LUWEERO: President Yoweri Museveni has challenged religious leaders to encourage believers to aspire and work towards achieving decent and improved standards of living.
“A relevant Christian Ministry is one that encourages the believers to aspire and work towards achieving decent and improved standards of living. This is a crucial point which some believers fail to understand and put in practice,” Museveni said.
He further noted that in the process of working for heaven, some of the faithful become negligent about their earthly responsibilities and thereby end up perpetuating and entrenching socio-economic backwardness and poverty in their respective families and societies.
The president stressed that Jesus Christ should serve as an example to all the religious leaders and their followers because besides fasting and prayer, He also healed the physical ailments of the blind, lame, lepers, deaf and fed the hungry as it is showed in the Bible.
“Jesus earned his bread by working alongside his father Joseph as a carpenter. He worked for both the spiritual and socio-economic uplift of his family and society. This is what all Christians must emulate,” Museveni explained.
This was contained in the president’s message delivered for him by the Vice President Maj. (Rtd) Jessica Alupo during a thanksgiving ceremony of Rt. Rev. Wilson Kisekka on his first anniversary as the fourth Bishop of Luweero Anglican Diocese.
Museveni says that there are also physical needs that must be satisfied in order to achieve a happy, fulfilling and productive life.
“These include: food, water, shelter, medicine, hospitals, schools, clothes, transport, a job, etc. In a modern economy, you cannot obtain the goods and services, which are necessary to sustain life without money,” he said.
Museveni emphasized therefore the first step that must be taken by an individual or household is to eliminate moneylessness or subsistence living, which satisfies only one need i.e. food.
He further said that Moneylessness can be eliminated by undertaking a profitable enterprise in one of the four sectors of: commercial agriculture, industries, services and ICT where you can create jobs and wealth.
Museveni said that NRM’s strategy for triggering the socio-economic transformation of Uganda is premised on developing infrastructure, modernising agriculture, industrialisation and cultivating Patriotism and Pan-Africanism.
“Within Uganda, we promote patriotism to consolidate unity and peaceful co-existence among our people. Outside Uganda, we advocate for East African and African cooperation and integration, as a strategy for guaranteeing greater prosperity and security. We cannot be satisfied with Uganda’s small market of only 46 million people. This cannot guarantee our prosperity. This is why we support the integration of the East African and African market of 1.4 billion people. A bigger market is good news for Uganda’s surplus commodities, i.e. sugar, maize, milk, cement, steel bars, etc,” he said.
Museveni noted that NRM has established the necessary economic base for Uganda’s development and socio-economic transformation. However, development alone is not enough; though it must come first. Development is a collective good; but wealth and jobs belong to individuals, families, groups or companies. We should not have spectators in the drive towards increasing household incomes.
“37% of the Ugandan households are still trapped in subsistence farming, i.e. working only for the stomach. They should be helped to become wealth producers and job creators through commercial and modernised agriculture,” he said.
Museveni commended Luwero Diocese for partnering with government to advance the socio-economic transformation of Uganda. He said Church projects have played a crucial role to transform individuals, families and communities.
The president congratulated the Bishop, on the achievements, that have been reached, since he assumed the spiritual guardianship, over Luwero Diocese and thanked him for fostering peace and development, among the people of God.
He thanked the Christian faithful, in Luwero Diocese, for not only welcoming the Bishop; but, also supporting him and his team to deliver on his God-given mandate.
On behalf of the NRM Government, Museveni pledged to continue to partner with the Bishop and the entire Diocese, to extend services to the people of Luwero District.
“The Government recognises the Diocesan Projects aimed towards job creation and poverty eradication. Human beings have both spiritual and physical needs. The spiritual needs are satisfied through praying to God, studying the scriptures, listening to religious and moral instruction, fasting, praise and worship, etc. These enable a believer to draw closer to God and impart good morals and discipline in relating with other people,” Museveni explained.
He contributed Shs30m towards the thanksgiving ceremony and another shs50m for the construction of the Shs2.5b Synod building whose completion is expected within one year.
Rt. Rev. Kisekka, noted that as we celebrate one year since his consecration and enthronement as Bishop of Luweero diocese, God has moved with the church throughout the times.
He emphasized that this first year has been a package of joyous events, new assignments, characterized by significant milestones and challenges as well.
The bishop thanked God for providing for us together with all the diocesan teams in their different areas of responsibility and appreciated them for a job well done.
He attributed the success so far achieved to concerted efforts from every diocesan saying they have enabled them to underscore several significant achievements.
He acknowledged that fact that there may be some level of division amongst Christians in the diocese.
“There are areas of dissatisfaction cannot be ignored as would commonly be the case but our message of love and reconciliation has always been well received across different sections of our people,” the bishop said.He stressed that their approach is to promote unity amongst Christian.
“We have also routinely designed programs to reach to people especially young persons while ensuring their edification in the word aware that a church without these young persons cannot be, as well as putting in place mechanisms to address their concerns,” he explained.
The ceremony was attended by bishops from various religious denominations and politicians among others.
