Church of Uganda launches vision 20125

The Church of Uganda (CoU) has launched vision 20125 strategic plan. The launch was presided over by Prime Minister Dr.Ruhakana Rugunda.

Archbishop’s Remarks at the launch of Vision 2025

Our Guest of Honor, The Rt. Hon. Prime Minister of the Republic Uganda Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda representing the President of the Republic of Uganda

My Brother Archbishops

My Brother Bishops

The Justices of the Courts of Judicature

Honorable ministers

Members of Parliament

Members of the Diplomatic Coupe

All our development partners

Members of the Provincial Assembly Standing Committee

The Clergy

All invited guests

Brothers and Sisters in Christ

I take this singular honour to greet you all in the name of our Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is my joy to welcome all of you in your various capacities to this great and historic occasion of the launch of the Church of Uganda 10 year Provincial Master Strategic Plan 2016-2025. Today we can as a Church proudly say with confidence that Ebenezer thus far the Lord has brought us.

In a special way, I welcome our guest of honour, The Rt. Hon. Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda.  Our dear guest of honour, thank you for coming to grace this auspicious occasion.

For those who may be interacting with the church of Uganda for the first time, Church of Uganda is the 2^nd  largest Church in Uganda with a total population of over 12 million Christians, accounting for 32% of the country’s population. It is also the 2^nd largest Anglican community in Africa after Nigeria. Geographically, Church of Uganda structures extend from its Provincial Headquarters in Namirembe, Kampala to all the 52,000 political parishes of this country. The Church of Uganda has 36 Dioceses and 25,000 congregations across the country. Therefore, in terms of its strategic re-positioning through the 10 year Strategic plan; the Church is poised for effective delivery of effective socio-economic and spiritual services up-to the door steps of the last family in the country. These aspirations can only be achieved through partnership with Government, local and international partners, well-wishers and the Church of Uganda Christians.

Our dear Guest of honour, the Church of Uganda in designing the future it wants, has developed a strategic Vision and Mission Statement, a set of Core Values and made a Strategic choice that will give direction to the implementation of the plan. The Church of Uganda Vision statement is: A faster growing sustainable Christ- centred Church. Its Mission Statement is: To proclaim the Gospel in accordance with Christ’s commission to make disciples of all nation. The Church of Uganda Core values are: Godliness, faithfulness to the Holy Scriptures, Integrity, selfless service, Unconditional love, Unity in Christ and upholding Biblical family Values. The Church of Uganda Key objectives are based on (Matt. 9:35; 28:19-20) and they are: To win souls for Christ, to nurture and equip Christians to maturity and to promote holistic transformation for the communities.

The Church of Uganda has been in existence for the last 140 years (1877-2017).  It has evangelized the Great Lakes region, especially Rwanda, Burundi, Congo and Southern Sudan. The Church shall continue with her mission work nationally and internationally. It should also be noted that throughout history, Church of Uganda has offered holistic ministry in a non- discriminatory manner to her members and non- members. The Church has established over 250 Hospitals and health centres; it has founded 1200 pre-primary schools, 5118 primary schools, 460 secondary schools, 14 theological colleges, 6 Universities, and 50 other tertiary institutions of learning in Uganda. The Church of Uganda throughout its operations in the last 140 years has been preaching the gospel of love in action, in times of peace and in times of war, responding to natural and man- made calamities and disasters such as floods, landslides, drought, famine, refugee crises and others. In all situations, the Church of Uganda has given hope to the hopeless, home to the homeless and it has been a voice for the voiceless and a sanctuary to the destitute. In its years of ministry, Church of Uganda’s history has been characterized by martyrdom, beginning  with the Uganda Martyrs  whose blood were shed at Namugongo, martyrdom of Bishops such as Bishop Hannington and in the most recent times the Archbishop St Janani Luwum.

Rt. Hon. Prime Minister, the Church of Uganda for the first time has come up with a Provincial Master Strategic Plan which is going to guide the Church in its operations for the next 10 years (2016-2025) as it mobilizes her members for the works of service. Different Dioceses have been developing their own strategic plans but this one this time is a Strategic Master Plan for the whole Province of the Church of Uganda. The Bible says in Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no Vision, the people perish.” This Strategic plan has come to offer the Church of Uganda the Vision that will help the Church in all her operations as it serves the people of God in this nation; especially as it offers a systematic and holistic development road map. This Strategic plan is an outcome of the 22nd Provincial Assembly resolution (August 2014) that required the Church of Uganda to come up with a long term plan to guide the operations of the whole Church.

The times have greatly changed and the Church of Uganda must reposition herself and change its strategy and approach to ministry in order to cope with the new challenges. The Holy Scriptures counsels us thus: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the Westland. (Isaiah 43:18-19).” There is a need for us to focus on the new things that the Lord is doing for his Church and his people. The Church must raise and maintain her prophetic voice over the nation. It must remain the voice of the voiceless and must point the people to the Risen Lord Jesus Christ. The Church must continue to preach the gospel of repentance and salvation in season and out of season.

Rt. Hon. Prime Minister, this Strategic Plan has four focus areas; Mission, Socio-Economic Development, Community engagement and Institutional Development focus. The Mission focus will cover personal lives, Churches, Church institutions and enterprises, private organizations and business enterprises to bring revival, salvation and transformation. The Socio-Economic focus shall involve resource mobilization and productive investments; development of quality education and healthcare, advocacy, leadership capacity building, involvement and empowerment of the laity, effective stewardship and creation of maximum socio impact among the communities. The Community engagement focus require the Church of Uganda to engage with the Christians, professionals, organizations and other stakeholders  at both local and global levels in order to enhance leadership and management capacities; negotiate and influence policies enactments; and promote- Christian values in the society with sensitivity to culture. While the institutional focus aims at organizational integration to enhance a shared vision, mission and purpose by focusing attention and resources on the most critical issues in the communities.

Our dear Guest of honour, this Provincial Strategic Master Plan 2016-2025, is a result of a collective effort from all the critical stakeholders of the Church of Uganda. I greatly appreciate the work of the Provincial Assembly Standing Committee and the 23rd Provincial Assembly in approving the long term Strategic Plan for the Church. I extend the appreciation to the Board of Trustees, the Provincial Boards for their input into this plan. I commend the Provincial Secretarial team that traversed the Province to gather the relevant data and information. I appreciate all the Diocesan Secretaries, Treasurers, Planning and development officers, Heads of Laity and all others who made a significant contribution to this noble task. The Church of Uganda is grateful to Mr. Edward Gaamuwa who freely offered his expertise as a Consultant. The Church appreciates Edward Gaamuwa for sharing his experience and wisdom. He tirelessly led the management team at the Provincial Secretariat through crucial reflections, sacrificing a lot of his time to see that this Strategic Master Plan comes to being. The Church of Uganda will forever be grateful to Mr Edward Gaamuwa’s contribution.

On behalf of the House of Bishops’ and the Provincial Assembly of the Church of Uganda, I commend this Provincial Master Strategic Plan 2016-2025 for adoption and action in the entire Province: to the Diocese, the Archdeaconries, Parishes,  Sub-Parishes and Congregations. I also commend it to all Church of Uganda founded institutions: Schools, Colleges, Universities, Hospitals, Health centres, Projects and Programs.

I greatly commend all the partners who have generously committed their hard earned scarce resources for the love and service of the communities under our care. I invite you to study this plan and respond to the areas of need. I invite new partnerships with the concerned and well-wishers and the entire Body of Christ locally and internationally.

I call upon the President and the Government of Uganda, the private sector, the business community, our development partners, the donor community, whole Church of Uganda through the Bishops to embrace this Strategic plan, operationalize it for the good of the Church of God and the service of God’s people. I encourage the Bishops to involve everyone as the Strategic plan requires in all the four focus areas to see that the Church gets transformed through this Strategic Master Plan and see that communities are served as expected. Together, let us mobilize the whole Church for the works of service using this Strategic plan.  Rt. Hon. Prime Minister, with this remarks I take this singular honour to invite you to address the people of God gathered here today and also to launch this Strategic Master Plan.

The Most Rev. Stanley Ntagali

The Archbishop of the Church of Uganda