Fine. Fine. Where is the statement on Uganda's proposed antu-gay leguslation? Huh? Where?

This is shameful behavior for certain. No statement from either the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church USA means we are in deep trouble. The lack of concern and the fact that neither is addressing the issue on the moral and ethical grounds is incomprehensible to me. Maybe it's time for the people in the pews to ACT UP publicly when these two prelates speak in a Cathedral. Silence is not acceptable behavior for sure.

I bet that was easy.

Thank God enough straights and homophobes are involved in the violence in the Congo, or Rowan would ignore that, too!

Cynthia, my thoughts exactly. He's not afraid to take a stand on the Congo. Why is he afraid to take a stand on Uganda?
I did get an e-mail from the PB's office confirming they have received my e-mail asking her to take a stand on Uganda. I wonder whether I'll get any other response?

Surely anyone with an eye to the current issues can see that the Congo situation is rather different from that of the LGBT criminalisation legislation threat in Uganda.

The Congo situation is one concerning not just human rights of a sector of the population (LGBTs), but the continuing programme of oppression being conducted against the majority of underclass Congolese citizens - lasting over a hundred years. The whole Christian world has been in concert in opposing the Congolese pogrom.

The Ugandan situation is somewhat different from what is going on in the Congo, and the world has only just been informed about the injustice being threatened by the Ugandan Government - aided and abetted by the Anglican Church of Uganda. This is something involving the advent of a new and growing threat of discrimination - not only to gays in Uganda, but in Nigeria ansd other African countries - but it is not a matter of large-scale and institutionalised genocide, which is the case in the Congo.

"I did get an e-mail from the PB's office confirming they have received my e-mail asking her to take a stand on Uganda. I wonder whether I'll get any other response?"

That's all I ever got, and not a peep from Lambeth.

Yes, the Congo is a horror. I'm glad they have spoken. How long will it be before they speak on Uganda? Not holding my breath on that one.

Cynthia and peterpi, I guess we received the same form reply/acknowledgment of receipt to our letters. This is what I received after writing to deplore the PB's silence on Uganda. No mention of a follow-up.

"Dear Mr. Vos,

Thank you for your recent email to Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. This is to confirm that it has been received by our office.

Once again, thank you for writing.

Sincerely,

Miguel Angel Escobar"

"Maybe it's time for the people in the pews to ACT UP publicly when these two prelates speak in a Cathedral. Silence is not acceptable behavior for sure."

Posted by: Chris Smith on Friday, 20 November 2009 at 3:07am GMT

Here! Here! As a veterana of the ACT UP struggles of the 1980's to secure government assistance against the spread of HIV and AIDS, I could not agree more. When the ABC, the Archbishop of York,
and the Primate of TEC speak in a public venue
they should face as many demonstrators as we can assemble, demanding that they take an effective stand against the homophobic pogrom in Uganda.

And when Archbishop Orombi speaks outside his country, he should face the same response.

Anyone who has read the study on the funding and sponsorship of this attack on LGBT persons by US right wing evangelicals would be more than foolish to coninue to treat this matter as a subject for polite conversation.

¨Thank you for your recent email to Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. This is to confirm that it has been received by our office.

Once again, thank you for writing.

Sincerely,

Miguel Angel Escobar"

Dear Manuel, Yours was a massive mailing, we all got one...you apparently figured that while we were ¨fasting¨ and hanging around ¨crucified places¨ there was hardly any urgency regarding the pending anti-human legistative ¨arranging¨ (for deadly persecution of Anglicans/others) in Uganda...wrong as wrong can be. Silence does equal death, shame on you.

Don´t get me started on the Archbishop of York, Uganda born, who escaped Idi Amins cutlery but ¨will not be issuing a statement¨ on other bloody plots of deception and murder in his home country.

Personally I´m wondering why the entire office/staff of TEC Church weren´t ¨let go¨ during the recent budget reviews...certainly Miguel Angel Escobars postition is unnecessary when his function can be easily replaced by a ¨bot¨ and NO LEADERSHIP WORDS from the PB (cost savings to the max).

"Dear Manuel, Yours was a massive mailing"

Massive mailing . . . and massive FAIL-ing.

It's like I can literally FEEL ++KJS's moral capital draining away...

:-(

I agree with Chris and Karen that ACT UP tactics would be those most likely to draw much needed public attention to the issue of both the evil legislation in Uganda and homophobia in the region.

I'm wondering, though, if anyone can tell me what the internal political situation is in Uganda right now concerning this legislation. Specifically, I'm wondering if ++KJS were to make strong public statements concerning it, whether those statements might actually drive the passage of the proposed law, being construed by its proponents as more interference from the decadent West that must be resisted by all means?

I don't know if it is ever right to be silent on matters of great moral import, and I suspect (as a reading of moral history) that such silence works against the good in the longer term, but if ++KJS is silent for what she believes to be the right reasons, I do believe it must be very difficult for her.

Both The Episcopal House of Deputies and The Presiding Bishop ++KJS) have spoken out strongly against the proposed legislation. The Anglican Church of Canada has, also. What puzzles me is why the Archbishop of Canterbury very quickly spoke out about the potential difficulties within the Anglican Communion regarding the recent election of a lesbian bishop in Los Angeles. He found his voice remarkably quickly but is profoundly and deafening silent on proposed legal genocide in Uganda.