Watoto’s Gary Skinner hands over leadership after 40 years
Pastors Gary and Marilyn Skinner hug their successors, pastors Julius and Vernita Rwotlonyo after handing over leadership at Watoto Church, Kampala Road, on February 3, 2023. PHOTO/COURTESY
What you need to know:
The Church is known for helping vulnerable children and women.
Pastor Gary and Marilyn Skinner, the founders of Watoto Church - formerly Kampala Pentecostal Church (KPC), in an emotional hand-over of their 40-year pastoral leadership, knelt down before a fully packed church on Friday night and washed the feet of their successors, Julius and Vernita Rwotlonyo.
Pastor Gary Skinner is aged 70.
Sometimes you find answers in places you didn’t go to with questions
As a gesture of transfer of office, he removed his coat and draped it over Pastor Rwotlonyo amid an embrace.
The pastoral leadership of the Skinners at Watoto Church, spanning four decades, had come to an end.
“…So it’s with great joy that I stand before you to say, I have run the race, I have finished my work,” an emotional Pastor Gary said amid cheers and ululations from the worshipers who had gathered to witness the unforgettable moment.
In his initial stages of his exit-speech, Pastor Gary joked about one of his grandchildren whom he said once referred to him as an old man.
“A couple of years ago, my grandson called me for supper and said, ‘old guy, old guy’. My grandson’s father heard him and cautioned him never to call me, old guy and that I’m a distinguished gentleman,” he said.
Adding: “So they (grandchildren) started calling me a distinguished gentleman. So this grandson comes to me this week [last week], and says, “Grandpa, guess what, on Friday [last Friday], you are no longer going to be the distinguished gentleman, you are going to be the extinguished one.”
At the end of his emotional speech, Pastor Bob Hoskins, the founder of One Hope International, prayed for him and said: “A great leader hands over the baton to others to run with the same message/ vision.”
Watoto Church has over four decades of its existence, been widely known for showing Christmas Cantata during the Christmas period, Heavens Gates and Hell’s Flames, a play that portrays life after death and holding home cells, where church members between five and 12 gather every Wednesday to pray for each other’s needs. The Church is also known for rescuing vulnerable children and women from the streets and providing them with life’s basics such as accommodation, health and education.
In his acceptance remarks, Pastor Rwotlonyo, who has grown through the ranks of the church leadership from a youth pastor, promised to build on the gigantic legacy left behind by the Skinners. “We have our DNA that is captured in us. That is not going to change. Jesus will always be the centre of everything,” he said.
Background
The Skinners came to Uganda to in mid 1980s when people were fleeing the Obote II civil war to establish then Kampala Pentecostal Church (KPC).
They had been sent by Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, the largest evangelical Church in Canada to establish an English-speaking church in downtown Kampala. They started out their church first service 39 years ago at Grand-Imperial Hotel with 75 people in attendance. Watoto church now with 15 branches located within the city, upcountry and Juba, South Sudan, has an average weekly attendance of about 27,000 worshippers.
