“It’s just unbelievable,” the Rev. Linda Thomas, a Baptist pastor in Maryland, told Episcopal News Service. Her grandfather, John Samuel Thomas, worked at VTS as a general laborer and janitor in the first half of the 20th century, and she and her two sisters are among the first shareholders to receive reparations payments from VTS.

The Advent had been through three years of negotiations with the Episcopal Diocese of Birmingham, which tried to get the cathedral to move in the same direction as the diocese.

That showdown came to a dramatic conclusion in May and June. For more than a decade, the Advent had allowed members to steer their giving away from the diocese and the national denomination by selecting "Advent Only" on their pledge cards.

The House of Bishops elected the Rev. Okunya to be the second Bishop of Kumi Diocese on 7th November 2019. The Constitution and Canons of the Church of Uganda stipulate the minimum age of 45 years for all candidates for Bishop. After the election, it was discovered that Reverend. Okunya's date of birth had been falsified and that he was not actually 45 years old at the time of the election. The House of Bishops, therefore, nullified the election.

The Rt. Rev. Skip Adams, a retired bishop of Central New York, began serving the two dioceses as assisting bishop on Feb. 1, and the standing committees said they will ask Adams to remain in that role for at least the coming months as the dioceses determine their next steps. An already consecrated bishop can serve as an assisting bishop to fill a specific role as determined by a diocese's ecclesiastical authority.