Bishop wants fewer speeches at burials
The Bishop of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in southwestern Uganda, Mr Bernard Kakuru Bampata, has called for fewer speeches at burial ceremonies so that church leaders get time to preach the word of God. He said this also enables mourners to travel back to wherever they would have come from in time.
Bishop Bampata expressed disappointment that in most cases, people giving condolence messages and eulogies take a lot of time when mourners are exposed to sizzling sunshine, have to travel back, and they end up not listening to the word of God.
“Dear brethren in Christ, it so painful to listen to many speeches at burial ceremonies from various speakers and when the time of the preacher comes, you see mourners start moving up and down for short and long calls, talking to friends without minding about the word of the Lord.
"The church is the main celebrant at the burial ceremonies,” Bishop Bampata said.
He was presiding over the burial ceremony of Esteri Kembuga in Ruguma Village, Ntungamo Sub-county in Ntungamo District.
Bishop Bampata further said: “If you are having many people that are going to speak, always start early enough before the church. When the church comes in, choose only three people to represent others because most of the words are the same. So, I direct church leaders under Seventh Day Adventist Church in Southwestern Uganda to implement it. Wherever I am going to preside over burial, the speeches must be only three.”
He noted that the importance of the church at burial ceremonies is to comfort the bereaved family and give courage and hope to all mourners that Jesus Christ is only the way, truth and life and the long eulogies do not help much.
The Ntungamo District Woman Member of Parliament, Ms Beatrice Rwakimaari, told mourners that many eulogies are stressful since most of the people would want to go back to their respective destination in time.
“Thank you bishop for observing it and I implore you to implement it because when we politicians propose it, voters start blaming us that it is not our job. I am happy that the church has now come out to condemn it,” Ms Rwakimaari said.
She asked mourners to love one another, work hard and cooperate for betterment of their families.
Kembuga, 85, succumbed to multiple body complications. He is survived by eight children, 31 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.
