Archbishop Kazimba calls for reopening of Sunday schools

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Archbishop of the Church of Uganda Dr Samuel Stephen Kazimba Mugalu has pleaded with the government to re-open Sunday school services for children.

The call was made during Easter service prayers at All Saints Cathedral in Kampala.

Sunday schools were closed nationwide as a means to forestall the spread of COVID-19 in March 2020. While churches were opened for worship last year, President Yoweri Museveni did not open Sunday school for children on the premise that they were not safe.

However, the clergy now wants the schools open to give young Christians the chance to congregate.

Archbishop Kazimba Mugalu said that Sunday schools should be opened to give young children the opportunity to congregate. He says keeping the children away from church is no longer reasonable.

According to the Archbishop, if schools have been allowed to operate, there’s no reason Sunday school services should not open since churches are a more controlled environment.

The call to re-open Sunday school services comes following the government’s decision to allow schools to open in a staggered manner. So far, learners in semi-candidate classes have been allowed to go back to school. Learners in senior one and those in primary four and five will be resuming school this month.

While Sunday schools have not yet been opened, many parents have been taking their children to church to attend the services.

Joyce Atwine, a mother of four that URN foundds with her children at the church, says she broke the law because she did not have anywhere else to leave her children.

“I had no one to leave the children with. My maid travelled to the village and I could not leave the children home alone,” she said.

Dorah Tumusiime, a Sunday school teacher at Anointed Church of Jesus Christ told URN that the continued closure of Sunday Schools leaves churches stranded.

“Normally children have their own space but since the government closed these, in the main service, some of them do not understand the long sermons,” she said. “They just sit and play with Bibles. But also adults who walk in later at times have nowhere to sit and we are forced to make them wait outside or stand yet the children have designated places but we cannot open them yet!”

With a reduction in COVID-19 cases, Tumusiime says that government should re-open Sunday schools. In the past two months, the number of reported COVID-19 cases has reduced by over 80 percent. As of April 1,2021, 40,962 cases of the disease had been reported.

However, experts have been warning that this is most likely the calm before the storm, with a deadly wave of new killer Covid-19 infections coming around the corner.

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URN