Ugandan Anglican Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, a rare religious voice defending sexual minorities in this very religious East African country, died on Sunday July 19, 2026 at the age of 94, defenders of the homosexual community announced Monday July 20. The bishop, retired since 1998, had made himself known over the last twenty-five years by sharply opposing developments in anti-homosexuality legislation in his country.
“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Bishop Christopher Senyonjo,” wrote the Sexual Minorities Uganda (Smug) association on the social network » “He was a rare and magnificent soul who not only preached love but lived it every day,” added the Farug gay rights association on the same network, hailing his “unwavering support” for the homosexual community.
It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bishop Christopher Senyonjo.
For many years, Bishop Senyonjo stood with us, offering hope, compassion, courage, and unconditional love. He dedicated his life to serving others especially those who had been marginalized and… pic.twitter.com/jedNGSh4Sq
— #SAYNOTOHOMOPHOBIA | SMUG🏳️🌈 (@SMUG2004) July 19, 2026
I manage my choices I authorize
Defender of homosexual Christians
Uganda, a more than 80% Christian country, adopted an anti-homosexuality law in 2023 considered one of the most repressive in the world, openly supported by the local Anglican clergy. This text makes relations between people of the same sex, or their “promotion”, punishable by life imprisonment.
The Church of Uganda “welcomed” the law. Homosexuality in Uganda “is imposed on us by external, foreign actors, against our will, against our culture and against our religious beliefs”, estimated Archbishop Stephen Samuel Kaziimba Mugalu, primate of the Church, which represents nearly 30% of the country’s inhabitants.
After training in theology within the Episcopalian Church in the United States – a Church of the Anglican Communion which was one of the first to ordain homosexuals to the episcopate – Christopher Senyonjo returned to Uganda and held, from 1974 until his retirement, the seat of bishop of the Anglican diocese of Buganda, in the south of the country.
After his resignation due to age limits, he turned to marital therapy and sexuality, opening a consultancy practice in the Ugandan capital. It was in this context that he met young people who confided to him their difficulties of being homosexual and their suffering of being rejected by the Anglican Church of Uganda.
Banned from officiating by the Ugandan Church
From then on, he again approached the American Episcopalian Church, created a reception center and became a reference figure for the Ugandan homosexual community. In 2001, the Anglican Church of Uganda banned him from officiating, before excluding him five years later for having “persisted in openly distorting the teachings of the Scriptures” on “human sexuality”.
“You should not punish people for who they are sexually,” explained Christopher Senyonjo after the vote on a first version of the anti-homosexuality law in 2014. “Punishing consenting adults seems very dehumanizing to me. We can cite the Bible, the Scriptures,” but the latter “are often cited out of context.” “They say that I should condemn homosexuals”, insisted the person concerned, “I cannot because I was called to serve everyone, especially those who are marginalized”.
In 2010, the bishop’s photo was published, along with that of sexual minority rights activist David Kato, on the front page of a Ugandan tabloid claiming to denounce the “main homosexuals in the country”, under the headline “Hang them”. David Kato was assassinated a few months later, and Christopher Senyonjo gave the prayer at his funeral.
Division in Anglicanism
Conservative Anglican churches, many of which are African, have been at odds with their British and American counterparts on issues of sexual morality for two decades. In the early 2000s, the ordination of a man living in a homosexual relationship provoked the anger of several conservative Anglican churches.
On this thorny subject, divisions culminated in 2025, with the announcement by a group of Anglican Churches claiming to be “orthodox” that it was separating from the worldwide Anglican Communion to form another alliance, in which African Anglican Churches participate, including that of Uganda.
