Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu Enthroned as 9th Archbishop of Uganda

5th March 2020

On Sunday March 1st, the Most Rev'd Stephen Kaziimba was enthroned as the 9th Archbishop of the Church of Uganda at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Namirembe.

More than 3,000 people attended the ceremony, including His Excellency the President, political leaders, the Nnabagereka and Katikkiro of Buganda and other cultural leaders, business leaders, and all the Bishops of the Church of Uganda.

Primates from Brazil, Congo, North America, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania and Burundi were present. Archbishop Laurent Mbanda brought his greetings from Rwanda, Archbishop Miguel Uchoa brought greetings from the Americas and Bishop Malcolm Richards spoke on behalf of Gafcon Deputy General Secretary and Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies. Gafcon Chairman Archbishop Foley Beach preached from John 20.19-31 noting that the first thing the risen Lord Jesus did was to commission his disciples by saying, “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” He thanked the Church of Uganda for standing tall for the Gospel and for coming to the Anglican Church of America's rescue, "you took us in when we were spiritual and church orphans." He thanked the Church of Uganda for their nuture, shepherding and for calling for the ACNA to be born.

Members of the Gafcon Secretariat attended including General Secretary Archbishop Ben Kwashi, Canon Daniel Willis, Canon Charles Raven and Ernie Didot.

Archbishop Stanley Ntagali, retiring Archbishop, handed over the Provincial Staff to Archbishop Kaziimba, thus symbolizing the transfer of spiritual authority from one Archbishop to another.

The enthronement service combined the singing of traditional Anglican hymns with spontaneous outbreaks of Tukutendereza, the traditional hymn of the East African Revival.

In his charge to the Church of Uganda, Archbishop Stephen affirmed his commitment to Gafcon and Scripture:

We shall continue to emphasize marriage as a lifelong, exclusive bond between one man and one woman for the procreation, as reflected in the Bible (Genesis 2:18). This has also been the historic position of the Anglican Communion since Resolution I.10 was passed overwhelmingly by the global Bishops attending the 1998 Lambeth Conference.
Lambeth Resolution I.10, therefore, rules out the possibility of the church ever supporting or blessing same-sex marriage or any parallel institution to marriage for same-sex unions. This is the trend in the Western world and some Anglican churches in those contexts are being pressured into doing this, including our mother Church of England. But for us in Uganda, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15
Within our own global Anglican world, I want our members to be assured that the 9th Archbishop of the Church of Uganda supports Gafcon and its unique calling to "proclaim Christ faithfully to the nations" and its cause of "guarding and proclaiming the unchanging truth in a changing world." I especially want to appreciate the Archbishops, Bishops, Clergy and Christians from the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Church in Brazil. They traveled great distances to encourage us and stand with us today. They are not ecumenical partners, but genuine Anglicans. There are two new Anglican provinces that Gafcon has supported as Bible-based alternatives to the liberal Anglican churches that forced out their Bible-believing founding Bishops and Clergy. Thank you for your faithfulness, and we pray for you.