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Louie Crew and Uganda:"You should resign from Executive Council" by Andrew Carey

Louie Crew and Uganda: "You should resign from Executive Council"

By Andrew Carey

It was obvious that when Louie Crew first addressed his ’open letter’ to Archbishop Orombi of Uganda that nothing good could come of it. In fact it prompted a a statement statement from Archbishop Orombi which confirmed that any grants mistakenly applied for were now to be rejected and monies were to be returned to ECUSA. (Note that Louie’s URL for the Orombi statement contains the phrase ‘cutoffnose’ – a measure of his grief for this situation).

Louie Crew has belatedly responded to the controversy here. It is a well-thought through response which again by implication blames the whole sorry situation – in which badly needed funds for the Ugandan Church can no longer be received from one particular source – on Archbishop Orombi with the words: “I keep imagining the orphans in Luweero, the aid for whom Archbishop Orombi has rejected.”

Although the Church of Uganda is responsible for its own actions in choosing to associate broken communion with financial assistance, this is partly because officers of ECUSA since 2003 have been not so subtly accusing the African church of grandstanding. They’re still accepting our money, they’re still accepting our missionaries, they have said to the international press when asked about broken communion.

Well, they got what they wanted as did Louie Crew. Louie Crew’s explanation for the results of his Open Letter is to be found in an anecdote. As a younger man, he visited a Pentecostal revival meeting and decided to find out whether miraculous healings were taking place by testing the faith of a shortsighted young man nearby. Handing him a note, he challenged this young man that if he believed in healing why God hadn’t healed his eyes. To paraphrase the story, the young man went to the front received prayers and stubbornly refused the use of his glasses as he went back to his seat (which he had to be guided to). Louie retains his victim status because the preacher pointed in his general direction and bellowed that Satan was in the midst for this example of testing.

Louie no doubt realises that neither this story nor his Open Letter show him in a good light. In order to have his own questions answered and to have things codified to his satisfaction, he is prepared to see others suffer. It is obvious to most of us that to pick an innocent young stranger to test the claims of miraculous healing could potentially involve that person in a great deal of hurt and disillusion. To do so is, in fact, manipulative. Manipulativeness is the word that sprang to mind when I first read his letter to Archbishop Orombi. Behind the letter also was the appearance of taunting, from someone whom the Ugandan Church have come to distrust for bringing his personal agenda into official business.

I have no doubt, that for the sake of integrity, Louie Crew should resign from the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church of the USA. He has harmed the mission of ECUSA and of the Church in Uganda and can be perceived to be potentially and partially responsible for the suffering of children (a matter which is specifically condemned by Jesus). His mistaken and misguided letter have forced ‘tidiness’ into what we all would have preferred to see remaining untidy. In my view his error is very serious.

END

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