Prof. Simeon Kayiwa has encouraged the born-again community in Uganda to personalize marriage vows, adding that there is no passage in the Bible that mentions particular vows to be made during a wedding ceremony.
Speaking at multitudes at House of Prayer Ministries International located in Makerere, kikoni, the vision bearer of Namirembe Christian Fellowship said Christian couples are at liberty to write their own vows, without relying on the standard traditional wedding vows known to many churches across the globe.
“In our daily life, one can get a car and personalize its licence plate. No one can oppose that. Personalization means to express words in a language you best understand. This is what happened during bible translation. Translators personalized some scriptures. This does not mean that every translation made has to be in line with how others personalized it. The statement ’till death do us part’ does not exist in the bible,” Prof. Simeon Kayiwa said.
“Why don’t we born-again Christians personalize marriage vows and agree to what we believe. This is not intended to break the church, but to declare what we believe. We have a particular doctrine, we don’t have to hang on other people,” he continued.
Prof Kayiwa said other religious denominations are “free to believe what they feel is right to them.”
“Personalization of marriage vows started in the early churches. About 100 years ago, a specific group of people came up and started encouraging people to individually decide what they will vow to their spouses. These words are meant to come from the bottom of your heart and should be fitting to describe your love. You say these words before the Lord in heaven and the congregation. Jesus has never said this is how you should vow, it is you to decide,” he added.
The comments come following Pastor Aloysious Bujjingo’s remark on marriage vows that were deemed controversial by a section of Christian leaders a few weeks ago.
Bugingo said the statement, ’till death do us part’ is not biblical and is the cause of murders between couples. He challenged both congregants and faith leaders to show him a couple in the bible that made such vows.
He observed: “People do not just kill others. It is those vows when Abraham was marrying Sarah, did he make those vows? The vows are from hell.”
Condemning division among born-again churches, Prof. Simeon Kayiwa said that he is going to stand with Pastor Aloysious Bujjingo.
“Follow the vision that God gave you,” Prof Kayiwa told Pr. Bujjingo.
“If ministry was simple, we would not be able to get to the top. It is the [issues] that we face daily that lift us,” he added.
