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UGANDA:Orombi first Archbishop to preach at prominent Pentecostal Church

UGANDA:Orombi first Archbishop to preach at prominent Pentecostal Church

April 15, 2006
By Andnetwork.com

Dr Henry Orombi of the Church of Uganda has broken barriers becoming the first archbishop to preach in a Pentecostal church. "This is the making of history. No archbishop has stood where I'm standing now," said His Grace Orombi while on the pulpit of Kampala Pentecostal Church.

KPC is one of the more prominent Pentecostal churches in Uganda.

The archbishop (right) had been invited as one of the special guest speakers during the church's Easter Revival Week that began on April 11. The week is part of the church's celebrations to mark its 22nd anniversary.

For me to come to fellowship with Pentecostals gives me a glimpse of heaven. There [in heaven], there will not be Pentecostals, Anglicans, or any other denomination, Orombi said delightedly.

The Pentecostals and the Anglicans, as well as other main Christian denominations, rarely see eye-to-eye due to accusations and counter-accusations. The Pentecostals claim the mainstream groups have strayed from the real Gospel as laid down in the Bible while the latter believe Pentecostals are wayward type who distort the Gospel in their embrace of worldly influences.

Orombi, clad in a blue-black suit, a purple pectoral shirt with a white collar and a dangling cross, opened with an icebreaker. I think this pulpit never sees many [people with a height of] 6 feet, 5 inches, he said as he towered over Pastor Chris Komagum who welcomed him to the pulpit, to the congregation's amusement.

Preaching about Jesus Christ's mission of love, the Anglican archbishop spoke passionately for more than 45 minutes. The fully packed auditorium and gallery, with others in the inner parking yard, kept shouting back in true Pentecostal spirit. He turned to read from the Bible only once.

Quoting John 4:16, the account of Jesus and the Samaritan woman he found at a well, Orombi said, “The real issue was the woman didn't have a husband even though he had been with five men and was moving onto her sixth. In this city, there are people starved of love, someone to say "I love you", to touch them and make meaning to their lives.

Jesus is this someone. The archbishop referred to John 8 about the woman caught in adultery. It takes two to commit adultery, the prelate said. "When Jesus bent down and started writing, he must have been writing "Where is the man? Jesus' love reached out to a woman destined to die." The congregation, mostly women, applauded. He thanked Pastor Gary Skinner and his wife Marilyn, KPC's senior pastors, for taking children off the streets and rehabilitating them.

KPC runs Watoto, a childcare ministry that looks after parentless children and those taken off the street, equipping them with essential moral values and life skills. Orombi talked tough on Christian's love for money and quest to embrace every modern system that comes up. Part of the Christians' weakness is that we love money more than we love God. Why is [Justice James] Ogoola wasting time but for our love for money? Corruption is eating us up. May God deliver us from the love of money.

Justice Ogoola chairs the commission of inquiry into the misuse of the Global Fund meant to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria. He added, Young people, especially those joining Makerere University, are bombarded with immorality in form of modern systems.

God is more modern than any modern systems. Believers, stand firm from any of these misleading forms of modernisation. He weighed in passionately on unity, castigating some born-again Christians' attitudes towards Anglicans. I'm here to unbind attitudes that Anglicans are not born-again.

"You will be surprised to find them in heaven," said the archbishop, adding, "Believers are busy pecking and criticising each other. These days are coming to an end. I never knew I would ever come here and talk to red-blooded Pentecostals. It is time to know the enemy for who he is rather than fighting each other. It is time for us to come together. God is going to hold us together as Ugandans, Africans and the world."

Ms Aileen Ngu, the director of communication in the Church of Uganda, hailed the archbishop's invitation to appear in KPC. It was a great moment emphasising the need for unity. We all love Christ regardless of the denomination and as such should be united.

Source: The Monitor

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