The Kikuyu controversy was an Anglican church controversy in 1913 and 1914.

History

In June 1913,

William George Peel William George Peel (185415 April 1916) was the Anglican Bishop of Mombasa in what is now Kenya. He was accused of heresy in the Kikuyu controversy. Biography Peel was born in 1854, educated at Blackheath Proprietary School, and ordained in 1875 ...

, the Bishop of Mombasa, and

John Jamieson Willis John Jamieson Willis (8 November 1872 – 12 November 1954) was an Anglican bishop, Bishop of Uganda from 1912 to 1934 and subsequently Assistant Bishop of Leicester. He and William George Peel, Bishop of Mombasa, were accused of heresy during ...

, the Bishop of Uganda attended an

ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The wo ...

communion during an interdenominational missionary conference at the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...

's parish in Kikuyu, British East Africa, in what is now

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. Attending were Anglicans, Methodists, and Presbyterians. Controversy erupted in December after Frank Weston, the Bishop of Zanzibar, denounced Peel and Willis as heretics, and the issue was exhaustively debated in the press for weeks. Ultimately, the two bishops were not tried for heresy for the perceived schism. In April 1915, the Archbishop of Canterbury issued a statement concluding the matter."The Kikuyu Controversy: Archbishop of Canterbury's Judgment," ''The Morning Post'' (London), 26 April 1915, p. 2.

References

{{Reflist Anglican theology and doctrine History of Kenya