Episcopal Press and News
Suffragan Bishop of Damaraland Consecrated
Episcopal News Service. February 13, 1978 [78036]
LONDON, England -- An African priest was consecrated here by three white Anglican bishops whose outspoken opposition to South African racism led to their deportation from the very country which their new brother bishop has been called to serve.
The Rt. Rev. James H. Kauluma, 45, was consecrated at Westminster Abbey in late January following his Oct. 13 election as Bishop Suffragan in the Diocese of Damaraland, a diocese of the Anglican Church which encompasses the entire country of Namibia.
Following his consecration, Bishop Kauluma set out to his diocese where he was to conduct ordinations and confirmations and visit the deaneries. The diocese has been without resident episcopal oversight since the Rt. Rev. Richard Wood, also Suffragan to Damaraland, was deported in 1975.
Bishop Wood was the latest of three bishops who were thrown out of the country which -- under the name of Southwest Africa -- is administered by the apartheid regime of the Union of South Africa. Forty to 50,000 South African troops occupy this land which has been called the most exploited nation on earth. The fight against the injustice and exploitation of the racist Afrikaaner government led earlier to the deportation of, first, the Rt. Rev. Robert Mize, and later of the Rt. Rev. Colin Winter.
Bishop Winter now lives in London and is still Bishop-in-exile of Damaraland. He, with Bishops Wood and Mize, consecrated Bishop Kauluma.
The new bishop is virtually a modern-day Ambrose who had to be ordained priest before he could be elected to the episcopate. A longtime church worker, he was ordained deacon in London in 1975 by Bishop Winter and was studying for a theology degree at Union Seminary in New York when he received word that the people of the diocese wished to put his name up for bishop.
Through the intercession of Bishop Winter, the then-deacon was ordained priest by the Rt. Rev. Paul Moore, Jr., Bishop of New York, one day before his election in Namibia.
The new bishop is well aware of the turmoil in which his Church of 60,000 people exists. Open warfare rages between Namibians battling for freedom and the soldiers of the white dictatorship. Of the war, Bishop Kauluma said before going to London: "One drop of blood is enough to make one feel it should stop. But the suffering will continue as long as South Africa occupies Namibia. "
In his brief visit to his Church -- Bishop Kauluma will return to New York to complete his theological studies this June -- the new prelate was aware that he might encounter restrictions. The archdeacon of the diocese had not been permitted to visit the northern region -- where fighting is heaviest -- for a lengthy period of time last year and the borders are still occasionally sealed.
He holds bachelors and masters degrees and is married and the father of a baby born shortly after his election.