The Observer, Kampala – His Eminence, Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala has urged Christians to be patient and pursue peace for a more stable Uganda.
He said this while presiding over the opening of the new church for St Charles Lwanga in Ntinda on Sunday. The cardinal referred to patience as “silver shoes” one has to don all the time in order to tolerate and live at peace with others.
“Peace starts in our own families and later spreads to our communities. I also urge the married to embrace it for it is better to reconcile than to fight,” he said.
He also applauded the congregation upon completion on of the new 1,200-seater church whose construction began in April 2009. The construction project is estimated to have cost Shs 1,103,000,000.
The celebrations were held under the theme: ‘Master, how good it is that we are here’ -Luke 9:33. St Charles Lwanga is one of two sub-parishes in the Naguru parish, which is one of 54 parishes in the archdiocese of Kampala.
“Just like the Jews in the book of Haggai who were commanded by the Lord to go up the hill and collect timber and rebuild the temple, you responded to the call in today’s times and dug into your resources to build the Lord this new splendid temple,” Charles Okoth Owor, the church’s head of laity, said.
The church is adorned with stained glass windows bearing images and names of the Uganda martyrs, a porcelain altar bearing a bronze image of Jesus Christ and the 12 apostles at the last supper and candles flickering in unison.
History:
The idea to establish the church was born in the early months of 1980 in a local bar popularly known as ‘kafunda’. Drinking buddies Dan Mpungu (RIP), Kagimu (RIP), Francis Were (RIP), John Mary Kiwanuka and Eng Mwase conceived an idea of having a church closer to home rather than moving long distances on Sunday to pray.
They approached the head teacher of Ntinda primary school to lobby for use of one of the classrooms for conducting Mass.
“At one time as we prayed, we were [soaked] by rain because the classroom doors had not been opened for us. This gave us morale to get our own church where we would pray from,” Nalis Byarugaba, one of the founding members, recalls.
Luckily, at the time, the district was planning to allocate land for community development projects such as churches, mosques and schools. The buddies then formed a committee that pioneered the building of the church that lasted three years.
Funds were raised through film shows and auctions. Byarugaba adds that sometimes Christians were requested to physically carry the bricks to the site when the committee did not have enough funds to hire workers to do it.
The celebrations were graced by dignitaries such as Patrick Bitature and Fred Omach, the state minister for Finance in charge of General Duties.
