Addressing pilgrims on Sunday at the Anglican shrine in Namugongo, President Museveni promised to support Church of Uganda to clear the Equity Bank loan it acquired to complete the 16 storied Church House located along Kampala road.
The Church was reported to be on the brink of losing the magnificent building after it failed to clear bank loan.
The Church is said to have borrowed Ugx. 38Billion and another Ugx. 5Billion to complete the
New Vision reported on Sunday that the loan has since accumulated to Ugx. 2.6Billion in interest, a year after the expiry date. The bank in a February 9th 2018 letter to the Church, threatened to auction the building to recover the money.
‘‘I saw in the news today that the church house is about to be taken, that is not possible as long as God is still keep me alive. You have already done a great job to put up that tall building so we just can’t allow it to be taken away by the business people. We started on that work with Archbishop Luke Orombi, and now for traders to come and take away our house at the very end, that cannot happen.” Museveni said.
Mr. Museveni also honored the late Archbishop Dr Livingston Mpalanyi Nkoyoyo, lauding him for spearheading the renovation of the Anglican Shrine.
The president also promised to help the Church upgrade the Anglican Shrine to match that of Catholics.
‘‘Somebody would think that majority of the martyrs were Catholic, yet they were Anglican. When we declared 3rd June as martyrs day, you would go to the Catholic Church and find it full, then come here and find few people.’’ He said.
Close to four million pilgrims are said to have been at the Catholic shrine. On the other hand, about 700,000 pilgrims are said to have been at Anglican shrine.
Mr. Museveni also called on Christians to revise their ways if they are to enter house of the Lord.
‘‘The bible says our bodies are the lord’s temple but how can a body that has ignorance, alcohol, prostitution and poverty be a house of God? We therefore have to revise our ways’’ he said.
read: Ugandans are incredibly rich but very wasteful and unserious- we donate $77m to India for medical tourism- Museveni
