Ankole Anglican Bishop Sheldon Mwesigwa has vowed to use the GAFCON meeting in Jerusalem to internationalize his fight against the belief and practice of witchcraft which he says is responsible for backwardness, poverty and underdevelopment in Africa. Mwesigwa is among the many CoU Bishops travelling with Archbishop Stanley Ntagali for Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) taking place in Jerusalem Israel. This news website interviewed Bp Mwesigwa at Entebbe airport as he and others prepared to take their flight.
Mwesigwa, who will be presenting a paper on how Christian revival messages can be used to demystify witchcraft, said superstition was currently a big problem in his Ankole diocese where unfortunately even political leaders practice it. Mwesigwa said he is on a crusade to end witchcraft, superstition and belief in African traditional religions in Ankole because such practices only cause poverty and keep people backward.
Mwesigwa carried with him videos of former witchdoctors that have since been touched by his revival message and denounced witchcraft. “My people in Ankole diocese are embracing my message that Godliness is associated with progress and economic development while witchcraft leads to poverty and backwardness,” said Mwesigwa whose mother Ankole diocese (covering Mbarara, Isingiro and Ntungamo) has given birth to three other dioceses. These include South Ankole, West Ankole and North West Ankole. Mwesigwa told this news website that his diocese has over 400,000 active practicing Anglicans and the number can only grow. Bp Mwesigwa said his relentless efforts had recently resulted into two prominent witchdoctors converting to Christianity. “They actually came from Buganda: one is Wambuzi and the other is Nabakooza. They denounced witchcraft and gave their lives to Christ and this has reenergized the message of revival in my diocese. I’m actually going to be sharing their video at the GAFCON meeting.
Nabakooza has got married and even returned to school which shows progress and development. Wambuzi has even changed his name to Kyomugisha,” Bp Mwesigwa said attributing the rapid development in education and transformation in his diocese to increasing number of people abandoning African traditional religious practices and witchcraft. Mwesigwa is part of more than 320 Anglican clerics who the Archbishop Ntagali is leading to GAFCON Conference which is a global gathering for Bishops opposed to secularism and celebration of gay marriages in the world Anglican dominion. Paula Nahamya’s Africa1 tour and travel is in total taking 600 Anglican Church leaders from Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Ghana.
Mwesigwa said the 20 Anglicans from his diocese will use the GAFCON conference to renew their faith and commitment to defeat ungodly practices like witchcraft and homosexuality in their diocese. The Bishop, who is travelling with his wife, also thanked Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and Gender PS Pius Bigirimana for their outspokenness against gay marriages and homosexuality during international meetings. “As CoU we are very proud of those two leaders and their firm stand is the reason Uganda remains a strong voice in the GAFCON Fellowship meetings,” Bp Mwesigwa told this news website as his wife and other Christian leaders, who flanked him, nodded in approval. He said Christian leaders have a duty to resist liberalism which has enabled practices like gay marriages to thrive in some parts of the Anglican Communion yet they are clearly abominable.
Bp Mwesigwa, whose diocese has 500 churches operating under 80 parishes, said with the increased anti-gay leadership Ugandan leaders like Kadaga and Bigirimana have offered so far, Uganda will someday be chosen to host the prestigious GAFCON conference which occurs once every 4 years. This year’s conference in Jerusalem was preceded by one of 2014 which our neighbor Kenya hosted and their tourism industry cashed in on the thousands of international guests that visited Nairobi. “It’s an important event to host and I’m in no doubt Uganda could be chosen to host the next one in 4 years from now,” Bp Mwesigwa concluded. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755.
