THE next Bishop of Wolverhampton, Dr Tim Wambunya, has received a proper rebuke under the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) for his part in a non-canonical ordination in Berlin, it was revealed this week.
He accepted charges of “doing an act in contravention of the laws ecclesiastical” and “conduct unbecoming to the office and work of Clerk in Holy Orders”; and the penalties imposed: a rebuke from the Archbishop of Canterbury, and an injunction which requires him to take further training on the ecclesiology of the Church of England.
In April, Dr Wambunya travelled to Germany, where he participated in a service of ordination, as Bishop, of the Revd Wamare Juma, who founded and leads the independent Revealed Evangelical Mission (News, 6 September).
Dr Wambunya’s actions got here to light only after he was announced as the following Area Bishop of Wolverhampton, within the diocese of Lichfield (News, 27 August).
He told the Church Times that he apologised for his involvement within the service, during which he laid hands on Bishop Wamare Juma, and led him through the declarations and ordination prayers from the Common Worship rite of ordination and consecration of a bishop.
In a letter sent to clerics within the Wolverhampton ministry area last week, and published on the diocesan website on Saturday, Dr Wambunya reiterated his apology for collaborating within the service, and acknowledged that it had caused “shock and confusion”.
“Ever since I felt your warmth and enthusiasm at my appointment, I even have been eagerly looking forward to being with you. I hope that you could still find in your hearts that very same warmth towards me despite what will need to have been a level of shock and confusion for a minimum of a few of you following the media report in September about my visit to Germany,” he wrote.
“I deeply regret my lack of know-how of the polity of the Church inside which I’m now serving, which is clear from the media report and I even have publicly apologised for my actions.”
The Bishop of Lichfield, Dr Michael Ipgrave, welcomed the requirement for further training, and said that he would “play whatever part is required in that”.
“Bishop Tim has willingly and humbly accepted the Archbishop’s rebuke and injunction for his actions in Germany in April of this yr,” he wrote in an announcement; it was now “time to have fun without inhibition Bishop Tim’s arrival within the diocese”.
Dr Wambunya is because of be formally commissioned at a service on Tuesday evening, at St Matthew’s, Walsall, and shall be presented with a pastoral staff in Canterbury Cathedral on Friday.
He previously served as Bishop of Butere, in Kenya, before which he was Principal of Carlile College, Nairobi. Since 2020, he has been Vicar of St Paul’s, Slough, and an honorary assistant bishop within the diocese of Oxford.
