Max and Susan Guinn with Bishop Christopher in San Diego.

"St Paul is my mentor" and the bishop has tried to implement the inclusive values of Paul's teaching into one of the most controversial issues facing Uganda -the place of gay and lesbian citizens within society and the church. As a current "identity-based conflict" where religion, culture and politics has created a vortex of emotional and dangerous behaviors from many sections of the local and global community, the Foundation is now seeking ways to implement some reconcilation strategies:

a. Within Uganda where the current climate of fear, misinformation and threat has caused dramatic polarization where there needs to be some reconcilation initiatives.
b. Seeking some academic-based research where both sides of the issue can learn from and understand the present "standoff".
c. Providing emergency assistance to victims of discrimination in education, health and employment services.
d. Through community education to create models of dialogue to prevent the breakdown of traditional Ugandan family and religious structures, enabling LGBT people and their families, counselors, clergy and allies to function in a hostile-feee environment, without recrimination or imprisonment.

Bishop Christopher is currently engaged in:

Reconciliation work within the Anglican Communion in assisting differing traditions and interpretations of scripture to develop dialogue and partnerships

Reconciliation between the LGBT community in Uganda and Africa and governments, civil society and religious leadership

Women’s self help and advocacy programs

HIV education and prevention to the most marginalized and vulnerable

Reconciliation between the LGBT community in Uganda and Africa and governments, civil society and religious leadership

Women’s self help and advocacy programs

HIV education and prevention to the most marginalized and underserved populations in Uganda

Model literacy and micro loan programs extended to marginalized and underserved populations in Uganda and elsewhere to create bridges of opportunity between divided sections of society.

The decriminalization of homosexuality through the United Nations and development of dialogue between all religious traditions on their attitudes and position on this issue.

 Monday April 18th 2011

Update on the Ugandan Projects

Legal and Security Issues in Uganda

Although attempts to introduce the “kill the gays” Bahati Bill to the Ugandan parliament failed this month, mainly as result of the work of the Civil Society Coalition in Kampala and international pressure, there is still concern several clauses of the bill may be added to existing legislation. These concerns and the tense climate surrounding the Kato murder trial may (authorities are still claiming it was a robbery gone awry and not related to his LGBT activism) also illustrate the need for greater security resources for LGBT Ugandans who need “safe houses” to protect themselves. Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) and the Bishop’s St. Paul’s Centre need help with legal and security resources. “We have five young attorneys who are willing to come and work on the legal and human rights issues facing LGBT Ugandans. For only $5,000 each, we can hire them to begin to document the individual cases of persecution and police harassment that is a regular occurrence in Uganda. Uganda continues to be one of the most difficult places on earth for LGBT to live and work,” said Frank Mughisa of SMUG. We hope Frank will be back in the USA in June and July to give us an update on the situation. Donations to the legal and security project may be made through St. Paul’s Foundation.

"St Paul is my mentor!"

What it means to be a reconciler in Uganda


On May 14, 2001 I spelt out my vision and calling as a minister of reconciliation.

 I believe and am still convinced that as mortal beings we should be reconciled to one another as we await what lies beyond the grave. We should learn to live with people who are different from us as we are also different from them.
                                                     
My vision and calling were sparked off by the attacks against me because I accepted to counsel and recognize the existence of homosexuals along the heterosexuals. I made it clear that we should express love to even those different from us.

The nuclear weapons and the like will never conquer enemies. Love is the only unfailing weapon.

Love is the proper destiny of the human race. Arrogance is a likely path to destruction and extinction of human kind. So let us love.. if we love life.

Bishop Christopher Senyonjo with Foundation President Canon Albert Ogle

THE BEGINNING OF MY COUNSELLING

I retired as the diocesan Bishop of West Buganda after serving for 24 years. During my ministry as Bishop I realized more the need of counseling. The area where my interest lay was and is Human Sexuality and Marriage. My studies at Hartford seminary in Connecticut made me more educated and interested in Human Sexuality and Marriage. I particularly appreciate Alfred Kinsley’s 7-point sexual orientation scale that he published in 1948. He discovered that although most people are exclusively heterosexual (O) or homosexual (6) in their orientation and behavior, many fall somewhere in between (1-5).

The Kinsley publication helped me to start understanding the complexity of human sexuality.  SCEEM counseling and consultation services. During my counseling experience I have met with the singles, the job seekers and employers, the students, clergy, the politicians, the married and the divorced, the heterosexuals and homosexuals and the sexually disoriented people.

I started to be involved with the homosexual ministry at the beginning of January 2001.  

I started counseling five of them, one by one. I discovered that they were frightened and unhappy. They felt rejected and wondered whether God loved them as they were being called sinners by their teachers and peers. They looked a miserable batch of youngsters.

But after empathetically listening to them I realized that they were genuinely homosexuals. I suggested to them that they should accept themselves and keep their faith in God for he loved them.

Many people denied any existence of homosexuals in Uganda. But the facts have shown that since the inception of Integrity Uganda numerous groups have come out as a manifestation of homosexuality. (So today what is going on in Uganda is not denial of the existence of the homosexuals but how to destroy them - hence the Anti gay Bill that is still to be brought forward for debate in parliament).

I realized from the outset that I was in for very tough times. So I am very grateful for a number of my friends among you and others who are not here who have tried to sustain me in spite of the catastrophic recession that has hit the world.

One might wonder what has helped me to stay the big storms of life that I have been experiencing. It is because I am convinced that the Gospel of Christ does not discriminate against any body. I can say that I believed God wants to make it clear during my life time that the homosexuals are equally God’s people like the heterosexuals. This truth has made me free as we read in John 8:32.

It is of course not easy to live with rejection by the old friends. It sometimes almost drives me crazy. It is not easy to live barred from practicing the day-to-day Sacramental duties for which one was ordained. It is not easy to see that you are by-passed and not recognized by your contemporaries. But I have found out that the Grace of God is sufficient for me.

It is absurd when the bill stipulates changing the parents, employers, priests and counselors if they would fail to report the homosexuals whom they are aware of. It is a bill that would encourage blackmail and spying among the people of Uganda. It would turn Uganda into a police state curtailing the freedom of speech and association. I hope and pray that this draconian bill will not be passed.

I am convinced that what is needed is education about human sexuality. There is a great deal of ignorance surrounding sexuality. I would implore the churches to introduce a Required Course on Human Sexuality in all its Seminaries.

In its content it should carefully examine the different cultures, religions and scientific findings in light of “God” who is still creating as we read in (John 5:17), and the God who is still revealing the truth as it unfolds during the evolving epochs of his creation as we read in (John 16:12,13).

It may not be easy to say something that appears to be central to tradition and prevailing views of many people. But St Paul welcomed the Gentiles even if they were not circumcised (a religious tradtion which was central to the Law of Moses). Paul wanted to fulfill the law of love. All believers were welcomed to become the people or children of God. In the same way the homosexual believers are included in the church like the heterosexuals.

So I regard St. Paul as my mentor.  I am convinced that Jesus commands all believers in God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that they should love one another as he loves us without discrimination.

In conclusion I am grateful to the former Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Cape Town for the encouragement he rendered me at the beginning to stick to my calling. 

 


December 2010
Article from the Episcopal New Yorker

 “No Room” At The Anglican Inn?
Bishop Christopher Senyonjo

A Christmas reflection on the proposed Anglican Covenant.

As the Anglican Communion reflects on the future of its international relationships, Bishop Christopher Senyonjo urges the Anglican Church to speak out on human rights abuses.

For 24 years, I served the Anglican Church of Uganda as the bishop of West Buganda.We built the great cathedral of St. Paul as the spiritual heart of a diocese of one million souls. When I retired, I decided to serve as counselor to anyone who needed me, without discrimination. My new community came from the most marginalized sections of our society, the lesbian, gay. Bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

I made it clear to my church that LGBT people should be respected and listened to without intimidation or condemnation. After a decade of work, my mother Anglican Church of Uganda still has no place for LGBT people or myself.

From being a bishop of a great diocese with its marvelous cathedral for a million souls, I now pray and break bread with the most despised and rejected ones. In my retirement years, I am rediscovering the Christmas message that God continues to come among us to reveal his love for all human beings. Jesus Christ is Love incarnate.

The Church of Uganda has stripped me of my pension and rights to exercise my ministry as a bishop, but I have found comfort in remaining a faithful member of my home parish of St. Andrew’s, Bukato.I am there because I believe the seed of inclusiveness in the church will grow from within and not from without. I have not given up on the church that has rejected me in the same way many LGBT people have not given up on the good news of Jesus Christ and his inclusive love. It is difficult for them to come to our parishes where the messages against homosexuality still ring out from our pulpits. So where are they to go?

I remember one young man named Thomas. We were looking for a place to accommodate the programs of St. Paul’s Reconciliation and Equality Center in Kampala and he saw a big garage and suggested that it should be well used for our prayer services that he had been deprived of by his mother church.

Thomas said, “The church has made hell of our lives. We need to find a sanctuary to worship God from.”

I was very moved by what I heard from him and took in what he said. He was a Christmas angel to me. I still have a ministry. It is good news to me. It was a Christmas message of joy! Because of Thomas and others, that garage will soon become a sanctuary. We can certainly start using it this Christmas. My church has forced us out of the churches and cathedrals but we will worship God in a garage. From this humble place, many who are in hiding for fear of their lives will pray for strength and an end to their persecution by the state and the church.

This year, we ask all faithful Christians who receive the new born king in churches and cathedrals this Christmas to remember us as we remember you. This is what it means to be the Anglican Communion. We are together.

Sadly, many who have to worship in garages do so because they are LGBT or they are battered women trying to find a way to save their own lives and spirits. Some will worship there because they are just poor. All of them are unwanted by the bishops and today’s potentates.

All faithful Christians will read the same story of our beginnings as Christians. The story in Luke’s gospel is of a family that had nowhere to go but the stable because they were unwanted.There was no room for them to stay in the inn. In our case, there is no room in the beautiful churches or soaring cathedrals, only the garage is open.

Behind the scenes of Jesus’ birth were kings who were frightened by this child and plotted to kill him. Today, in Uganda, tabloids incite hatred and mob actions against LGBT people by publishing names and photos of me, a straight man, and LGBT people with “Hang the Homos” as a headline. Months later, I still am waiting to hear my Anglican Church speak on the side of the poor, the captives, and the oppressed. But they have been very busy with drafting the “Anglican Covenant.”

The proposed Anglican Covenant emerged from the threats of schism following the ordination of Bishop Gene Robinson, an openly gay man. Although it is cast as the last hope for unity, it was written specifically to humiliate and disempower LGBT people and their supporters by creating a lower level of participation for those bodies. Even though my brothers and sisters in the USA have never been part of the British Commonwealth (and even Ireland left it many years ago to escape imperial authority) they are now excluded from the inner circle of a sadly misnamed “Anglican Covenant.” This document establishes a new elite power structure and reads more like a model for British Commonwealth rule than a religious covenant.

Tragically, church officials from Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, Australia and Anglican North America announced that the statement did not go far enough to exclude and condemn any support for LGBT people.

All of the African countries listed above imprison LGBT people because of who they are. As a bishop in the midst of those countries, I am now a shepherd caring for the lost sheep who are persecuted by the church and prosecuted by the state. I preach the new covenant of Jesus Christ sealed in love as we read in John 15:12. This is the heart of the Gospel--the Good News. This sacrifice of love is mocked when sister churches tolerate or promote the violation of basic human rights. Life and liberty are at risk and we must hold each other accountable. A loving Anglican Communion should not keep quiet when a paper openly supports the “hanging of the homos,” including a fellow bishop! Is there no archbishop for the outcast and persecuted minorities in my congregation? Silence has the power to kill.

The churches failed to protect minority communities in Europe during World War II when people were sent to the gas chambers and concentration camps. Many religious people in Europe emerged from that experience to help create the Declaration of Human Rights.We now have sixty years of building an internationally recognized framework for the protection of human rights in every country. If Anglicans in one country dehumanize, persecute and imprison minorities we must be true to the Gospel and challenge such assaults on basic human rights.

African Anglicans have a rich and powerful history of speaking out on human rights in the most difficult of situations. Bishop Colenso worked with Zulus to establish an indigenous church while being fought by his fellow English bishops. Bishops Trevor Huddleston, John Taylor and Desmond Tutu resisted Apartheid. We must not demean our great tradition by oppressing LGBT minorities under the guise of an “Anglican Covenant.” The proposed Covenant speaks more from a Lambeth palace than from a Bethlehem stable. If we are to heal our bloody imperial past as Anglican Christians, we must not default to a 19th Century model of superiority. If we are to proclaim the blood of Jesus Christ is shed for all and be in solidarity with the marginalized, we need a Gospel framework.

If exclusionary forces prevail, the Episcopal Church and others may find themselves abandoned.But just as my ministry is continuing without the support of my beloved Church of Uganda, the ministry of the Episcopal Church and other churches may also be in exile. Nevertheless, exile can lead us to a new journey towards wholeness and holiness. I have found a new calling in my 78th year on this beautiful earth and remain a faithful Anglican, even if the larger church rejects me and my people. We rejoice from the garages and stables for we are in good company with the one who came 2,000 years ago

 Bishop Christopher testifies before the United Nations on decriminalization of homosexuality and decreasing HIV infection globally.

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