Joy as 57 couples take part in mass wedding
Couples cut cakes at a mass wedding in Ntungamo on Saturday. The presiding bishop advised them to remain faithful and respectful to each other. PHOTO by Perez Rumanzi
What you need to know:
The mass wedding was organised to help couples who wanted to wed but lacked resources and those who are well off but lacked time to organise wedding parties.
Ntungamo
More than 2,000 Christians thronged St. Mathew Cathedral at Kyamate COU, the seat of South Ankole Diocese, to capacity at the weekend to witness a joint wedding in which 57 couples exchanged vows.
There were yells with excitement from hundreds of relatives and friends as couples walked down the isle to take their marriage vows presided over by South Ankole Bishop Rt. Rev Nathan Ahimbisibwe. The function began at 10am with the assembling of the couples.
The bishop asked each couple to put on rings (husband fitting it in wife and vice versa) and then they bellowed in chorus “I do”, which was followed by massive ululations from the congregation. Each couple was invited to the pulpit to pick up the marriage certificate.
The couples proceeded for lunch organised by the church. A downpour set off followed by drizzles that lasted for hours during which the couples cut a cake jointly shared and served the congregation.
During the sermon, Bishop Ahimbisibwe advised the couples to take their vows seriously and avoid running away from their families or ignoring responsibility. “It is one thing to wed but it is another to keep by the vows you have made in a crowd like this of Christian believers that you remain faithful, respectful, love your husband or your wife in all conditions, hunger, disease, happiness and grief. Only death shall separate you,” Bishop Ahimbisibwe said. He said the joint wedding was organised to help couples who wanted to wed but did not have resources and those who are well off but lacked time to organise wedding parties.
“When this diocese was born in January this year, as I was moving across the diocese, I realised many couples were staying together with out being properly wed,” Rev. Ahimbisibwe told journalists. He added: “We later announced and began organising for this mass wedding we called wedding for all borrowing a leaf from UPE and USE. People brought us cows and goats. It only cost us Shs3m. We thought it would be a small thing but it turned to very big.”
Asked on whether the mass wedding would not attract criticism in the church since it has always been a practice of Pentecostal churches, Bishop Nathan said: “It does not matter whether there is criticism or not, the fact is couples have chosen to wed in the Anglican church and they have been united in Christ.”
