AGNES J. MUSOKE: Unanswered questions on the Kasirye-Church stalemate

On Tuesday, 18th July 2023, the Church of Uganda in their immediate press release; sent out an official letter disowning Rev. Canon Erich Kasirye. It also added among other things that all his titles were unknown to the Church.  Unfortunately, this lengthy letter has all the markings of a sticky political situation in the Church of Uganda, and has left more questions than it has answered.

For instance, isn’t a little too late for the distinguished Church of Uganda to disown a Priest whose vivid service to the Church spans a period of over 30 years? And isn’t it delusional for the man of God to think he could erase Kasirye’s  robust tour of service that took him to schools such as Lubiri SS, St. Lawrence Schools and Colleges and also Kings College, Budo with a mere stroke of  a pen, albeit Church of Uganda letterhead?  

In any case, if Canon Ogenga cared to sit down on his desk and perused through the files of his predecessor, the then Canon George Tibesigwa, now a retired Bishop of Ankole; he would have seen that that the man he’s struggling to disowning (Canon Kasirye), once worked in his very office as the Provincial Youth Secretary; long before, he (Ogeng) even dreamt of joining the provincial corridors. 

Canon Ogeng admits in his letter that Kasirye was ordained in the Church of Uganda. Is it good behavior to keep referring to him by mere name? Isn’t this a far cry from the ecclesiastical standards of good conduct and respect for one another he was ably taught at Seminary?  And what are the lessons to the rest of us who covet and support the ordained ministry to which he represents? Could it be evidence that the honorable Provincial Secretary is intentionally wrapped around the axle of his delusionary bid to try and withhold some crucial information from the public?

Canon Kasirye is one of the few Anglican Priests in Uganda who are well-travelled, since his formative years as a student of Theology in Richmond Virginia, USA. He later worked with the Diocese of Toronto as a curate and is now serving as Visiting Priest at a Church in Ealing Common, England.  Have Canon Ogenga taken trouble to know in which American or British Cathedrals, he could have been canonized? To say that he’s not a Canon simply because he was not canonized in the Church of Uganda flies in the face of known facts presented to us by the Anglican ecclesiology that a Canon in any Anglican cathedrals worldwide is a Canon everywhere? Isn’t this evidence of a simplistic church engaged solely in petty infights on titles and preoccupied with cravings for attention instead of  preaching the good news of  Christ crucified ? 

If Canon Ogeng had done his homework well on Integrity USA, the Homosexual   organization that infiltrated our church in the early turn of the third Christina millennium (2000) and its inner workings, he should have known that this represents a dark Pandora box no one wants to dare open. 

This is an organization which held every one in Church of Uganda captive.  It was not only Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo who was involved in this money making machine but also Bukedde reported stories of how Bishop Samuel Ssekkadde also received gift s from Integrity USA.  The most alarming gift was when he received a crozier from one homosexual, Rev. Nicholas Henderson. Bishop Evans Kissekka was also cautioned on traveling back to Texas on suspicion of meeting Integrity USA officials.

Apart from Canon Kasirye, Bukedde newspapers was awash with photographs to show how Ven. Rev. Canon John Gitta Kavuma, Archdeacon of Entebbe and Ven. Rev. Canon Mende Kijjambu of Mengo Archdeaconry also welcomed a homosexual Priest, one Rev. Henderson to attend their graduation ceremony.

Taken together, these ingredients created a tinder box poised to explode at any one time and the House of Bishops under their Archbishop Livingstone Nkoyooyo decided to close the chapter on Integrity USA and to rehabilitate her clergy. Most of them, including Rev. Kasirye were eventually deployed back into the service of the Church. The only person who was left behind was Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, who didn’t see reason to apologize to anybody.  

Now for Ogeng to take us back to the dark ages, is tantamount to a church devoid of deep reading, cultural sensitivity and pastoral support to her clergy?  Could this be an example of   poor leadership which thrives on casting themselves as victims at every turn and refuses to accept their own part in this dark period? 

One of the reasons our President, HE Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has outlived any of his predecessors is his perfect art of dealing with critics and wowing them slowly to his side. If Canon Kasirye is that bad, what is so difficult for the Church to leverage on the President’s skills on tolerance, negotiations and wowing, to bring  him back to the fold like the biblical good shepherd in the Gospel of Mathew(Mat 18:10)? And does it have to be us the laity to keep reading scriptures for the clergy on love and forgiveness?

Everybody on print and digital platforms has seen some of Canon Kasirye’s   articles which are clear and articulate on issues affecting our church. He has written on the mistakes of the Church which led to the Kasana protests in Luwero and how Church can do better next time. He has also talked about how the Sudanese dominated a clergy conference which was meant solely for Ugandan clergy and how to make corrections. He has also debated how the Church of Uganda could consider granting exemption for holding of electronic episcopal elections in Dioceses, to minimize on church conflicts during the election of new Bishops.

What is absolutely befuddling is how an institution like Church of Uganda, which can take their pick from the country’s best Anglican analysts at Uganda Christian University and Namugongo Seminary still fail to address some or all of the issues raised by Canon Kasirye; and instead keep making such predictable and easy mistakes of mudslinging and character assassination?  And what do we want for the future of our Church? Do we want a Church that no longer produces independent Anglican thinkers like Iam Ramsey, William Temple James Pike and John A.T. Robinson of the 18th Century? Yet, doesn’t the William Ogeng letter feed directly into the Former UK Prime minster, Winston Churchill’s narrative, which states that simple minds discuss people and great minds discuss issues?

Finally, the Church of Uganda know that we as Anglicans are sick and tired of watching our church leaders, tearing each other apart in in the full view of the media; instead of preaching the Gospel of Christ to which they were called.  It also hits me personally, very hard; to see a Church which prides in her 150 years of existence, lacking a simple mechanism for handling confidential clergy matters?  We as the public, should we always come in to adjudicate our church leaders?  And what are the institutions such as House of Clergy, House of Bishops, Diocesan Tribunals and Provincial Courts there for? 

And why does it have to always be the Anglican Church dominating the media for the wrong reasons? Can’t they learn from their counter parts the Roman Catholics and the Greek Orthodox Church on confidential clergy management? And can’t our Church leverage on their various partnerships and multi-religious structures like Uganda Joint Christian Council (UJCC) the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC), the Seventh-day Adventist Uganda Union (SDAUU) to develop a framework for strengthening human resource capacity especially to monitor progress on clergy conduct and morals?  

AUTHOR

Mrs. Agnes J. Musoke, CONCERNED ANGLICAN

Kitemu Kivu Senior Secondary School,

joyce-nalule@yahoo.com

0780112033