Bishop Robert Duncan requests prayers for the Anglican Province of Uganda. He received word this morning that there was a fire last night at the Buddo Girls’ School in Kampala where 19 girls and two adults died. The fire appears to have been deliberately set. Mama Phoebe (wife of Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi) is presently in Virginia. They will be leaving tonight from D.C. with a 12 hour layover in London. Please pray for the families of the victims, for Mama Phoebe and the Rev. Helen, for Archbishop Henry and for all those involved.
A number of Anglican Communion Network parishes, under the care of Bishop John Guernsey, are members of the Anglican Church in the Province of Uganda.
My church is one of those under Uganda. Prayers ascending.
You can assume quite safely it is not [i]Christians[/i] in Uganda who oppose the education of girls. These are the newest Ugandan martyrs, stretching back through the 1970s and the 1880s.
Our long and nasty war against the earthly forces of darkness is only beginning. May God comfort their families.
We will pray for those involved.
Is there a way to help through donations to help rebuild the school? I know many of us out here are so sad, especially over the deaths of sweet innocent little girls, and want to help.
horrible, just horrible.
My home church, Eternity Anglican in Richmond, is also one of the 44 or so affiliated with Uganda. I will activate our prayer chain.
Yes, Uganda has a glorious tradition of producing lots of martyrs. How ironic it is that while we talk and talk endlessly here in America about our Anglican crisis, and while we may worry about law suits filed by TEC and being deprived of our buildings that way, we don’t have to fear this kind of apparent arson. Fortunately, we aren’t literally killing each other in the U.S., where Muslim immigrants haven’t yet tried this kind of terrorist tactic (assuming that the fire was indeed deliberately set by Ugandan Muslims, which may not be true).
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”
David Handy+
FWIW, I’ll just note the significance that it was +Bob Duncan the Lion-Hearted who broke this news, not +John Guernsey. There is obviously a very strong connection between Pittsburgh and Kampala. Recall that +John Guernsey was the guest preacher at the history-making annual convention of the Diocese of Pittsburgh last November when they voted to begin the process of disaffiliating from TEC.
My speculation (and that’s all it is, I have no inside information): if and when Pittsburgh votes to leave TEC this fall, I expect that Pittsburgh will align itself with Uganda, not with the Southern Cone, as San Joaquin and Fort Worth have done. That’s just my hunch. It’s seems like a much more natural fit to me. But then again, I may only be projecting my own preferences onto Pittsburgh.
David Handy+
I just came back from a mission Trip to Uganda last week. My church is St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Tallahassee, FL, although I went with parishioners of Trinity Anglican Church in Thomasville, GA. Both churches are part of the South Rwenzori Diocese in the Church of Uganda, about an 8 hour drive west of Kampala. Among our activities was painting a schoolhouse in the Diocese. My prayers go out to the students and families in Kampala.
Kampala is the large city just outside of Entebbe, where the international airport is located. You basically have to drive through Kampala to get to anywhere else in the country.
Is there verification that this is an Anglican School? Secular news reports do not mention it. It was stated that the doors were locked from the outside. Is that common practice or part of the homicide investigation. Our prayers for all those involved. Let us know if there is more we can do.
#9, the news broke on the Catholic Information Services for Africa website which FoxNews.com linked to Tuesday evening. It did not mention the name of the school, so I assumed that it was Roman Catholic. Does it really matter? These 9-12 year-old girls were [i]Christian[/i] and there are powers out there who do not want Christian girls to live. The fact that Mama Phoebe Orombi interrupted her visit in the U.S. and left for Uganda is all I need to know. Last weekend, she and Rev. Helen lead a retreat for women of the combined Uganda-affiliated parishes here on the West Coast.
I meant to direct my answer to answer to #8, obviously.
#10 I meant no disrespect, was just looking for good info. Since then I have seen it referred to as an Anglican school, it may be a RC school, I was interested to know if it was a CHRISTIAN school. It might be easy for outsiders to assume this was a religious statement, I was merely looking for more facts on the matter. I do see it has been pretty well covered by the media, we may know more later today. Meantime the question still holds- what can we do to help??? A tragic tale by any measure. Even more awful it it turns out to be a “religious” war. Peace to all those who mourn.
Please pray for the children in other boarding schools, they will be mourning for the the girls who died and they will be anxious in many ways for weeks and month to come. I say this because of my 1958/59 experience teaching 4th grade at a Lutheran school in Chicago when fire destroyed a Catholic School in Chicago, killing many students and nuns. For weeks afterward I would simply stop teaching whatever subject we were on to listen to the children, pray with them and encourage them however I could before taking up the subject matter again. Obviously I am still affected by that event and I still mourn the loss and the sorrow experienced by my students. This tragedy is everyone’s loss.
News reports say the building was locked from the outside before the fire was started. I don’t know if this is true. If so, it’s demonic.
I’ve made some inquiries and it seems that efforts to help respond in practical ways to this tragedy are being coordinated by the Rev. Alison Barfoot, who is Archbishop Orombi’s Assistant for International Affairs there in Kampala. If people want to do anything to help, such as give money to rebuild the girls’ boarding school etc., send me a personal email or private message and I’ll pass on her email address. More details should be publicly available soon.
David Handy+
A follow up to my #14.
Alison Barfoot has told me that people who wish to make a donation as a memorial to these girls (and the two adults) or the rebuilding of the dormitory should do so through ++Henry Orombi’s Emergency Fund. She gave me the bank account and routing information. But I’m not sure what the Elves would say about solicitng contributions, so I’m reluctant to say more at this time. However, anyone who wishes to contribute to the Archbishop’s Emergency Fund may contact me by personal email (using your T19 account) or a private message and I’ll be happy to give them that information.
The funeral or memorial service is set for Friday. Of course, remember that Uganda is something like 8 hours ahead of Eastern Time in the U.S.
David Handy+
From what I have read this may have been deliberate, which makes these children and adults martyrs. I first read this on an E mail chain here at Advent. Prayers ascending from many in our orthodox Evangelical cathedral in ECUSA.
David+, I haven’t been able to get the personal email feature to work. If you can, could you contact me with that info. Thank you.