Our History
In 1970, the Most Rev Sabiiti instituted a commission of inquiry. The commission was chaired by Mr. John Bikangaga, who had led to the making of the 1970 Church of Uganda (CoU) constitution. The commission was also set up to review the CoU Finances and Administration.
However, one of the things the Bikangaga commission recommended was the creation of a central diocese in order to facilitate the archbishop’s duties. The hidden motive was to have a special seat for the Archbishop. When the report was published in 1970, Namirembe and West Buganda dioceses rejected it. They claimed that the Bikangaga report recommendation for the creation of a new diocese for the Archbishop was outside the commission’s terms of reference. The two dioceses had also in November 1969 refused to participate in the discussions of the report which led to the making of the 1970 COU constitution. When Sabiiti was in 1965 elected Ugandan Anglican Archbishop, a section of Buganda rejected him.
They wanted a Muganda to succeed the retiring Archbishop Leslie Brown because some people saw Sabiiti as being too close to then Prime Minister Milton Obote who was at the time at loggerheads with the President and also king of Buganda, Edward Muteesa.
Archbishop Sabiiti was publicly opposed at Namirembe, the headquarters of the Church of Uganda. It is also claimed that there was an attempt on the Archbishop’s life. The Uganda Argus of January 7, 1972, reported that Namirembe
and West Buganda dioceses opposed the creation of Diocese of Kampala. Under the headline ‘West Buganda, Namirembe still say no,’ the newspaper quoted the secretary of Namirembe Diocese, Rev Sengendo Zake’s press release of January 6, 1972, that opposed the 1970 CoU constitution.
“Namirembe and West Buganda dioceses have never changed their stand over the 1970 constitution,” Zake was quoted to have said. But then President Idi Amin could not allow the two dioceses to secede. In late 1971, Amin had met the CoU leaders and warned them that no diocese would be allowed to secede.
“Within the Church, for the last six years, there has been a worsening of the situation because two dioceses of the Church of Uganda had decided to break away from the Church of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi and Boga Zaire to form a new one of Buganda,” Amin said.
“If this were allowed to happen there might be further break ups into small ineffective units and since this process might follow tribal or ethnic groups, it could be very harmful and have grave effects on the unity of the country,” he added. Slowly, the bishops of Namirembe and West Buganda receded their demands.
Following the resolution of the crisis constitutional amendments were made in 1972. The COU promulgated the Provincial Constitution 1972 (on December 7th), creating in Article 1, the Diocese of Kampala. It was carved out of Namirembe Diocese and ASK was made a ‘Pro-Cathedral’ and the seat of the Archbishop of Uganda, who then also became the Bishop of Kampala. For Namirembe, shedding off ASK in the parish of Nakasero, with its unique character and history, was a welcome break and an easy concession, as Namirembe had never really had effective control over All Saints’ Parish
