O God, by whose providence the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church: Grant that we who remember before thee the blessed martyrs of Uganda, may, like them, be steadfast in our faith in Jesus Christ, to whom they gave obedience even unto death, and by their sacrifice brought forth a plentiful harvest; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Who would ever have thought, when these young men gave their lives for the sake of remaining faithful to Christ back in 1886, that Christianity would not only eventually become the dominant religion in Uganda, but that the Anglican Church of Uganda would far surpass the mother Church of England in size and strength? Yet that is indeed what has happened.
Thank God for the courageous witness of those early martyrs, and for later ones too, like ++Janani Luwum, who was shot on the orders of the infamous dictator Idi Amin, on Feb. 16th, 1977. The case of Uganda is a modern illustration of the truth of the ancient dictum of Tertullian around AD 200, i.e., “[i]The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.[/i]”
David Handy+