Category: Rwanda
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A look inside the Anglican Church in Rwanda
In contrast to many naive Western thoughts about the state of the church in Rwanda, Adriaan Verwijs provided his account of time spent there in the Cairo Journal of Theology in 2015. His article is Growing in Christ on African Soil: Thoughts on Enhancing the Contextualization of Discipleship Training in Rwanda and I will quote…
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Inside a Heated Dispute Between Bishop Gasatura and Archbishop Mbanda
A November 2020 letter from The Rt Rev. Nathan Gasatura, Bishop of the Diocese of Butare in Rwanda to Archbishop and current GAC Chairman Laurent Mbanda and the other Rwandan bishops reveals another deep conflict apparently fostered by Mbanda. Bishop Nathan says he was “deeply bruised and wounded.” He says that Mbanda has “…shown extreme…
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GAFCON Chairman Archbishop Laurent Mbanda’s Feud: Retired Bishops Blast GAFCON Leader Over ‘Uncanonical’ Conduct
The ACNA is not the only part of GAFCON experiencing problems at the moment. There is a major schism taking place in the usually opaque Rwandan Anglican Church, and it involves Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, who is also the head of GAFCON. Mbanda had the bishop of the Shyira Diocese, Samuel Mugisha, arrested. Mugisha’s wife, joined…
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Bishop Alexis Bilindabagabo Attempts to Free Sam Mugisha
Rwanda is a dictatorship and its churches are controlled by the state, generally behind the scenes. Attempting to penetrate the politics of what goes on in the Anglican Church there is difficult to impossible to Americans, who nevertheless think they understand the story. So, when odd events like the arrest of Bishop Samuel Mugisha occur,…
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AMiA Collapse 6
According to Thad Barnum, Chuck Murphy had decided that the AMiA should leave Rwanda and had met with retired Archbishops about the future of AMiA outside of Rwanda. Now he returned to Rwanda for the September 2011 House of Bishops (HOB) meeting along with Kevin Donlon and Susan Grayson, his Chief of Staff. If the…
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AMiA Collapse 5
Bishop Barnum says that in the mid-summer of 2011, “…our Chairman met in London with AMIA’s retired and founding archbishops (It was Archbishops Kolini, Yong, and Tay). It was here, as I understand it, that the concept of a new AMIA Missionary Society took shape out of a perceived concern that AMIA was suddenly vulnerable…
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AMiA Collapse 4
Years after the events of 2011, Bishop John Rodgers summarized how the AMiA viewed the change in their oversight from Rwanda when Archbishop Kolini was replaced by Archbishop Rwaje: “They wanted literally to manage us, whereas we thought of them as giving us cover.” The June 2011 meeting of Rwanda’s House of Bishops is where…
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AMiA Collapse 2
Events were heating up in the Spring of 2011. Rwandan Bishop Alexis Bilindabagabo was pushing for financial accountability, Jon Shuler was asking to be made a Rwandan bishop. Alexis pushed harder for some transparency, and a source close to him told me that “when Apb. Kolini left office he took all the office computers, not…
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AMiA Collapse 1
A new Archbishop was in place in Rwanda and shots had been fired internally about alleged missing money from the Kolini era. As I revisit these materials in 2025 there are a jumble of pieces to put together, but the next major event in the timeline seems to be the Rwandan House of Bishops meeting…
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V. AMiA Collapse
(Picking back up my Recent Anglican History series.) As with any series of events my perspective on the collapse of AMiA is limited. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is anyone else out there who is digging into the sources, interviewing people, and creating a cohesive narrative, so my limitations are all I have. And really,…