Update from the Companion Diocese Committee – August 2024
The Rev. Chris Barnes has stepped down from the Chair of the Companion Diocese Committee. Chris
served the Committee with commitment, enthusiasm and joy, and is much respected by the committee.
We are thankful to Chris for his almost 6 years of leadership.
Rick Morgan, and long-standing committee member, has accepted the Bishop’s appointment as chair of
the Companion Diocese Committee. We are grateful for Rick’s willingness to lead, especially at this time
where we are at cross-roads.
Through 2023 and early 2024, our relationship with our companion Diocese dissolved. In July 2023
Bishop Geoff wrote to The Most Rev. Stephen Kazimba, Archbishop of Uganda, echoing the concerns of
the Archbishop of Canterbury, that the recently adopted national law of Uganda criminalizing and
penalizing not only 2SLGBTQIA+ people, but also their families and allies, was in contravention with the
United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, and support of such a law has deep moral implications for
the Church.
In late 2023 Archbishop Kazimba and Bishop Lubowa wrote to call Bishop Geoff to an online meeting
with the purpose of ending our joint Companion Diocese Covenant. We rejected the petition to end our
relationship, and renewed our call for the province of Uganda to reconsider its position on the national
Ugandan law. In March 2024 the Archbishop of Uganda and the Bishop of Central Buganda wrote,
severing all ties with the Diocese of Rupert’s Land.
Since the March letter our Companion Diocese Committee, under Chris Barnes leadership, and in
consultation with Bishop Geoff, has made every effort to complete our work with the Orphan’s program.
On behalf of the Diocese, Bishop Geoff offered heartfelt gratitude for the committee’s generous time
and effort in completing these very difficult tasks, and thanks to everyone in the Diocese of Rupert’s
Land who has been involved in this ministry over the years.
Through our diocese and the Diocese of Central Buganda, rich, genuine and meaningful relationships
continue among friends. The committee and Bishop Geoff encourage disciples to maintain, and make
flourish, the individual relationships that were established in Christ’s love and blessing. Continuing in
personal and corporate prayer for our link parishes, and individual sister and brother relationships is just
as important, if not more so now in our time of the broken relationship of the covenant.
It is the hope of the Companion Diocese Committee to seek new companions within the world wide
communion.