Anglican Church Of Uganda Nullifies Election Of New Bishop Over Infidelity
KAMPALA, Uganda — The House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Uganda has nullified the election of the fourth bishop of Luweero Diocese in central region and canceled his consecration that had been slated for July 16 over allegations of infidelity.
In a statement dated June 30, signed by the provincial secretary of the Anglican Church of Uganda, the Rev. Can. William Ongeng, the House of Bishops, sitting at Kabalega Resort in Hoima District, western Uganda, nullified the election and consecration of the Rev. Canon Godfrey Kasana Ssemakula.
Kasana was elected bishop on April 3 to replace the Rev. Eridard Nsubuga, the current bishop of the diocese, who will abdicate on July 9 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 65.
“The extraordinary decision was taken because credible information was received that the Bishop-elect’s integrity was misrepresented during the nomination and election process, which invalidated the election,” the statement read, adding, “We regret the immediate impact this decision will have on Luweero Diocese as well as on the Bishop-elect and his family. We continue to pray for both and assure you that the resolution of this matter is our highest priority.”
Questions for a bishop
The House of Bishops didn’t explain how Kasana’s integrity had been misrepresented during the elections and the nominations. However, ReligionUnplugged.com has learned that the cancellation of his election and consecration followed a petition — dated May 5 and filed by a section of parishioners in the diocese led by Kenneth Kikabi — to the archbishop of the Anglican Church of Uganda, Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu, asking him to conduct a forensic audit into the alleged infidelity of the bishop-elect. The petitioners noted that a person elected to the office of the bishop as guided by the canon law of the Anglican Church of Uganda should be clear of the acts that bring him at crossroads with the office of the clergy and bishop.
The Rev. Canon Godfrey Kasana Ssemakula, whose election as fourth bishop of Luweero Diocese was nullified over allegations of infidelity. (Courtesy photo)
“The Bishop elect wedded Mrs. Harriet Kasana in the early 1990s before enrolling in Luteete Bible College a few years later,” said the petition obtained by Religion Unplugged. “Whereas he was officially married, he had an affair outside wedlock in which he got a daughter, Justine Nabatanzi. To shield the shame that awaited the lay reader of Masunkwe Anglican Church of Uganda, he coerced his wife to accept and raise the child within their legal family circle. This is an indication that the Rev. Kasana was ineligible to enroll for any theological course with the intention of becoming a minister in the Anglican Church of Uganda. Therefore his eventual pursuit of a bachelor of theology was irregular and illegal according to the church values.”
The petition further accused Kasana, 52, of having a current affair with another woman in the diocese. “This is an active relationship outside his wedlock in which the duo has born two children, the youngest under the age of four,” said the petition.
Rev. Kasana Responds
Kasana has denied the allegations of infidelity brought against him. In an interview with journalists this month, he noted that the fake infidelity story against him started after he was announced bishop-elect on April 4. He wondered why before he was elected bishop, the petitioners never accused him of infidelity.
“I have served the Church of God since 1997,” he said in the interview. “I have grown through the ranks to where I am today. No one, in my time, has ever raised this against me, but they waited for me to become bishop. This malice is bad for the body of Christ. I am a small person but these people who are influenced by jealousy are damaging the image of the church. This is wrong.”
Broader church discipline
The move to nullify the election of the bishop-elect comes at the time when the Anglican Church of Uganda is grappling with a number of court cases arising from Christians opposed to the illegalities involved in the processes of electing new bishops. The petitioners accuse the House of Bishops of failing to follow the legal procedures in canon law of electing bishops.
The House of Bishops in the statement ordered fresh nominations from the Diocesan Nomination Committee within a period of one month, ending July 31. The bishops also asked the Rev. Nsubuga, who is retiring, to hand over the ecclesiastical authority to the archbishop of the Anglican Church as per the constitution and the canons of the Church of Uganda. The House of Bishops also issued the other new dates for the repeat of the elections of the bishop of Luweero.
According to the statement, the House of Bishops will receive the fresh nominations for the next bishop of Luweero Diocese and elect him on Aug. 1. The consecration and enthronement of the fourth bishop of Luweero will now take place on Aug. 6 at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Luweero. In the meantime, the church urged Christians and the church leaders in the province of the Anglican Church to remain calm and pray for the diocese and all the affected parties and heed to Psalm 46:10 — “Be still and know that I am God.”
The process of electing the fourth bishop of Luweero Diocese has been riddled with a number of challenges from the start early this year that have resulted in several cancellations of nominated candidates and now the bishop-elect.
Anglican rule of law
In March, the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church announced that it had halted the diocesan selection process of the candidates for the office of the bishop of Luweero Diocese, citing irregularities in the exercise.
The provincial secretary of the Anglican Church, the Rev. Ongeng, noted that the archbishop had found that one of the candidates, the Rev. Abel Sserwanja, had been irregularly nominated since he had not served as a priest for 10 years as stipulated in the canon law of the Anglican Church of Uganda.
Archbishop Kaziimba ordered for the fresh search of new candidates, a process through which the Rev. Canon Kasana emerged as the best candidate and was elected fourth bishop of the diocese. It’s important to note that the issue of infidelity is not new in the Ugandan church. Such cases have commonly come-up in the Anglican, Catholic and Born-Again faith churches across the country.
Other offenses
In 2021, Archbishop Kaziimba suspended his predecessor, retired Archbishop Stanley Ntagali, from performing any priestly duty in the Anglican Church over infidelity. The move followed a complaint to Kaziimba by the Rev. Christopher Tugumehabwe that retired Ntagali had committed adultery with his wife, Judith Tukamuhabwa, and sired a child with her. Archbishop Ntagali later made a public confession that he committed the sin and apologized.
Still in 2021, two prominent pastors in Uganda who had been married for 27 years separated after accusing one another of infidelity. The duo, Pastor Irene Manjeri and Vincent Katongole, were both lead pastors at Bethel Healing Center in Kampala. Their tribulations started after Manjeri wrote to the elders of their church informing them that her marriage was on the rocks because of infidelity by her husband, whom she accused of siring children outside their marriage.
Pastor Aloysius Bugingo of House of Prayer Ministries in Kampala also recently separated from his wife, Teddy Naluswa, with whom he had been married for over 27 years, and he began to cohabit with a young woman in his church, Susan Makula. Bugingo said later that the marriage vow “till death do us part” did not exist in the Bible to stop him from getting a new wife.
John Semakula is a Kampala, Uganda-based reporter for New Vision, Uganda’s leading daily newspaper, and is an alumnus of The Media Project’s coaching and leadership fellowship at the Poynter Institute in Florida.