New bishop visits St. James

Elia Powers

St. James Church, which broke away from the Episcopal Church of the

United States last year, welcomed its new bishop this week.

Evans Kisekka, the bishop of the Luwero Diocese in the Anglican

Province of Uganda, will help celebrate the Eucharist and lead

confirmation and reconfirmation services Sunday at the church. He led

a spiritual program at St. James last weekend and is staying with

Pastor Praveen Bunyan this week.

“We’d been hoping he would come for some time,” Bunyan said. “He

is our bishop, and it’s normal for him to visit his parishes and

offer us his support and blessing.”

In late February, Bunyan and six of his congregants took a nearly

three-week trip to Uganda, where they attended a spiritual renewal

conference and visited with the bishop.

Two members of the church were ordained as ministers, and the

group was joined by two members of All Saints Church in Long Beach.

In August, both churches dissociated themselves from the Episcopal

Diocese of Los Angeles and announced they would join the Diocese of

Luwero in the Anglican Province of Uganda. The churches broke away

because of disagreements with the Episcopal Church’s more liberal

views on homosexuality, the divinity of Jesus Christ and the

supremacy of the Bible.

Kisekka is visiting three Southern California parishes this month

and is staying with Bunyan for about a week.

Last weekend, Kisekka led a spiritual program at St. James. Many

of the congregants met him last weekend at the event, Bunyan said.

“It was good to see people talking to him in person,” he said.

“They were thrilled to have this experience. It’s an honor to be

under his spiritual covering.”

Bunyan, who called Kisekka a “close friend,” said he was hoping to

hear the bishop give an inspirational sermon at Sunday’s church

service.

Bunyan said many congregants are going to renew their faith, and

others will be joining the Anglican church from other denominations.

Only a bishop can preside over those ceremonies.

And Bunyan is leaving time for a little fun: He plans to take

Kisekka to Disneyland today.

* ELIA POWERS is the enterprise and general assignment reporter.

He may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or by e-mail at

[email protected].