UGANDAN GAY ALLY BISHOP COULD BE JAILED

A retired Ugandan bishop who provides support and prayer to LGBTI worshippers in defiance of the Church of Uganda could be jailed.

There are growing efforts to support Rev. Christopher Senyonjo, who holds weekly prayer sessions for gays and lesbians in Kampala.

He also offers counselling to this beleaguered community and has criticised his fellow clergy for proclaiming gays and lesbians as diseased people in need of healing.

Thanks to his support for LGBTI people and his refusal to condemn homosexuality, Senyonjo was banned from acting as a bishop by Uganda’s Anglican Church in 2002.

“They said I should condemn the homosexuals,” he told AP last month. “I can’t do that, because I was called to serve all people, including the marginalised. But they say I am inhibited until I recant. I am still a member of the Anglican church.”

He has since received death threats and has been denounced by Ugandan tabloids as a homosexual supporter.

There are fears that the 82-year-old clergyman could now fall foul of Uganda’s new Anti-Homosexuality Act and could be imprisoned for his empowering work.

Under the law, anyone who “aids, abets [or] counsels” a gay person could be sentenced to seven years in jail. The act further includes criminal penalties of five to seven years in prison for anyone who “promotes” homosexuality.

Watchdog.net has now launched a petition calling on Uganda’s President Museveni not to imprison the elderly reverend. Click here to add your support.

Watch an interview with Rev. Senyonjo below.

Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo from Claiming the Blessing on Vimeo.