It has been 100 years since the first Christians came to Kisoro. In 1912 an English missionary arrived to find out whether it was possible to send an African evangelist, and within a year one came. Unfortunately, he stayed in Kisoro, near the enemy of the King of Rwanda (whose kingdom included this area) rather than at nearby Mabungo where the king’s regent lived. When war broke out between the two groups the evangelist went to chronicle the fighting, but got killed by a spear.
Last week the Diocese held a special convention to celebrate the centenary, and the two speakers were the Archbishop of Uganda and the Archbishop of York. John Sentamu was born and lived in Uganda until forced to flee when Idi Amin was president.
The 3 days of open air meetings attracted large crowds with more than 10,000 attending the service on Sunday. Fortunately, a good amplification system enabled the large crowd to hear, if not see what was going on – unlike in Jesus’ time as depicted in ‘The Life of Brian’.
On Saturday the meeting was held at Mabungo near the site where the first church in the Diocese was built. It was difficult to concentrate on the speakers with the magnificent views to distract you.
The prime minister of Uganda attended the meeting on Sunday and helped the Archbishop of York to cut the first turf on the site of a new hostel the Diocese will build to commemorate the centenary
Malcolm spent most of the time taking photos and video of the event, and continued to attract children keen to have their picture taken.
And ….. the earth mover, which has been stranded here since January, has gone. With impeccable time during the first meeting two mechanics turned up, started the engine and the machine moved off.
What will we talk about next week?!!!!!
This week’s proverb from the BBC Africa web-site is from Ghana:
“Those who cannot hear the music say the ones dancing must be mad”
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