We need answers on Kasirye-Church statement

On Tuesday, July 18, the Church of Uganda released a statement, disowning Rev Canon Erich Kasirye. It also added, among other things, that all his titles were unknown to the Church.

The Provincial Secretary of Church of Uganda, Rev Canon William Ongeng, who authored the press statement, cautioned the public against carrying out any business with Mr Kasirye. Rev Canon Ongeng said Mr Kasirye “has been masquerading as the Anglican Chaplain of KCCA [Kampala Capital City Authority], and using that self-appointed title to publish false stories about the Church’’.

He explained that Mr Kasirye was originally ordained in Busoga Diocese, however, Namirembe Diocese no longer considers him to be a priest of the Diocese, and neither is he a chaplain at Kampala Diocese.

Mr Kasirye, according to the statement, was defrocked with the 2nd Bishop of West Buganda Diocese, Christopher Ssenyonjo, known for his active support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and plus (LGBTQ+) rights.

Mr Ssenyonjo was defrocked in 2008 for presiding at a consecration as “Bishop” of a rebel priest into no-existent denomination and Mr Kasirye got funding from the former’s organisation, ‘’presumably because he believed in the LGBTQ cause”.

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 it a little too late for the distinguished Church of Uganda to disown a priest whose vivid service to the Church spans a period of more than 30 years? And isn’t it delusional for the men of God to think  they can erase Mr 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.

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

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.

Has Rev Ongeng taken trouble to know in which American or British Cathedrals he could have been canonised? To say that he’s not a Canon simply because he was not canonised 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 Church engaged solely in petty infights on titles and preoccupied with cravings for attention instead of preaching the good news of Christ crucified ?

If Rev Ongeng had done his homework well on Integrity USA, the homosexual organisation 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 pandora box no one wants to dare open.

This is an organisation that held every one in the 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 a certain bishop also received gifts from Integrity USA.

Apart from Canon Kasirye, some local newspapers published photographs of priests from Entebbe and Mengo archdeaconries who welcomed a homosexual priest at their graduation ceremony.

Taken together, these ingredients created a tinder box poised to explode at any one time and the House of Bishops under 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 a reason to apologise to anybody.

Now for Rev Ongeng 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.

If Canon Kasirye is that bad, what is so difficult for the Church to leverage on the President’s skills on tolerance, negotiations, and wooing, to bring him back to the fold like the biblical good shepherd in the Gospel of Matthew (Mat 18:10)? 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 Luweero and how the Church can do better next time.

    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.  Should we as the public always come in to call out our church leaders?  And what are the institutions such as the House of Clergy, House of Bishops, Diocesan Tribunals, and Provincial Courts 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 counterparts on confidential clergy management?   

Ms Agnes J. Musoke is a concerned Anglican.

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