This is not the first time Dr. Crew has interfered in the affairs of this province and has cited his position as a member of Executive Council, as if he is somehow acting in an official capacity. In March of 2001 in letter from you to Dr. Crew (released from Uganda and widely circulated on the Internet) you informed Dr. Crew that, “it is altogether inappropriate for you, while representing the church, to change roles in order to pursue your personal concerns and then to make public comments which can only inflame anger and cause strain between the Episcopal Church, USA and other provinces of the Anglican Communion.”

Further in the same letter you advised Dr. Crew, “take seriously [his] own counsel at the conclusion of [his]report about how painfully wrong good-intentioned people can be when they meddle in the internal affair of others without respecting the complexities of where they live or the problems they face”.

It is clear his recent letters to Archbishop Orombi which he has publicly circulated that he has very obviously not heeded your advice. Dr. Crew started this recent imbroglio by challenging the integrity of the Ugandan Church in refusing to accept grants from the Episcopal Church by simply assuming that Archbishop Orombi and the Ugandan church are corrupt: he said, in his “open letter” on this subject, that he didn’t want to “underwrite anyone’s hypocrisy.” So he began with gross uncharity.

After being challenged by Archbishop Orombi in a public letter, Dr. Crew posts on his website a non-apology, in which he claims that his words were totally innocent. That is, he disclaims any responsibility for the public effects of his words and deeds: if other people suffer because of them, that’s their problem, not his. What he does and says, he acts as if it is his own private business yet he cites his membership of Executive Council.

In addition, Dr. Crew asserts that by rejecting ECUSA money, Archbishop Orombi has rejected aid for orphans. It does not seem to occur to him that Archbishop Orombi is trusting – in Christian faith – that aid will indeed be forthcoming, just from some other source. In his arrogance it does not seem to occur to Dr. Crew that anyone else but ECUSA can provide for the orphans of East Africa.

Dr. Crew’s entire response to the situation embodies an utter lack of charity towards those who disagree with him, a failure of responsibility towards the Executive Council, the Episcopal Church and indeed, the whole Body of Christ, and a radical self-centeredness that is oblivious to God’s power to work elsewhere in the world.

I urge you Bishop Griswold, if you hope to begin repairing the broken communion between the Church of Uganda and the Episcopal Church, to ask for Dr. Crew’s resignation from Executive Council for this second breech of protocol. I await your earliest response.

Faithfully in Christ,

The Rev. David D. Wilson
Rector
St Paul’s Episcopal Church
Kittanning PA 16201