St. Luke I6.l6f : “The law and the prophets were till John; since the the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and every one enters it violently. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one dot of the law to become void!” (Exclamation supplied by writer, believing Jesus intended it).Reference to Friday, August 20, Daily Monitor, p4 declared that: “Anglican Church is broken, says Orombi,” attributed to the top most human leader of the Anglican Church of Uganda.
The report further said the statement had been made by the Archbishop, Henry Orombi at the Provincial Assembly, which as an eligible Church Minister I planned to attend as a non-voting observer, having been told by one usually in the know it would be next month.
Reading the story on Saturday, August 2I, I quickly telephoned a contact who non-plussed me when she said the three-day meeting was already over, but I asked my message to be conveyed to the Archbishop that, “The risen Lord Jesus binds the broken.”
In fact, the Anglican Church must be broken every day for it originated in the continuing Church Reformation rekindled in the I6th Century. While Martin Luther thereby left the Roman Catholic Church and founded Lutheranism, his contemporary, my middle namesake Erasmus, who equally saw the need for reform, nevertheless rightly decided to remain in the parent Church, working for internal reform.
For God and Jesus want us to be one, calling God our Father. St. John 20.17. Also every reform in the Roman Catholic Church since the 16th Century proves the probity and patience of Erasmus, and that significantly includes Vatican I and II, and the long overdue Vatican III.
So it did not take me long to recover from the bang headline and I reassured the contact with an immediate message that though I did not attend the Assembly, I thank God who prodded the Archbishop to go public about the matter.
For in my 28-page letter I delivered to his Grace’s office on April 4, 2009, following what I saw at Namirembe Cathedral, and heard previously in March when Bishop Ssekadde relinquished diocesan powers, I was compelled to urge that if long overdue Church reforms were not in place then they should be commenced in the 2010 Provincial Assembly, which gratefully has been broadcast by the Archbishop.
Again validating Erasmus of old, plus, how elated I was, while waiting in the Monitor Publication’s lounge, early last month, July, to read in the American Time Magazine of June 6, p.23, that a Roman Catholic priest, six years before the Church reforms I communicated were mediated by the Spirit directly to me in my Kampala home, prophesied them!
Predictably, though, he toned them down, thus in 1969 in Germany:
“As a small community she will demand much more from the initiative of each of her members and she will certainly also acknowledge new forms of ministry and will raise up to the priesthood proven Christians who have other jobs...It will make her poor and a church of the little people... All this will require time. The process will be slow and painful.”
The theologian was Joseph Ratzinger. And his vision from 40 years ago may now unfold in ways he could never have imagined.” That is present day Pope Benedict XVI.
Midst changes and urges to conserve, the greatest changer of beliefs about God the world has encountered, Jesus, in unmistakeable biblical report, St. John 5.24, reassures us thus:
“Trully, trully, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life: he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
All Biblical R.S.V. quotes.
The writer is a Reverend in the Church of Uganda and specifically in the Tent Makers ministry.