Love gifts and the Janani Luwum Church House

On Sunday June 6, I launched the Church of Uganda’s Love Gift Fundraising campaign to clear the debt on Church House. That Sunday evening, the President closed churches for public worship; eleven days later the country went on full lockdown.
 Was this the worst possible timing for the campaign? Or, could it be the Lord really wanted to get our attention?
 On April 16, 1961, the Church of Uganda installed its first archbishop as a self-governing Church. So, this past April, the Church of Uganda celebrated 60 years of self-governance as a church.
 Church historians have discovered that healthy churches have three primary characteristics: (1) Self-propagating; (2) Self-governing; (3) and Self-sustaining. From the earliest days of Christianity in Uganda, the Church has been self-propagating. The faith of the Martyrs of Uganda galvanised local evangelism that was later fuelled by the East African Revival. Ugandan missionaries like Apollo Kivebulaya, were responsible for the explosive growth of the Church.
 By 1961, the Church was long overdue for her to manage her own affairs. That was the year the first archbishop was installed in Uganda. That was the year we added the second  leg of a healthy church. That was the year the Church of Uganda became self-governing.
 For our first 60 years as a Church, we focused on evangelism and church planting – we were self-propagating. For the second 60 years as a church, we added our strength as a self-governing Church. Now, as we stand at this milestone, we look ahead and commit ourselves to becoming a self-sustaining Church.
 Church House is a 16-storey commercial office building on Kampala Road, just opposite the Bank of Uganda. It is a visible symbol of our commitment to becoming a self-supporting Church.
 The story of Church House began in the early 1970’s when Archbishop Janani Luwum served as the third archbishop. The Church dreamt of a commercial office building that would generate income to support the Church’s ministries of education, healthcare, development, evangelism and mission. Unfortunately, Archbishop Luwum was martyred in 1977 and the country descended into serious challenges, followed by war, hyper inflation, and massive devaluation of the Ugandan shilling.
 Archbishop Livingstone Nkoyoyo revived the dream in the mid-1990s, but it seemed impossible to raise the funds needed to construct such a major building.
 The breakthrough came during Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi’s time in 2011 when the Church of Uganda entered into a strategic partnership with Equity Bank. Equity Bank provided construction loans and there was a ground-breaking. Construction was completed in 2018 during Archbishop Stanley Ntagali’s time.
 It has now fallen to me as the 9th archbishop of the Church of Uganda to fast track the repayment of the construction loan. Why? Because interest keeps accruing, and every year we don’t pay off the loan is a year the rental income generated is not able to support the valuable ministries of the Church.
 Every diocese owns shares in Church House. So, when the debt is cleared, dioceses will directly benefit with increased income to support Church-founded schools and health centres, development projects and mission outreach.  If there was ever a time when we realised so clearly the need for the Church to diversify its income streams, it is during this global pandemic and lockdown.  That’s why it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and me that we continue to move forward with the Love Gift campaign…even during lockdown.
The Most Rev Dr Stephen Samuel Kaziimba Mugalu, Archbishop of Church of Uganda and Bishop of the Diocese of Kampala.