By Pauline Luba
If you meet Esther Irene Nantambi on the Uganda Christian University (UCU) main campus, she will most likely be in “kitten” (thin) heels or sneakers. Her unspoken love for creativity reveals itself as she leisurely strolls through stalls during exhibitions by the School of Journalism, Media and Communication or art and design. Her face displays a hint of makeup.  Her demeanor is friendly. 

In the sea of students at UCU, Nantambi would likely be pegged for a career in journalism. She was. She doesn’t appear to be a student of theology or divinity. But she is. The girl who questioned her brother when he expressed interest in the vocation is pursuing it herself.  

Nantambi, a holder of a degree in journalism and communication from Makerere University and a once practicing journalist, is back in school. She is in year one, pursuing a Master of Divinity at UCU. When she completes this course, she will become a reverend. The course equips men and women to preach, evangelize, teach and care for God’s people in knowledge and love of God.

The life of the 28-year-old seems contradictory with a disconnect between her desires and actions.

“Before theology school, I was living like a typical youth in Kampala; attending live band nights. I would also go for at least one trip a year with my friends,” Nantambi says. “In the same breath, I was spending at least 4-6 hours in fellowship with God daily.”

In addition to salsa dancing, her nights involved an hour reading the Bible, an hour praying and interceding and an hour listening to a Bible lesson every day.

“I would drive to and from work in prayer and have private quiet moments at work, too,” she said.

Additionally, every Monday and Wednesday from 7 to 8 a.m., Nantambi and a group of friends would visit the Mulago Hospital children’s cancer ward to pray with patients and give support. 

Nantambi also is a Sunday School teacher at Kampala’s St. Andrew’s Bukoto Church of Uganda. At a younger age, Nantambi trained to teach the gospel to children, something she thanks her mother for, as she did not have much interest in it. 

“My mother was a Sunday school teacher; she was also a nurse at Mulago Hospital,” Nantambi said. “Once every month, she and her friends would pray for sick people in the hospital. It was a testimony to me that the spiritual and the medical world can work well together.”

Her mother’s death in 2021 only seemed to her like a commissioning to carry on her (mother’s) ministry further. 

When Nantambi chose to pursue a degree in journalism and communication at Makerere University, it was because of her immense love for literature and the hope that the course would improve her writing skills.    

Her breakthrough into the mainstream media came when she participated in an essay writing competition organized by the Media Challenge Initiative. She did not win, but her performance caught the eye of Carol Beyanga, a competition judge and a managing editor at the Daily Monitor, a newspaper in Uganda. 

Several months after her graduation in 2018, when Nantambi showed up for a job interview at the Daily Monitor, Beyanga and her team hired her as a lifestyle and relationships editor in charge of the newspaper’s magazine, My Wedding. It is from that job that she has now moved on to pursue a course in divinity.

But it was not easy for Nantambi to make the decision for the career change after her call, which she received through a vision in September 2022. At first, Nantambi says she felt like her active prayer life was misleading her, so she ceased all prayers.  

However, missing the intimacy that comes with dwelling in God’s presence, she had a change of heart, and also finally applied for the course at UCU. The school of theology demands that its students are university residents and on a full-time study schedule, forcing many to resign from their jobs. Nantambi thus left her job at the Daily Monitor.

At UCU, she says she has found a wealth of knowledge she did not expect. She also says that she is still in the process of adjusting with her new life.

 “My closet desperately needs an update,” she said. “My office pants or jeans, jumpsuits, any sleeveless dresses or blouses are all inappropriate wear for the course. Simple things, such as the shade of lipstick, matter. Even earrings must be low key.” 

She also has curbed her dancing that she believes God would sanction but her university teachers and students would not. 

Nantambi is the sixth of eight children of Dr. Samuel Muwanga Ntambi. She studied at Ladybird Primary School, Matugga and Mengo Senior School for O’ and A’level. Both schools are in central Uganda. Nantambi says she was raised by a strong ever-present father and a dedicated Christian mother, each having a strong impact in her life.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

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By Kefa Senoga
As a son of an Anglican priest, Barnabas Tibaijuka was expected to lead a God-fearing life. And that’s exactly what he did at home.  His was the perfect illustration of living a double life — humble, obedient, and God-fearing son at home and rebellious and party-loving boy away from home.

Narrating his life’s journey on the Church of Uganda Family Television, Tibaijuka said while in secondary school, he joined peer groups that introduced him to sins like fornication.

“I would deceive my parents by telling them about non-existent demands at school, so that I could get money to facilitate my girlfriends,” Tibaijuka said.

He noted that he mastered the skill of living the double life so well that whenever he was with his father, he would criticize people who engaged in the same things that he did while away from home, to erode parental suspicion of the kind of life he led away from home.

However, he soon realized that the life of pretense would not take him far. He gave  his life to Jesus in 1994, while in Senior Four. This began his journey to the pulpit.

The former student of Uganda Christian University (UCU) was on August 27 consecrated and installed as the first bishop of West Ruwenzori Anglican Diocese in western Uganda.

He did not travel his journey to the seat of the bishop without hurdles. First, after his Senior Four examinations, Tibaijuka applied to train as a lay reader in church, but his application was not successful. He was not given reasons for the rejection. He thus abandoned the journey to priesthood altogether, opting for a vocation in teaching. A lay reader is a layperson licensed to preach and conduct some religious services, but not to celebrate the Eucharist.

In 1998, he graduated with a certificate as a primary school teacher. Four years later, he had risen through the ranks, becoming a caretaker headteacher at Kuka Primary School in western Uganda. He then pursued a diploma in education at the National Teachers College in Mubende, central Uganda, which he acquired in 2005. However, he still felt he had not yet quenched his thirst for knowledge.

By 2008, Tibaijuka was back at school, this time at UCU, to pursue a Bachelor of Divinity course. He was eventually ordained a priest in 2011. However, he did not abandon his teaching job. He continued with teaching alongside ministry work. By 2014, Tibaijuka was back at school, this time to Mountains of the Moon University in western Uganda, to pursue Masters of Education Leadership and Policy Studies. 

At this point, he had to choose one of the two paths — ministry or teaching. 

“As a priest and teacher, I realized I wouldn’t be effective on either side, so I opted to leave teaching and concentrate on the church ministry,”  he said.

After nine years of full-time church ministry, Tibaijuka was on April 3 this year elected as the founding bishop of West Ruwenzori Diocese. At the time of his election, he was serving as parish priest at Buganikere Church. 

As the bishop, Tibaijuka plans to expand the administrative units in the diocese by creating new archdeaconries, parishes and building the capacity of the clergy.

“I am also thinking of protecting our environment due to the fact that Bundibugyo is prone to landslides, which are largely influenced by environmental degradation.”

Tibaijuka was born on May 8, 1975, in Bundinjongya, Bundibugyo district in western Uganda. His father, the Rev. Timoseo Wediime, was at that time serving in a remote parish in Rwebisengo. Tibaijuka is the ninth child and lastborn in their family.

Tibaijuka completed his primary education at Bubandi Primary School before enrolling for secondary school at Semuliki High School in Bundibugyo. He is married to Alice Tibaijuka since 2005 and the couple has seven children – Gloria, Agnes, Jolly, Mary, Timothy, Edith and Barnabas.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

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By Pauline Luba
Martin Oluge’s father, Ignatius Okello, raised many of his children in a hospital setting because that is where he worked as a police officer. It is during that time that Oluge became fond of the medical profession; he could not think of any other career. However, things changed. Oluge is now eyeing a career as a priest of the Anglican Church in Uganda.

As he grew up, he was attracted by the way the doctors carried themselves at the hospital and how they conducted their work. 

But there was a hurdle for Oluge to jump. Okello and his wife, Juliet, had 16 children, including Oluge, to look after. 

By studying Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics in A’level at St. Joseph’s Senior Secondary School Naggalama in central Uganda, Oluge was more than sure that he was getting closer to his dream career. However, there was a hiccup. He did not get the required grades to get government sponsorship at Uganda’s public universities. He thus opted for a Bachelor’s Degree in Medicine and Surgery at Kampala International University (KIU), a privately owned institution.

“I enjoyed my time at KIU,” Oluge said. “It was great and the experience humbled me. I believe this is what pushed me to excel after my internship.” 

Oluge said while in A’level, he had become too confident, and thinks it could have been one of the reasons he failed to meet the cut for a government sponsorship in medicine.

In 2019, Oluge did his mandatory one-year internship at Mengo Hospital, before securing employment at Ngora Freda Carr Hospital in eastern Uganda. For any newly qualified doctor to practice medicine in Uganda, they are required to undergo a year-long paid internship at a government health facility in the country. 

Ngora Freda Carr Hospital, where Oluge was employed, is a rural private not-for-profit facility affiliated with the Anglican Church in Uganda. After three years of employment at the facility, Oluge says he got a “calling from God.” He says he heard this call in his head over and over until he consulted the reverends in his church. He was advised to fulfill the call and study theology. This was in 2021.

However, there was another hurdle. Coming from a staunch Catholic family, Oluge knew that he would not get the full support to pursue a vocation as a priest in the Anglican Church. And he was right. When he broke the news to his extended family, it was a double disappointment for them – one, he was leaving the medicine job, and, two, he was joining another faith different from what his family raised him in.

“It was not easy,” he said. “I had to tell my parents I was leaving the Catholic faith, as well as medicine. Yet, they had paid my tuition for the course.” 

Oluge says it took two months of battle and prayer before he could apply for a Masters in Divinity at Uganda Christian University. Eventually he did, and is now a student.

The father of three – 6, 3 and 2 years – and husband of Rael Cheptoek had to resign from his job in order to study full time at UCU, where he enrolled in May 2023. For his master’s course, Oluge got a sponsorship from the Lango diocese’s Anglican Aid. The sponsorship covers his tuition, accommodation and basic needs for his family. He also works at UCU’s University Hospital, the Allan Galpin Health Centre. 

Oluge now eyes becoming a pastor. To those pondering a career change in life, Oluge’s advice hinges on what Jesus says in John 10:27-28: “My sheep, hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” 

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

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By Pauline Luba
Uganda Christian University (UCU) Prof. Peter Nyende’s first love was football. In the 1980s, as a young boy at Kenya’s Jamhuri High School in Nairobi, he was part of the national team that represented the country in the under-14 football competition in South Korea. Nyende’s interest in the game made him harbor intentions of playing it at a professional level. However, his father thought he should pursue a “more serious career.” 

By the time, as the teenager started his A’levels at Jamhuri, his interest had shifted to economics. However, he says as time went on, he had a deep sense of God’s calling to serve him fully in the church. By 19 years, Nyende was fully committed to serving God in the ministry. While growing up, Nyende was an active member of the church and in the Christian Union in school.

“I felt a deep sense of God’s call in my life,” Nyende related during a Uganda Partners’ interview in his UCU-Mukono campus residence.  “That made me abandon the other ambitions I once had.”.

However, when he applied to join a theological school, he was told that he was “too young and too bright” to immediately venture into priesthood. He was advised to first study something else that he was interested in before joining a theological college. 

Again, Nyende’s father did not approve of his son’s choice of a career in the church over work as an economist. Later, Nyende’s father warmed up to his choice, noting that it must have been God’s plan. Nyende went to Daystar University, also in Kenya, for his undergraduate degree, with a major in Bible studies. He then undertook training at an Anglican college in Nairobi, and was ordained in 1998. Thereafter, Nyende obtained a Master of Pastoral Studies from Ridley Hall in Cambridge and a Masters in Theology in the New Testament from Edinburgh University. 

Currently, the 53-year-old is an Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at the Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology of UCU. He also is a canon in the Anglican Church and a commissioned evangelist with the Church Army Society of Africa. Nyende has interests in biblical theology and the interpretation of the Bible in African contexts. 

He says the “word of God must make sense in the context of the hearers.” Nyende has to date published 12 research articles and 2 book chapters. This year, he has hit another milestone, with his latest publication, a 288-page book, The Restoration of God’s Dwelling and Kingdom. 

In the book, published by the UK-based Langham Publishing, Nyende presents the central story of both Old and New Testaments as the restoration of God’s dwelling and kingdom in the world. “He traces this narrative through its many stages of development — creation and fall, God’s covenants with Israel, exile — to its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus, the church and the new Jerusalem,” says a short profile of the book on the Langham Publishing website. 

Though mainly written for theological students and teachers, the book can be read by anyone who wishes to deepen understanding of the Bible. Nyende says he began writing the book in 2019 and had completed it by December 2022. He was lucky to land a deal with Langham Publishing to have it published in 2023.

For a man who studied, lived and worked in Kenya, how did he end up as an academic at UCU? In 2014, he says he was approached by the Dean of UCU’s Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology to join the university community. Through the Archbishop of the Anglican Church in Uganda, the Archbishop of Kenya was informed of the need for Nyende at UCU. Nyende says when he was informed of the request, he accepted, and applied to join the UCU family, which he did in 2015. He says he has been able to witness how the Church supports activities of the Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology, enabling the preparation of well-trained pastors.

As an expert in the interpretation of the Bible, when Uganda Partners asked him how the challenge of the misinterpretation of the Holy Book can be dealt with, Nyende said to properly interpret the Bible, there is need to understand the context in which a section was written, why it was written and what prompted the writing.  There is also the need to understand the whole Bible as one book. 

“The Bible is one book. One cannot read one book (or a chapter in the book) in isolation of the books before and after, if one is to understand the Bible properly. Although it is made up of 66 books, they are interlinked,” Nyende explained. 

Born in Butere town of western Kenya on June 15, 1969, in a family of 10 – seven boys and three girls – Nyende’s academic journey got rocky when his father retired just before he began his university education. However, he says by that time, he was old enough to know that the responsibility of completing school lay with him. He says he made money teaching English privately to students and also raised some funds from friends and the church. 

Nyende has been married to Josephine Njoki Marete for 17 years, and they have two children – 13-year-old Brodie, a student at Vienna College, and six-year-old Arabel, a pupil at Seeta Junior Primary School. Nyende says he visits his home country at least three times a year and usually enjoys Christmas holidays with members of his extended family there.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

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By Kefa Senoga
The Rt. Rev. Onesimus Asiimwe, the newly consecrated Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of North Kigezi, grew up in a home where it was mandatory to pray. In fact, he used to even take readings in church. However, at some point in his life, Asiimwe took to drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes so much so that many people lost hope in him.

However, one day, after a night of heavy drinking, Asiimwe said he heard the voice of the Lord say to him: “Onesimus, do you not know that your body is the Temple of God?”

In response, according to a statement from the Church of Uganda, Asiimwe “threw away the cigarette that was dangling between his fingers and called on Jesus for salvation.” The day was January 8, 1988.

Since that day, Asiimwe, an alum of Uganda Christian University (UCU), says he developed a passion for preaching to youth, especially those facing social challenges such as alcoholism. By the late 1990s, Asiimwe was a household name among Anglicans as miracles would be reported during his crusades. 

In 1997, for example, he says he prayed for a couple that had been seeking to conceive for close to six years. The woman later conceived, and they had a child. In 1999, Asiimwe says he prayed for a man, Henry Mugisa, who regained his sight after a long time. However, Asiimwe’s type of ministry – one with “miracles” –  soon ruffled feathers with some church leaders in his diocese. 

Preaching at a UCU community worship in Nkoyoyo Hall on March 4, 2021, Asiimwe noted that when he had crusades in Kigezi, his home diocese located in southwestern Uganda, his ministry was considered incompatible with the traditions of the Anglican Church.

“Many times, I was summoned to explain where I was getting the power to perform miracles; we were praying for people and they were getting healed.”

Asiimwe said he was invited before a committee of 12 theologians who asked him to explain where he was deriving the power of healing. “I stood before them and confidently said I was simply following what the Bible says.” 

Asiimwe was later blocked from attending prayers in the diocese. However, he later mended fences with the leaders in the diocese, and, today, miracles are part of ministry in the Anglican Church. St. Peter’s Cathedral Rugarama, where Asiimwe was, in early 2000s, blocked from attending church prayers as a punishment for conducting a ministry that was considered alien to the Anglican Church, is where he was ordained a priest in 2012.

In 2006, the archbishop at the time, Henry Luke Orombi, shocked many when he appointed Asiimwe his personal assistant, who also holds the position of chaplain of the archbishop. It was the first time that a lay person was being appointed to such a position in the Anglican Church in Uganda. However, Orombi continued to persuade Asiimwe to pursue further studies so he could get ordained. In 2009, Asiimwe, a graduate teacher from Makerere University, enrolled for a Post-Graduate Diploma in Theology at the current Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology in UCU. He later returned to UCU, where he obtained a Master of Arts in Theology.

During his consecration ceremony on March 12, 2023, at Emmanuel Cathedral Kinyansano in Rukungiri district, western Uganda, Asiimwe, who has been the chaplain of the Anglican community at Makerere University in Uganda, thanked Orombi for being “a great mentor” in his life. In his sermon at the function, Orombi noted that he groomed Asiimwe because he knew that one time, he would become a bishop. Asiimwe now replaces Patrick Tugume, who has been the caretaker bishop since the death of the former bishop, Benon Magezi, who succumbed to Covid-19 in 2021.

Asiimwe was born on April 24, 1965 in Mparo, Rukiga district, in western Uganda, 

to Samwiri, and Samali Meisho. Samwiri was a lay reader in church. Asiimwe attended Kihanga Boys Primary School and later joined Kigezi High School for O’level and Makerere College

School for A’level. He obtained a Bachelor of Education from Makerere University and a Diploma in Education from the National Teachers College, Kabale. He has been married to Florence since 1993 and the couple has three children – Daudi, Ruth and Marjorie.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

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By Pauline Luba
After the death of James Kibirige, the father of new Mukono Diocese Bishop Enos Kitto Kagodo, the burden of looking after the family fell on their mother. Ruth Kibirige found herself brewing local beer and selling fish to get money to keep her children in school. Occasionally, Good Samaritans would support Ruth with handouts for the family. At the time, Kagodo was in Primary Five.

While lucrative, the work Ruth engaged in to make a living for the family had a temptation hazard. As a 19-year-old, Kagodo befriended another teenager whose mother also brewed local beer.  Kagodo says his friend would steal alcohol from his mother’s stand and share it with him. What started as a one-off soon became a habit, leading Kagodo to alcoholism and juvenile delinquency.

“Peer pressure got me into a life full of drinking. We would sneak out of Bishop West Senior – my secondary school – and go drinking,” Kagodo said during an interview with Uganda Partners at his home in Mukono, central Uganda.

However, God seemed to have a different plan for Kagodo. While still in secondary school, Kagodo would attend church service every Sunday. One day, the church hosted a preacher whose gospel was especially connected with Kagodo. He felt the need to know God more and, in order to do that, he would have to get rid of his worldly pleasure. When he did, God, indeed, made him discover a new life.

But change, seldom a welcome idea in people’s lives, didn’t happen readily. For Kagodo, quitting alcohol meant losing his alcohol-drinking friends and figuring out how to spend the time when he wasn’t drinking.

He found answers to many of the challenges in service.  Kagodo has since been able to serve the Anglican Church in various capacities, including as parish priest, archdeacon, diocesan health coordinator and as the provost of St. Phillip’s and Andrew’s Cathedral in Mukono. His latest position of service is the Bishop of Mukono Anglican Diocese, a position he assumed on February 26, 2023, at a plush consecration ceremony at the St. Phillip’s and St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Mukono.

Kagodo says his story of alcohol and conversion is a testimony that encourages youth, especially those who may be facing the same challenge, to believe that there is always light at the end of the tunnel. He encourages youth to  seek a higher form of spirituality and to always think about their life after death, in cases where they get temptations to engage in inappropriate acts. 

To become bishop, Kagodo competed against his friend, the Rev. Godfrey Ssengendo, for the position. Kagodo said he was prepared for any result. 

“Whatever the outcome, I would have praised the Lord. Ssengendo is a good friend. Any of us is able to do the job well,” Kagodo said. 

A text message from his bishop, James William Ssebaggala, on the afternoon of January 18, the day the voting took place, announced to Kagodo that he had sailed through in the elections. Anglican bishops in Uganda are elected by the House of Bishops, which is composed of active Diocesan and Assistant Bishops.

After completing his Senior Four at Bishop West Senior School, Kagodo briefly stopped studying. He, thereafter, proceeded to acquire a certificate, progressed to study theology and then became a deacon. He studied at Uganda Christian University (UCU) from 2011 to 2014, obtaining a Master of Divinity. He says he enjoyed studying at UCU because of its deep roots in Christianity and a good studying environment.

“The university has many denominations and gives a chance for everyone to learn about God through its course units,” Kagodo said. “I also liked the fact that as an older person studying, I was made to feel welcome and comfortable at the university.” 

This year, Kagodo and his wife, Catherine Namuddu, are celebrating 27 years of marriage. The bishop says his wife has been his biggest support system. 

When not doing church work, one is likely to find Kagodo either playing sports with his children, listening to music or spending time with friends.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

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By Kefa Senoga
The church relations department at Uganda Christian University (UCU) has embarked on training the Anglican clergy in Uganda with contemporary skills to be able to evangelize better in the ever-changing world.

The Manager of Church Relations at UCU, the Rev. Richard Mulindwa, said that one of the areas they have put emphasis on as they train the clergy is educating them to integrate Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in their work. The church relations department acts as a link between the university and the church.

“During lockdown, many of our churches shut down completely whereas our colleagues from the Pentecostal church were using digital and online media to do pastoral work and evangelism,” the Rev. Mulindwa notes.

The gospel does not stop at preaching at the pulpit, Mulindwa argues, emphasizing that the clergy need to use all the available avenues to take the gospel to the people. 

“Social media, and even just an SMS (Short Message Service), can be powerful tools for reaching out to people with a word of encouragement,” he said.

Among the other issues that the training delves in is land matters. 

“Many land grabbers are targeting church land and part of the reason it’s happening is because some members of the clergy have limited knowledge in that aspect,” Mulindwa explained.

He said they have partnered with the UCU School of Law, to provide lawyers among the students and lecturers, to guide the participants on how best they can deal with issues related to land management.

The church has on several occasions been embroiled in disputes, especially on land situated in prime areas, with most of them having squatters. In 2016, Anglican Archbishop Stanley Ntagali and close to 40 other bishops escaped an attack by a mob when the prelates had gone to inspect a church-owned land in Mukono, central Uganda.

In 2020, operating on the orders of a businessman in Kampala, workers demolished a Church in Ndeeba, Kampala, with the businessman claiming ownership of the land on which the church was sitting. Situations like these make the training a timely venture for the clerics.

The Church of Uganda oversees 55 pre-primary schools, 4,904 church-founded primary schools, 460 secondary schools, 50 post-primary schools, including vocational training schools, and six universities. According to Mulindwa, the training, which usually takes up to three days, with a certificate presented to the participants, also focuses on how the chaplaincies in such institutions can be revamped so that they play a more influential role in the spiritual nourishment of the learners in the institutions where they belong. 

Many parents take their children to church-founded institutions with the hope that Christian values will be instilled in the learners, a role that is often played by the chaplaincy. 

Mulindwa said they have so far reached members of the clergy in the dioceses of Mukono, Busoga, Mbale and Rwenzori, and that some of the responses they have been getting are encouraging. 

“Many churches have started online prayers out of this training and many pastors have taken up online ministries from their respective dioceses and parishes,” Mulindwa said.

Since the members of the clergy are servants of God in the church and family people outside church, they are also exposed to the every-day challenges that families go through. “We also talk to the clergy about child upbringing, issues of marriage, and sex, among others, because they are a pertinent matter in their lives,” Mulindwa said, noting that people who are approaching retirement at their workplaces also have been included. 

Last year, UCU also extended an invitation to teachers in mission schools in the Church of Uganda to participate in a special training to enable certificate-holding teachers to be able to upgrade and attain bachelor’s degrees through specialized programmes that suit their work schedules.

“The government is nowadays demanding that all teachers are graduates. We are calling upon teachers from the mission schools to come and enroll for the courses,” UCU Vice Chancellor Assoc. Prof. Aaron Mushengyezi said last year. 

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

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By Pauline Luba
In 2022, Jessica Hughes, a USA missionary serving at Uganda Christian University (UCU), Mukono, found herself in every academic’s dilemma of trying to condense a voluminous thesis into a journal article. For Hughes’ case, she was adapting a 300-plus-page thesis into an article for Missionalia, a journal of the Southern African Missiological Society. 

She succeeded. Her journal article, titled The Influence of the Missionary Legacy on the Practice of Discipleship in the Anglican Church of Uganda, was published on December 30, 2022. The article, co-authored with Marilyn Naidoo, a professor in the discipline of Practical Theology at the University of South Africa, centers on discipleship, a subject Hughes confesses she has always been passionate about. Naidoo supervised Hughes for her doctorate.

Hughes argues that currently, in the Church of Uganda setup, “evangelism is still the hallmark and priority of the church.”

“The number of people ‘saved’ in a service is often publicized, even among the bishops’

press releases regarding their pastoral visits,” the paper argues, suggesting that such actions have made discipleship take a backseat to evangelism in terms of church priorities. Much as evangelism leads to widespread professed Christianity, it may not also lead to a “skin-deep” faith. 

According to Hughes, a missionary serving under the Pennsylvania-based Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders (SAMS), seeking to gain more believers and numbers rather than deepening the spiritual maturity of the believers makes the church “send people to evangelize, yet they are supposed to make disciples.” And she bases this argument on Matthew 28:19: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

Discipleship is not only bringing people to God, but also being able to relate to them and deepening their faith, Hughes, who has been a lecturer at UCU for over a decade, explained during a Zoom interview from the US state of Virginia. In addition to being a lecturer, she is currently UCU’s head of the Online Distance Learning (ODL) department – more commonly known by students as eLearning. 

During the interview, Hughes offered suggestions on how the faith of a newly saved soul could be strengthened – by spending more time in prayer and answering questions together, so that there is more learning. “It’s hard to grow in faith when one is not being corrected,” she reasoned.

Another central pillar in Hughes’ paper is the concept of inculturation, which is the process of assuming or assimilating the behaviors and beliefs of another culture. The paper argues that the lack of the inculturation of Christianity “has caused it not to become a part of the culture, and that means that Christianity, though widely accepted, has not been involved in molding and shaping the Ugandan worldview.”

The experience of Christianity, it has been argued, can be expressed by cultural means. And Hughes believes that inculturation is one of the easiest ways to attain this. The Gospel can be fused with traditional practices, she argues, citing the example of cultural dancing and singing, while still glorifying the Lord. Such a blend, Hughes’ paper argues, will lead to an African Christianity, which “honors both the culture and the gospel,” and is more relatable to Africans. Western Christianity, according to the paper, rarely gives room to the voices from the global south to be heard.

“Tribes could still have their beautiful dances and speak their beautiful languages while continuing to worship God and spreading the Gospel,” she said during the virtual interview, where Uganda Partners sought to deeper understand reflections in the article.

Hughes is aware that through her propositions, she is not asking for too much. And she subtly makes this point by drawing from the practices in Kenya, Uganda’s neighbor to the east: “An example of how to inculturate the gospel is found in the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) and how they develop liturgies, rather than only importing liturgies from the West,” she writes. 

“The ACK has contextualized the liturgies to reflect African culture, by incorporating the ancestors, particularly in the section of the Holy Communion liturgy. Rather than the standard ‘therefore, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven’, the Sanctus in the ACK reads, ‘therefore, with angels, archangels, faithful ancestors and all in heaven’,” she writes in the paper, as though reading from the same script that Pope Francis has always read.

In 2021, the Pope called for Christian freedom, by rooting for the respect for other people’s cultures and traditions. “How many errors have been made in the history of evangelization by seeking to impose a single cultural model,” the Pope asked during his address to the weekly general audience at the Vatican. 

Explaining that unity does not mean uniformity, the Pope argued that in the call to freedom, one discovers the true meaning of the inculturation of the Gospel.

Writing on her blog, the Virginia-USA-born missionary notes that she initially had no plans of coming to Africa as a missionary. However, this later changed. “My bishop, the Rt. Rev. John Guernsey, had suggested that I study abroad for my M.Div., and then suggested Uganda, since my home church (All Saints Anglican in Woodbridge, Virginia) had come under the Church of Uganda when we left the Episcopal Church,” she writes. 

Hughes obtained an undergraduate degree from the George Mason University in Fairfax Virginia and a certificate as a legal assistant from George Washington University in 1993. In 2005, she earned her first master’s degree in human performance systems at Marymount University based in Arlington, Virginia. Her second was the Master of Divinity from UCU, which she got in 2011. She is now a lecturer at the university’s Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

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By Kefa Senoga
The Anglican Church in Uganda recently marked Sunday September 25 with a common theme throughout the province – “Arise, let us build the walls” (Nehemiah 2:18). And the call throughout the province was to rally Christians to contribute towards helping Uganda Christian University (UCU) build a special project for a special category of students, the ordinands.

The Ordinands Apartment, a project that the university is currently undertaking, seeks to build a residential block for UCU students who are training to be priests or church ministers.  Currently, such students are residing in the same halls of residence with other students, which, according to the Rev. Richard Mulindwa, the Acting Manager of the Church Relations Office at UCU, is not ideal for their concentration. The apartments are expected to house more than 50 ordinands. 

September 25 was the last Sunday of September, a day set aside by the House of Bishops of the Church of Uganda, for the province to hold prayers for UCU, a church-founded institution. On the day, named UCU Sunday from its start in 2017, representatives of the university spread the word about UCU in all services.

The intention of the day is three-fold – to solicit prayers for the university, to increase awareness about university programs and to raise money to support the university.

Preaching at All Saints Cathedral Nakasero, UCU Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic Affairs, the Rev. Assoc. Prof. John Kitayimbwa, urged the congregation to donate to help the church and its ministers. 

“Many of the ministers in the church have children, but cannot afford to offer them a good quality education,” he said. “Therefore, what you offer during UCU Sunday will help us, as UCU, to try to bridge that gap.”

The Rev. Assoc. Prof. John Kitayimbwa  explains the purpose of the UCU Sunday

Kitayimbwa, who preached at all the three services at All Saints Cathedral Nakasero that Sunday, said UCU is one of the greatest tools that the Church of Uganda can use to spread the gospel. The choral voices that pierced through the cathedral’s rooftop at all the three services were of the UCU choir. 

At Makerere University’s St. Francis Chapel, the Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, UCU’s former Vice Chancellor, centered his preaching on the topic: “Let My People Go.” Senyonyi reminded the congregation that God’s intention was to entrust man with the responsibility of looking after the world, emphasizing that when one chooses to serve God, He blesses them abundantly.

The Rev. Dr. Elly Kansiime, UCU’s Chaplain, spent the Sunday preaching during services held at Sts. Philip’s and Andrew’s Cathedral Mukono, while the Rev. Lydia Nsaale Kitayimbwa, the Assistant Chaplain at UCU, preached at St. Paul’s Cathedral Namirembe.

Urging people to donate generously for UCU’s cause, the Rev. Lydia Nsaale Kitayimbwa tipped the congregation on how to make long-lasting impact on the world. 

“If you want to make a difference in the world for a year, plant rice; if you want to make a difference for 10 years, plant trees; and if you want to make a difference for a hundred years, educate children,” she told the St. Paul’s congregation. 

The Rev. Mulindwa says as people move out of the Covid-19 pandemic, many have lost hope, businesses and family members, and, therefore, the theme of building walls as enshrined in Nehemiah 2:18 is not just about the physical walls, but also rebuilding people’s souls, to give them hope. 

According to the Vice Chairperson of the UCU University Council, James Abola, the institution has so far used collections made in the past UCU Sundays to support 52 students to graduation level.

UCU Vice Chancellor Assoc. Prof. Aaron Mushengyezi recently said sh400m (about $113,000) had already been secured for the apartments project that is estimated to cost sh8.5b (over $2.2m).

Collections for the past UCU Sunday events have been used to implement a number of projects at the institution. For instance, the sh300million ($78,148) that was collected for the UCU Sunday of 2018 was invested in building the UCU School of Medicine at Mengo Hospital in Kampala. 

American donations can be made through the Uganda Partners Web donation button at https://www.ugandapartners.org/donate/. Put “UCU Sunday”  in the comment box.  

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

Also, follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.