Preparations are ongoing for a meeting between President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and all born-again Pastors in Uganda.
According to Miracle Centre Cathedral – Rubaga lead Pastor Robert Kayanja, the meeting is slated for Monday, 23rd September, 2019 at the Lugogo Cricket Oval in Kampala.
In an update on Friday, Pr Kayanja expressed delight in engaging with the organizing committee planning the President’s meeting with “all Pastors.”
Church leaders present included Dr. Bishop Joshua Lwere, the General Overseer of the National Fellowship of Born again Pentecostal Churches of Uganda (NFBPC), Presiding Apostle of the Born Again Faith Dr. Joseph Serwadda, Bishop Isaac Ssebaduka, security officials among others.
Why is Museveni meeting Pastors?
Close sources to Uganda Christian News confirmed the meeting, adding that the directive came from the President himself.
“It is the president who called for the meeting. No one is fully certain what he intends to communicate,” the source said.
According to the source, the event is expected to start 8:00 am however, the President will arrive a little later after that.
“Efforts to have pastors attend the meeting were done from the grassroots level by mobilizers from various churches belonging to the Born-Again Faith, NFBPC , Miracle Centre Churches and others. Pastors who don’t subscribe to any of those groups were also contacted, efforts were made atleast” the source said.
What do Pastors want the President to address?
With reference to initial interviews with the media, concern has been raised by Pastors over a number of issues.
In January this year, The National Forum of Pastors petitioned President Museveni to halt the draft of the Religious and Faith Based Organization’s (RFBO’s) policy, a legal framework designed to monitor and regulate activities of faith and religious institutions in Uganda.
As this website reported earlier, the policy seeks to among others provide standard guidelines on starting churches, enhance the partnership between government and RFBOs in the fight against corruption and offshoots of moral decadence.
Pastors against the policy claim it is an infringement to the rights and freedoms that are not only God-given but are guaranteed by the Ugandan constitution.
Recently, several clergy used their end, and new year speeches to decry the high insecurity and kidnap cases in Uganda.
Many also asked government to take action against land grabbers, corruption, unresolved murder cases, electoral policies and police brutality in the country. Christian leaders under Uganda Joint Christian Council (UJCC) asked the government to halt implementation of Islamic Banking.
State-Church relations have also been a matter of debate in Uganda. In his national address on New Year’s Day in 2018, President Museveni said some religious leaders were arrogant for speaking on political issues.
On the same matter, government accused Church of being partisan and setting one political party against another.
