On January 21, Frances and John Harrison and Marthe Curry traveled with Bishop Hibbs, Bishop Coadjutor Elect, Gary Lillibridge, Don and Karen Lee, and Betty Chumney from the Diocese of West Texas and Tom and Brenda Kingery from St. Mark’s Church. Goals were to attend the enthronement of Henry Orombi as the new Anglican Archbishop of Uganda and to work with the orphanage in Kampala. Money from the tapestries sold at Christ Church and in Washington was given to each of the village women who made the tapestries. This money was extremely well received and probably represented as much money as many of these women had ever seen in their lives. Frances and John also visited the new Rafiki Village on the outskirts of Kampala and were very impressed by its modern appearance. It was built as a model for future orphanages in Uganda as well as in nine other African nations.

The Uganda trip also included a very fruitful visit at the Uganda Christian University with the Vice Chancellor, Stephen Noll and his wife Peggy. Opportunities for several future projects were discussed.

The real highlight of the trip was the enthronement ceremonies. Henry Luke Orombi, the new Anglican Archbishop of Uganda was enthroned in Kampala January 25, 2004. The ceremony was held in St Paul’s Cathedral of Namirembe. Thousands of people from Uganda and all over Africa, the UK, Korea and the United States sat patiently and enthralled through a six-hour service that included a sermon from the Dean of the Cathedral in London, the Rev. Sandy Millar. Rev. Millar quotes the question Jesus asks Peter." Peter, do you love me." The question is asked again and once again Peter answers, yes. The third time Jesus asks Peter, Peter very humanly says, "why do you keep asking me when I have already told you?" We must answer "yes" everyday. This is the message Christ sends us.

The ceremony itself was colorful, lyrical from the choir and the harps, uniquely African with the interspersing of hymns in their Luganda language, and deeply spiritual. Consecrated bishops from all over the world processed with an impressive number of bishops from all over Uganda.

Uganda is known familiarly as the Pearl of Africa.It is landlocked so "pearl" is used in a figurative way to describe this country as intrinsically valuable. It is not a country of great natural resources, but its people are the pearls in the literal sense.

The previous day the outgoing Archbishop Nkoyoyo gave a farewell address at the Uganda Christian University, written and delivered in the native tongue of Luganda.It was powerfully translated by the man at his side who described the calling of this man, Livingstone Nyokoyo, as the challenge of climbing to the top of an insurmountable mountain. The mountain is a real mountain in Uganda in the Rwenzori range, and it represents the physical mountain a man or woman could scale. The actual mountain is in one of the darkest corners of the earth, shrouded by perpetual mist, and its melting waters are vital to the lives of millions of people.

Livingstone likened climbing it to the difficult task of educating so many people and bringing them into the fold of Christian life.

The new archbishop, Henry Orombi, did not have the forum for a sermon on January 25, but I am sure we will hear from this magnetic man in the days and years to come. His first charge to the clergy and congregation was to declare and insist upon a peace with the Lord’s Liberation Army of Northern Uganda. He set a firm date of February 28 for all ordained Anglicans to assemble on the northern border, united against the evil revolutionaries

With our recent council decisions, it allows missionary dedication to climb to the top of our list.The Ugandans need our help in a thousand ways. There are millions of Ugandans who are Anglican. It amazing how like us they are. They want to defeat sin and conquer the evil that besets them. They just need a hand or two or three…

Frances Harrison