Tukutendereza Yesu,



Wells Cathedral Holy Week Meditation Monday 30th March 2015

Hymn: What a friend we have in Jesus

Reading: Ecclesiasticus 4: 20 - 28

Tukutendereza Yesu,

Yesu Mwana gw'endiga:

Omusaayi gwo gunaazizza;

Nkwebaza Mulokozi.

I’m being very, very British by saying these words and not singing them

Perhaps I am also a little inhibited by these surroundings.

Mind you, if we were in Uganda you would join in as well!

In many parts of the Ugandan church, especially those who considered themselves saved and allied to the 1930s East Africa revival, these words begin, end and intersperse every Christian service, every Christian gathering

Tukutendereza Yesu,

Yesu Mwana gw'endiga:

Omusaayi gwo gunaazizza;

Nkwebaza Mulokozi.

We praise you Jesus

Jesus Lamb of God

Your blood cleanses me

I praise you Saviour

The cleansing and saving blood of Jesus is at the heart of the understanding of their faith for the Ugandan Christian. But the blood of the martyrs is at the heart of their understanding of the Ugandan Church. ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church’ – These are words first spoken by Tertullian in the 2nd century, but they words at the root of the very existence of the church in Uganda

The murder of 45 Christian royal pages in 1885 by the King of Buganda followed a few months later by the killing of Bishop James Hannington as he came into the country from Kenya are seen by Ugandan as marking not just the beginning of the Church in their land but as embodying the fearless commitment that Christ needs of his followers in that land.

But religion in Uganda is a complex picture – religion and politics closely entwined.

From the very beginning the Ugandan Church got caught up in the long seated tribal rivalries in that part of Africa. By colluding with the Baganda, the most powerful tribe the British Colonial rule did not enable an easy move to independence in 1962. Ever since then Uganda’s political parties have been are bounded by religious and tribal affiliations.

We heard in our reading:

Do not show partiality, to your own harm, or deference, to your downfall.

Do not refrain from speaking at the proper moment,

And do not hide your wisdom.

Any Christian leader in Uganda who is going to live by these words will face challenges

Janani Luwum was born 1922 in the Acholi district of Northern Uganda. He considered himself part of the saved movement – and gave his conversion as happening on 6th Jan 1948 through the preaching of an evangelist who had come to his family home. At the end of the meeting Janani is reported to have told people present: ‘Today I have become a leader in Christ’s army. I am prepared to die in the army of Jesus. As Jesus shed his blood for the people, if it is God’s will, I will do the same’.

Such a faith was soon put to the test – his brother and the man who converted him were arrested and beaten up on no apparent charge, other than preaching the Gospel. Luwum went to court to challenge and was himself arrested but released after paying a fine

Janani Luwum was ordained in 1955. In 1958 he spent a year at St Augustine’s College Canterbury and 2 later years at the London College of Divinity. On returning home he was a theological college principal, and then the Provincial Secretary before being made Bishop on Northern Uganda in 1969

He was made archbishop in 1974 – early on in his time as archbishop he wrote that those who believed were called to be the salt, the light, the leaven in society. The church should not allow itself to conform to the powers of darkness, but rather it should transform the world for Christ.

Luwum could have entertained few illusions about the complexity of the task of bring Archbishop: the Anglican Church riven by different tribal loyalties; there was traditional rivalry between Roman Catholics and Anglicans – a rivalry that went through the political parties as well as the churches; Amin’s government was constantly trying to siphon the churches’ money into the building of mosques and other causes; and the nation itself of course was led by the despotic rule of Idi Amin, with all its corruption, intimidation and brutality.

Luwum has been described as a man intimately aware of the realities of the world of power. In seeking to build the confidence of the people and the church he was not afraid of talking about power and facing the reality of its challenges and he was impatient with those who tried to keep a lid on such talk . He believed that it was the abdication of power in the past by so many church, colonial and political leaders that had led to the current situation of crisis in the country. The church had legitimate and urgent roles to play in Uganda and in the world, he believed – and in particular the church had the urgent task of developing the disciplines of exercising power. Abdication of the exercise of responsibility was not, he argued, a moral option. What was required of the church was to be holy. Power without the purity to guide is a terror to others ‘We have the power of Christ to participate and thereby discipline the powers and institutions to be more responsive to human need’. This is how he led his bishops and his church as their archbishop for three years under the despotic rule of Idi Amin.

There was a recent film about Idi Amin ‘The Last King of Scotland’ which was taken from a book by Giles Foden. The title parodies Amin’s obsession with obtaining more and more titles for himself. Amin is portrayed by the actor Forest Whittaker who rightly deserved his Oscar especially for his capturing the split second transition Amin would make from behaving like a clown to behaving as a tyrant. Any one who had the courage to meet with and challenge such a man as Amin is a person of immense courage.

Nobody knows how many were killed by Amin, his henchmen and his soldiers but international observers and human rights groups reckon it was between 100.000 and 500,000.

When criticised by church people for spending too much time in meeting the president, Janani responded ‘The best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it, or to spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it’

Janani sought to both live the truth and speak the truth. He regularly challenged Amin about his acts of brutality. He was the chair of a meeting of the leaders of the Anglican, RC and Musim communities who came together to discuss the atrocities – it was after a detailed letter was sent from this group to Amin requesting a joint meeting that Luwum was arrested, and his home was raised by soldiers who had been sent to search for arms and enemies of the state.

The country’s Church leaders were then summoned to Kampala’s Conference Centre where Luwum was accused of aiding and abetting a shipment of arms.

It is thought that he was then taken to a torture cell, and shot, possibly by Amin himself. It is believed he was wearing his purple Episcopal cassock when he was killed. The country was told that he had died in a road accident.

His body was never produced.

Sheelagh Warren who was the head teacher of Gayaza High School, where, 8 years after Amin’s murder, I went as a maths teacher, wrote this to me a couple of weeks ago:

‘On the Sunday after he was killed, there was what was supposed to be his funeral at Namirembe Cathedral. We took as many staff as we could by car – it being too dangerous to take any girls – and stood listening outside until someone came out and called us inside, having found us some seats. There was no overt reference to Janani or to a funeral but all the readings and singing were “for him” as far as the faithful were concerned. As the service ended the Bishop told us we would all process out singing the Baganda Martyrs’ hymn. It has about 11 verses and we sang them through several times by the time we were all outside. The armed soldiers ranged outside were exceedingly puzzled by the singing, because it sounded so joyful and triumphant, but they had no idea what it was saying! A grave had been dug and it was empty; but one bishop remarked that it wasn’t needed anyway because Janani was already beyond the grave. Them all the bishops stood on the veranda and Bishop Dunstan of Namirembe said “We may all be killed but the church will not die”.

In 1973 Janani had worked closely with a new young magistrate who had been recently appointed, that magistrate writes: For me, his martyrdom was a defining moment. The day he died I resolved to be ordained’. That former magistrate is John Sentamu, now the Archbishop of York.

‘We have the power of Christ to participate and thereby discipline the powers and institutions to be more responsive to human need.’

‘The best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it, or to spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it.’

Spending three life changing years in Uganda in the mid 1980s I was aware how Janani Luwum’s life and death was moulding some of the students I knew – how his approach to power empowered them as they talked about what it might mean for them to serve their country and to serve God in their adult lives.

In the Christian Club at Gayaza High School the girls wrote many of the songs and choruses that they sang. Twenty eight years on, this is the song that remains the most vivid in my memory – it is part of a verse taken from one of the letters in Revelation to the persecuted churches:

Be faithful unto death

And I will give you the crown of life

And I will give you the crown of life

Give you the crown of life.

Be faithful unto death

And I will give you the crown of life

And I will give you the crown of life

Give you the crown of life.

Paula Hollingsworth

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