BUILD . . . & shake

Most Church of Uganda churches are rural and share their ordained minister with up to 24 other churches. Often he or she has no transport beyond a bicycle. So active lay leadership is a necessity: lay readers and other leaders lead most services and pastoral work. Though they normally have the advantage of being local people, many have not proceeded beyond primary education and few beyond secondary; not many have had the time or opportunity for thorough preparation for ministry.

So it’s not surprising that the Church of Uganda has had to address the issue of training. Last Friday I spent the morning hearing from some leaders of a pioneering new approach to this challenge: BUILD – Biblical Understanding for In-Service Leadership Development.
Here’s a picture of three of them outside the church’s guest-house at Namirembe, overlooking central Kampala: from left to right, Job Wakiwayi (Archdeacon in Mbale diocese and eastern region BUILD representative), Stephen Kewaza (Provincial BUILD Officer) and Henry Majwala (central region representative, part-time tutor at Namagongo Martyrs Seminary, and assistant vicar at Mukono cathedral).


BUILD has evolved out of Jem Hovil’s work here over the last seven years – he is now consultant to the programme and helps developing materials and training the trainers (picture of Jem taken at the Hairy Lemon).
The programme aims to gather trainees – mostly lay leaders including readers – in local centres for short spells of training. BUILD aims to have ten modules, each taking 30 hours to complete over a manageable timespan. It focuses on bible study (exegesis) and teaching skills, with an emphasis on practical application and ministry skills that are relevant and necessary for the Ugandan church and social context.

BUILD’s overall aim is to serve the Church of Uganda so that both church and nation are transformed by relevant, faithful understanding of Christian truth. Jem’s research and contribution to the thinking behind this model of training and its applicability in Uganda is documented in his inter-disciplinary 2005 Stellenbosch DTh thesis – ‘Transforming Theological Education in the Church of the Province of Uganda (Anglican)’ – which it has been fascinating for me to read.

Henry Majwala told me that the standards of preaching, discipleship and church attendance has dramatically improved in many places where leaders have been through the BUILD programme. Already, there are BUILD co-ordinators in 22 of the province’s 32 dioceses. Partnerships are being sought to resource BUILD programmes from both within and without Uganda – there’s been a real recognition that locally delivered, affordable training is the only way to improve and maintain ministry standards here, but getting the programme launched and keeping it accessible requires partnership.

The Church of Uganda has a long association with CMS – it was CMS missionaries who pioneered the evangelisation of Uganda in the late nineteenth century, and then supported the rapid indigenisation of mission and ministry here. There’s a recent description of BUILD on the CMS website, at: http://webarchive.cms-uk.org/news/2007/building-the-church-of-uganda-25052007.htm

Friday night brought another ‘first’ for the Ackroyd’s in Uganda. At around 8.45pm in the evening, as JoJo and I were engrossed in watching an episode of ‘24’ on DVD during a violent thunderstorm, we felt a noticeable earth tremor. Not very common in Uganda – though the west and east arms of the Rift Valley flank the nation. Epicentre of this one was just over the border in the DRCongo, to the west of Lake Albert. No damage or alarm in Mukono, or even moving furniture, but quite a surprise! More details: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2007dqbc.php

Boy meets Girl - Ugandan style

A quick post to show something of yesterday's trip to Tororo - near the Kenyan border - for the formal 'Introduction' (sort of engagement ceremony) of Beatrice Langariti's sister Rose to her fiancé Thomas at her father's home. The roads were poor so it was a long journey there and back - broken by an early breakfast and late supper in Jinja. We travelled most of the way in convoy with Vincent and Beatrice Langariti, and changed into our wedding clothes (JoJo in a borrowed sari-type garment, Peter in a cotton Ugandan 'kanzu') in the backroom of a restaurant in Tororo.

The 'Introduction' was over two hours late starting and is a lengthy ceremony full of ironic humour, involving the pretence that the groom's family has come in search of the girl who has stolen their heart. People dress formally and (in the case of the women) very colourfully. The bride-to-be spends most of the ceremony (4 hours long) out of sight, emerging first (after a long 'search' through her relatives young and old) to be identified, later to walk through a ceremonial arch with her intended, and then to exchange rings and receive gifts. (Pic is of Rose on the right with Beatrice in the family home).



We were the only 'mzungus' (white people) present and were given seats of honour among the bride's family, next to her proud father.

More details later - it was quite a day - not least as we were presented by Rose's father with an unexpected and generous gift - seen in the picture with Vincent!

Having survived the bumpy journey back to Mukono, our gift has found a home behind our house in a makeshift pen constructed from two soccer goals . . . temporarily!

Wootton Lower & Holywell Middle Schools feed hundreds

This is Lucy Alastair and Tom handing over to the manager of the Mulago Child Project a donation of $350 from money collected by their fellow pupils at Wootton Lower School and Holywell (CofE) Middle School.

The project supports over one hundred 5-18 year olds from homes in a slum area of Kampala, Uganda's capital. It is run by FOCUS Uganda, the umbrella organisation for university Christian Unions here, which St Mary's Wootton helps to support. (Beatrice Langariti, the wife of FOCUS's general secretary Vincent, lived and worked in Wootton as parish assistant at St Mary's around seven years ago; and Vincent spoke at a Wootton Lower assembly when he was in the UK last year).

There are two main elements of the project's work with Mulago's needy children. First, it contributes to the cost of school fees (state schooling is not free in Uganda) for families which would otherwise be unable to send or keep children in primary and secondary education. Second, it gathers these children every Saturday for a programme of teaching and games, in which they are taught life skills, English, health care (personal hygiene, healthy living, basic medical expertise, diet, etc), vocational skills which can help them to earn a living, and biblical studies. They also eat: a nourishing mug of sweet maize-meal ('posho') porridge half-way through the morning, and a substantial lunch - for many of the children, probably the best meal of the week. (Most families of children on the project would be able to afford only one meal a day, eaten in the evening - ie the children go to school hungry every morning).

In addition to the full-time manager, Audrey, and her assistant, Nelson (pictured with a couple of the children), the project is staffed mainly by Christian student volunteers drawn from Kampala's universities.


Last Saturday, we spent the day at the project, visiting the classes, drinking the porridge (popular with Peter and Tom, mainly!), and meeting the children. It was especially interesting to meet five 'graduates' from the project, 18-21 years of age, who are now in higher education but still living in Mulago. They told us that without the project's help they could not have continued at school, their lives would have been completely different, and their futures bleak.

The project receives no public funds and is supported by churches and some foreign donors, including sponsors of individual children (it costs £150 to sponsor a child for a year, enabling him/her to stay at school and attend the project). The gift which Lucy Alastair and Tom handed over will go towards the weekly Saturday lunch - in fact it will feed the whole project (over 100 children plus their helpers) every Saturday for nearly nine months!





Thank you Wootton Lower and Holywell Schools!