transgressive movements.

Two weeks ago I was sent a scan of the Ugandan Rolling Stone front page naming Uganda’s 100 “top” homosexuals, including a picture of Bishop Christopher Senyonjo and a yellow banner saying “hang them”. The report has now been picked up by western media and websites. The Bishop of New York has written to the Archbishop of Canterbury and I’ve been asked whether the Archbishop is going to condemn the naming of and demand to hang Bishop Christopher (who of course is not gay) and the 99 other named homosexuals. Lambeth Palace usually tells me that private representations are being made and that these are felt to be more appropriate and effective than a public statement.

Changing Attitude may have acquiesced in this apparently reasonable justification of behind-the-scenes diplomacy for too long. The risk to the lives, security and emotional and physical well-being of LGBT people in Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, the UK, USA and elsewhere is too serious now for subtle diplomacy to be an appropriate response.

Homophobic individuals, newspapers, governments and churches need to know that the Anglican Communion condemns unequivocally all violence and prejudice against LGBT people (which is the Archbishop’s stated position). The fear of upsetting certain Anglican Primates, bishops and pressure groups inhibits a proper reaction.

In England, bodies have been busy planning their departure for the ordinariate or forming new pressure groups – the Society of St Wilfrid and St Hilda or the Society of St Augustine for the Anglican Mainstreamers – or not so mainstream following this development.

Archbishops and Popes and bishops don’t like schisms. They are symbols of unity and managing and containing threats of schism are a high priority compared with naming and condemning threats to the lives and well-being of vulnerable minority groups such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Condemning sexism and homophobia should be a priority, alongside the condemnation of racism, fascism, rapacious capitalism and fundamentalism. The position of the Anglican Communion and the Archbishop of Canterbury should be to unequivocally support the dignity and full inclusion of LGBT people in church and society.

In the Communion, every action taken against LGBT people should be condemned and challenged. The Church of Uganda has allowed Bishop Christopher Senyonjo to be vilified, impoverished and threatened with death in the Ugandan press. The church should have immediately condemned the Rolling Stone report.

In England, LGBT Anglicans must now work towards converting the House of Bishops and General Synod from their various shades of prejudice, intolerance, passive tolerance and active if circumspect welcome for LGBT people into a radical change of church teaching and practice. There should be no discrimination against LGBT people in congregational life or ordained ministry and access to all the sacraments, including the blessing of relationships and the marriage of same-sex couples.

A great deal of time, energy and attention has been given to the parish of St Peter’s Folkestone and to the four bishops who may leave the Church of England to join the ordinariate. Those thinking of leaving the Church of England issue threats and a bishop calls the church vicious, vindictive and fascist because they are negative, against things, ordained women, gay relationships, gay bishops (funny, that one), theologies of justice and peace. Their departure opens up space for people who feel differently, theologise differently and have a very different awareness of how God is active in their lives.

A mini-storm has been going on in the church where I worship following front page stories and pictures in the local paper about the civil partnership my partner and I are planning to contract. Some people have left the congregation, others have arrived, and the balance between conservatives and progressives has changed. Those arriving can’t fathom why the church is so obsessed in a negative way about women and gay people. God is about love, compassion, integration, justice and truth, isn’t s/he? they ask.

The sermon the Archbishop of Canterbury preached in India seems apposite. "Sometimes we have listened to the past," he said. "We have identified ourselves with our ancestors in faith. Sometimes we have listened to our own unconverted hearts and used the church of God for our own ends, welcoming people like us and rejecting those who make us uncomfortable. And when any of those things happens, the Church begins to fall apart. The wounds in the Body get wider and deeper, and we find ourselves giving great energy to justifying our decision not to be together. As we stop listening to one another, we stop listening to Christ. Whether this happens in the name of nationality or tradition or pride of achievement or purity of teaching, the effect is the same tragedy."

It would be easy to say the church is falling apart because it doesn’t unconditionally welcome women or lesbians or gays or bisexuals or transgender people or black people or people from different social strata – people “not like us”. Christians find it very difficult to listen to Christ and don’t find listening to each other much easier sometimes. A Reflections group meets monthly at my church to meditate together and talk about spirituality and faith. The conversation is very tentative because the members are unsure of their experience and of the language to describe their faith. We are learning together how inadequate the church has been in providing us with the resources to go deeper into ourselves and into God.

+Rowan was one of the people who provided me with the basic tools. If he were to focus on one thing which might stop splits from occurring in the Communion, it would be to teach people and churches how to go deeper, really deep into silence and stillness, heart and body and emotions, mystery and unknowing. But we live in a Christian era, internationally, when attending to ourselves and God in depth is one of the last things people want to commit their lives to.

Colin Coward

Please help us to instill mature patterns of behaviour and deeper spiritual roots in the Anglican Communion by becoming a supporter of Changing Attitude or by making a donation.

Ugandan Bishops threaten to confront the Archbishop of Canterbury about homosexuality in Entebbe next week

I’m now regretting my decision not to fly to Uganda next Monday to report from the All African Bishops Conference (AABC) meeting from August 23 to 29 in Entebbe.


A report published today by Icebreakersuganda says that the Ugandan bishops have been meeting in Mukono for the bi-annual three day provincial assembly. In the course of the meeting they reaffirmed their opposition to gay rights and gay acceptance in the Church of Uganda and vowed to confront the Archbishop of Canterbury over his stand on homosexuality and gay bishops serving in the church at the All Africa Bishops Conference next week.

Archbishop Rowan could probably do without me adding complexity to the mix, but as I’ve learnt at other meetings, there’s value in having someone present able to report from a different perspective.

The Ugandan bishops promised to let Archbishop Rowan know where they stand with him and also make it clear that they will never agree with him on the issue of homosexuals in the church.

During the Mukono meeting, Henry Orombi, the Archbishop of Uganda (pictured above with Eluid Wabukala, Archbishop of Kenya) said they would not break away from Canterbury but would not cooperate with it until after Archbishop Rowan Williams changed his stance on homosexuality in the church or retired as Archbishop.

Speaking at the opening of the three-day provincial Assembly in Mukono, Archbishop Orombi noted that the Communion has lost credibility. He proposed that the Church of Uganda engages church structures at a very minimal level until godly faith and order have been restored.

“I can assure you that we have tried as a church to participate in the processes, but they are dominated by western elites, whose main interest is advancing a vision of Anglicanism that we do not know or recognise. We are a voice crying in the wilderness,” he said. “What I can tell you is that the Anglican Church is very broken. It has been torn at its deepest level, and it is a very dysfunctional family of the provincial churches. It is very sad for me to see how far down the church has gone.”

The Monitor reports that at the same meeting, the Principal Judge of the High Court of Uganda, Justice James Ogoola, called for love and tolerance to diversity. He said when love met justice in Israel, the nation blossomed and noted that there was a need to deeply reflect on the fear of God. He said: “The church and the court must ascend to the mountain top, hold high the flag and stay at the forefront of the effort to dispense love and justice to the desperate and the disenchanted and to the oppressed and the suppressed.”

I suppose it doesn’t cross the minds of the Archbishop and Judge to remember that the same sentiments were expressed when black people were fighting for freedom from slavery in the USA, and the same Biblical roots have inspired the Christian campaign to free lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from an oppressive and prejudiced church.

The Archbishop of the Church of Kenya, Eluid Wabukala, was also present at the meeting and asked church leaders to reinvent their attitude in the interest of the church’s development. “I know it is good to always question the credibility of some developments but don’t get paralysed,” Bishop Wabukala said. “Let your leadership always know seasons of growth to accord the opportunity to church to develop.”

‘Reinventing Attitudes’ now there’s another good name for an LGBT Christian campaign group.

Colin Coward

Ugandan LGBT people disappearing as the All Africa Bishops Conference prepares to meet

Leonard Clark Beardsley’s recent blog reminded me to check gayuganda’s blog on Sunday. Gug hasn’t posted since 15 July when he reported that:

They've had a journalist infiltrate the Kampala gay community to try and ferret out what makes gay boys tick. It's not the first time this sort of thing has happened and the only thing that sets it apart is that this journalist has made a clumsy attempt to be balanced. That said, this journalist simply knows too much about the gay community for me to believe that he didn't get embedded deeper than he admits. And that is a great cause for discomfort.

The tactics the journalist are pretty basic and that he seems to be so successful merely attests to the humanity in all of us. But it is also a wake-up call for those Ugandan gay boys who seem unable to take the simplest precautions in this day and age when stalkers, blackmailers and malevolent people are on the prowl, with gay boys and girls as their target.

Gug confessed that he is more paranoid than lots of people. He has helped make connections and lessened LGBT isolation in more than one way, yet continues to be anonymous, gay, and closeted, and damned shy! Some have more to lose than others. It is very hard to live in self denial; and sometimes recklessness takes the place of despair.

Maybe I am just a coward, he concluded. And since then, nothing. No post and no response to emails. Alarm bells have been ringing furiously since the weekend.

On Saturday I went to Black Gay Pride held in the grounds of Regents College, Regents Park, London, on Saturday, helping Davis Mac-Iyalla, my partner and others on the Changing Attitude stall. Davis introduced me to a gay Ugandan who has been granted asylum in the UK, an Anglican living and worshipping in Southsea. He told me that many lesbian and gay Ugandans have been arrested in recent months. Why hasn’t this been reported, I asked him. Because the Ugandan media are afraid of being prosecuted under the terms of Bahati’s Anti-homosexuality Bill, even though it hasn’t been passed into law yet, he said.
I emailed gug again when I arrived home, plus other Ugandan contacts, but I still haven’t received a response.

Leonard also alerted me to the All Africa Bishops Conference which is being held at the Imperial Resort Beach Hotel, Entebbe, from 23rd – 29th August 2010, when 400 African Anglican bishops will be hosted by the Church of Uganda. The Archbishop of Canterbury is preaching at the opening service at 9am on Tuesday 24th.

The conference web site contains information about the conference, including the programme (though the final 2 days are missing).

On Wednesday morning there is a presentation on Nurturing Harmonious and Dignified Communities which includes Managing Diversity & Mechanisms for Conflict Management, Protection of the Vulnerable: Children and Protection of the Vulnerable: Women. The second presentation on Thursday morning is Disempowering the Powerful and Empowering the Vulnerable. Homosexuality is most definitely not on the agenda, I’m told, partly to ensure that the South African bishops feel comfortable enough to attend.

My immediate response was to explore whether it is possible to fly to Uganda next Monday, report on the conference and try and make contact with some of the LGBT groups and individuals I know in Kampala. Visas can be obtained in 24 hours, hotels and flights are available, but funding isn’t, time is short, and my safety is a concern to those close to me. If I were to go, I would certainly be the only openly gay person present and almost certainly the only person reporting from a pro-gay, pro-inclusion, pro-TEC perspective.

The Church of Uganda is determined not to give ground in the Anglican Communion, even if many in the church believe that too much attention has been given to homosexuality, but the lives and security of LGBT Ugandans, people like gug and my other Ugandan friends, remain at risk for as long as the prejudice and attitudes fuelled by the Bahati Bill remain unchallenged.

Colin Coward

Is Archbishop Henry Orombi implicated in the false report issued by Revd Erich Kasirye?

The report about the Uganda gay man found beheaded in a farm latrine which we posted on Monday turns out to contain both truth and falsehood. A severed head was indeed found in a latrine and there is a newspaper report in the Daily Monitor and a video on You Tube showing the gruesome discovery unfolding.

The search for the missing priest, the Rev Henry Kayizzi Nsubuga, was reported at VirtueOnline and also seems to be true.

I apologise for all those who have been misled because I posted the report before further investigative work had been undertaken to check its veracity and to those who have been waiting all day for a response.

Integrity USA
Integrity USA have been told by Bishop Christopher Senyonjo that he did not make the comments attributed to him in the report.

The Rev Erich Kasirye is not the General Secretary of Integrity Uganda.

I doubt if the claim that a joint search team of Integrity Uganda and Namirembe Diocese to find the severed head of another gay man is true, nor are many other details in the report. The names are not congruent with the YouTube video.

Victor Mukasa
The original report by Erich Kasirye was emailed to the SOGI list which had been receiving reports for the past week from activists and media about the disappearance and murder of LGBTI people from Integrity Uganda.

Victor Mukasa of the Research and Policy Associate for East, Central and Horn of Africa, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Cape Town, has reported on research into the truth of the claims.

He has been in touch with Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo, officials from the Uganda LGBT Security Committee and Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG). All are undertaking their investigations into the reports.

Bishop Christopher said he was not aware of any disappearances or murder of any Integrity Uganda members. He said that he had read and listened to news in Uganda about a missing priest, but not about any Integrity Uganda members.

The Bishop has informed Victor that he has not made the comments in the original report and is not aware of the murder of the young man named Pascali.

Integrity Uganda
John Clinton-Bradley of Integrity USA alerted me to the presence of the Revd Erich Kasiyre’s name in the report posted on Monday, indicating that the story might be false. Tracking information about Erich Kasiyre has taken me most of the day. Here’s what I have discovered so far.

Erich was indeed involved with Integrity Uganda, having been one of the founders in 2000 and serving frequently as its chief spokesperson.

When Michael Hopkins, then President of Integrity, visited Uganda in 2002 he met Fr Kasiyre who had been prohibited from exercising his ministry in the diocese along with Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, the retired bishop of West Buganda.

Erich came to the UK in 2003 at LGCM’s expense to participate, in theory, in LGCM’s Half Way to Lambeth Conference. I met him several times in London but he failed to arrive at the conference in Manchester and was reported to be attending medical appointments in London.

In February 2004 Integrity USA issued a statement “concerning troubling accounts of the activities of one of the members of the leadership team of Integrity Uganda, the Rev. Erich Kasirye.”

It became clear that Fr. Kasirye had been involved in a number of scams in order to raise money for himself personally using his connection with Integrity Uganda. In January 2004 he solicited funds from a number of organizations and individuals through an online LGBT Anglican Group claiming to have been imprisoned because he had been helping at the Integrity LGBT Anglican Centre in Uganda. Erich’s ‘wife’ and another person, ‘Lt. Josephine’, provided daily information regarding his arrest, soliciting funds to help him. Leonardo Ricardo was one of those people taken in by Erich and was persuaded to send $1,000.

Later reports suggest that Archbishop Henry Orombi rehabilitated Fr Erich Kasiyre, asking¨ Erich to serve and recruit and ¨save¨ Episcopal Church parishes from ¨unholy¨ practices in the U.S.A. for Bishop Samuel Ssekkadde, Diocese of Namirembe in 2005.

Diocesan Mission Coordinator
In May 2005 Fr Kasirye resurfaced in the new position of Diocesan Mission Coordinator for Bishop Samuel Ssekkadde in the Diocese of Namirembe. This was almost certainly the cover for another scam. Erich was sending an email headed: Looking for a diocese or Province that will give you cover?

"This is to inform you that my Diocese would like to adopt a parish in the States which is orthodox and lacks ecclesiastical protection.
Kindly let us know those churches which might need some pastoral and personal support. We are very much aware of the poisonous efforts of the revisionist forces which face orthodox churches in ECUSA-and we do not want them to be vulnerable. The Diocese of Namirembe recently celebrated its 150 years. Of course the question that springs to mind is why not ask why an orthodox US bishop to do this?¨ Fr. Eric Kasirye
Provincial youth and Student's Secretary
Rev. Eric Kasirye
P.O.Box 14123, Kampala

David Virtue
David Virtue was one of the recipients, reporting in 2005 that “ I got a note this week from the Rev. Erich Kasirye, Diocesan Mission Coordinator for Bishop Samuel Ssekkadde, in the Diocese of Namirembe. This was the first Diocese in East and Central Africa which now has over 5 million membership.” (Note that David is obsessed with numbers). He couldn’t have been taken in by a scam, could he?

It’s not clear to me whether Erich Kasirye has genuinely been restored to an official post in the Church of Uganda nor how he might have benefitted financially from the letter written as Diocesan Mission Coordinator nor the present letter about the murdered gay man.

Archbishop Henry Orombi
However, in David Virtue’s 25 May 2010 report of Bishop Christopher Senyonjo’s presence at the consecration of Mary Glasspool, David (who seems to be in direct communication with Archbishop Henry Orombi and was sent the letter which Orombi sent to Archbishop Rowan Williams prior to the Lambeth Conference in 2008) reports Henry Orombi's comments at length.

When asked why Bishop Christopher was promoting the Integrity organization on his speaking tour of the USA and Ireland, Orombi said it was purely for the money: "The good news is that his assistant the Rev. Eric Kasirye has left him and returned to the church. Praise God."

Archbishop Henry Orombi seems to be directly implicated with the Revd Erich Kasiyre and therefore with the false report of the beheading of a member of Integrity Uganda.

Colin Coward

Uganda missing gay man found beheaded in a farm latrine while the CofE worries about Jeffrey John

I have just finished a live discussion on Premier Radio with Chris Sugden about the possibility of Jeffrey John being recommended for Southwark by the Crown Nomination Commission meeting this afternoon.

Chris said ‘so what’ in response to me when I said that his appointment would be good in that it would bring honesty and integrity to the church and a role model not only for LGBT people but for our families, friends, colleagues and congregations. It would also be a landmark in those parts of the Communion where hostility to LGBT people is dominant.

News from Uganda which surfaced today highlights why change in church teaching and practice towards homosexuality is imperative and urgent.

A search for a missing pro-gay priest, the Rev Henry Kayizzi Nsubuga, who disappeared almost two and half weeks ago after delivering a scathing speech at St. Paul's Church, Kanyanya supporting homosexuality in Uganda, led the joint search team of Integrity Uganda and Namirembe Diocese to the severed head of another person. The head was found in a pit latrine on the farm of Badru Kiggundu, the Electoral Commission Chairman, in Makindye Sabagabo, Wakiso District.

Judith Nabakooba, a police spokesperson, identified the head as that of Pasikali Kashusbe, one of the workers on Kigggundu’s farm and a member of Integrity Uganda. Pasikali and his partner Abbey are youth workers with Integrity Uganda charged with the responsibility of mobilising young LGBT people in activities which build community capacity to face up to the challenge of homophobia, especially in the area of attitude change and care through drama and sports activities.

According to the police, a mutilated torso which was earlier in the week discovered in Kabuuma Zone, about half a kilometre away from Kiggundu’s farm was probably Pasikali’s The torso was described as belonging to a young man and had no genitals.

Pasikali went missing over three and half weeks ago when the country was celebrating Uganda Martyrs Day. All efforts by his partner Abbey and other family members to find him had been fruitless.

Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, Chairperson of Integrity Uganda lamented the murder of this young man as ‘absurd’ adding that, ‘clearly, the values of tolerance and social inclusion are sadly being sacrificed on the altar of state ignorance, ineptness and good old colonial stupidity’.

Homosexual acts are criminalized in Uganda under a sodomy law inherited from British colonial times, although punishments were substantially strengthened in 1990. Uganda government officials have regularly threatened and harassed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Ugandans. In October 2004, James Nsaba Buturo, the country’s information minister at the time, ordered police to investigate and “take appropriate action against” a gay association allegedly organized at Uganda’s Makerere University.

State-owned media have repeatedly called for stronger measures against homosexual conduct. On July 6, 2005, an article in the government-owned New Vision newspaper urged authorities to crack down on homosexuality, saying, “The police should visit the holes mentioned in the press, spy on the perverts, arrest and prosecute them”.

The climax of state inspired homophobia was in Mr. Bahati’s draft legislation called the Anti Homosexual Bill which if enacted would broaden the criminalisation of homosexuality by introducing the death penalty to people who have homosexual relations. Until then, there seems to be a new form of state fanaticism leveled against sexual minorities in Uganda -of missing LGBTI peoples who are picked by plain clothed security and found beheaded in latrines.

The Rev Erich Kasirye, General Secretary, Integrity Uganda, said:

‘Pasikali and his partner Abbey joined Integrity Uganda in June 2007 and during the last three years, Integrity Uganda has seen an increase in coordination and harmonisation of youth activities. Pasikali emphasized the promotion of the concept of care across the continuum through the formation of voluntary home care groups for young LGBTIs who continue to live in fear. He will be greatly missed by the entire LGBTI fraternity’.

Integrity Uganda has declared today, Monday 5th July as day of mourning for countless many LGBTI people who continue to go missing in the name of state homophobia and a requiem mass will be held at 2pm. Pasikali will be laid to rest at his ancestral home in Ikumba sub-county of Kabale district in Mbarara Region on Tuesday 6th July 2010 at 4pm.

Pasikali’s death is tragic, and stands as a reason why the Anglican Communion must change its teaching on homosexuality. There is no reason why the consciences of those who oppose the full inclusion of LGBT people should be allow to inhibit change in the church. The prevention of torture and murder of any individual must always be the first priority, ensuring that all citizens and Christians can live in an environment of love, security and affirmation.

The longer the argument about avoiding splits and schism in the church continues in the face of the horrendous legislation proposed in Uganda and the murder of LGBT people in the UK and the USA as well as Uganda and other African countries, the more insistent becomes the call for change in the church, NOW. We are committed to radical change in the Anglican Communion. Now is the time to become a supporter of changing attitude, working together with groups in the UK, North America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand to achieve change which is holy, just and timely.

Colin Coward