THE next Bishop of Wolverhampton, Dr Tim Wambunya, has apologised for the part he played in a non-canonical ordination of a bishop in Germany, saying that he merely wished to support a former student.
The service, which took place in Berlin in April, was billed as the ordination, as Bishop, of the Revd Wamare Juma, who founded and leads the Revealed Evangelical Mission. The organisation’s website describes it as a “non-denominational para-church”, and it has branches in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania as well as Germany.
Last week, Dr Wambunya was announced as the next Area Bishop of Wolverhampton, in the diocese of Lichfield (News, 27 August). After serving as the Bishop of Butere, in Kenya, from 2013 to 2020, he became the Vicar of St Paul’s, Slough, and an Honorary Assistant Bishop in the diocese of Oxford.
At the service in April, Dr Wambunya laid hands on Bishop Wamare Juma, led him through the declarations and ordination prayer from the Common Worship rite of ordination and consecration of a bishop, and presented him with a “certificate of ordination” which identified Dr Wambunya as the “ordaining bishop”.
On Tuesday, Dr Wambunya said that he took part in a personal capacity. “I did not for a moment imagine I was representing the Church of England, or even any other Anglican province, and I was not there in any official capacity,” he said.
“Rather, I was there to celebrate, give thanks, and affirm the ministry of my former student in a theological college in Africa. I had trained, commissioned, mentored, and supported him in prayer for several years.”
Malush & Co TV/YoutubeThe ‘certificate of ordination’ presented to the new bishop
A video of the service was posted on YouTube. At the time of going to press it had fewer than 100 views.
At the start of the service, Dr Wambunya described himself as “currently based in the UK where I am serving as a bishop, and I have been a bishop for ten years”.
The service, he said on Tuesday, was not as he had expected, and he had expected to take part alongside other African church leaders from Europe and Africa.
“On reflection, I should not have attended in my episcopal robes or taken as prominent a role in the service as I did,” he told the Church Times. “I regret this has led to misunderstanding about my involvement, and I apologise for this.
“I am looking forward to my new role in Wolverhampton and am sad this incident has detracted from the celebrations of this ministry,” Dr Wambunya said.
The Bishop of Lichfield, Dr Michael Ipgrave, said on Tuesday: “I hope that people will recognise the background to this event, understand how it has happened, and be ready to welcome Bishop Tim in his new ministry in Wolverhampton.”
He acknowledged that some people would regard the video as “showing some features” of an Anglican service of episcopal ordination.
“I know that, having reflected further, Bishop Tim agrees that this was as unhelpful as it was unintended. Having intended to be present in a merely supporting role, he found himself taking an unduly prominent one, which he now regrets,” Dr Ipgrave said.
Dr Wambunya’s actions, he said, were “born out of love for his student, which, of course, he does not regret, and not out of a desire to make a theological statement. He and I will work together to ensure that this kind of misunderstanding is not repeated in future.”
Both Dr Ipgrave and Dr Wambunya highlighted the cultural context of the service. “What is commonplace in an African church context, i.e. the blessing and laying on of hands of a bishop, could be misunderstood in the Church of England,” Dr Wambunya said, and added that he would be “more mindful of this in future”.
At the start of the service, Dr Wambunya paid tribute to Bishop Juma: “I am very excited to be here today, because it’s a very special day for me to be able to ordain the Revd Wamare Juma because I trained with him . . . so I know that I am ordaining somebody who is ready and able to do the work we are asking him to do.”
On Tuesday, he said that his participation in the service “was not within any context as envisaged in Canon B43 on ecumenical relationship”.
A Code of Practice included in the Church of England (Ecumenical Relations) Measure 1988 paraphrases the part of Canon B43 concerning what actions a C of E bishop may perform in a church of another denomination, and reads: “A priest or bishop may not do anything which is a sign of conferring orders, unless the designated church is in communion with the Church of England.”
The Revealed Evangelical Mission is neither a designated church under the terms of Canon B43, nor is it formally in communion with the C of E.
The Bishop of Oxford, Dr Steven Croft, said on Tuesday: “Bishop Tim did let me know he was due to attend the service for a former student in Germany, but did not go into any detail.”
A spokesperson for Dr Croft confirmed that he was not taking any disciplinary action against Dr Wambunya.
Dr Wambunya distanced himself from the recent commissioning of “overseers” by the Church of England Evangelical Council (News, 19 July).
The service in April “had nothing to do with the current agitation to establish parallel structures within the Church of England”, he said. “It would be entirely false to suggest so or compare and associate me with recent events to commission alternative ‘episcopal’ elders in the Church of England.”