Africa-Press – Uganda. The Bishop of South Ankore Diocese, Rt Rev Nathan Ahimbisibwe has warned all clerics against renting the church out the land, advising them to instead utilize it by starting income-generating ventures.
Bishop Ahimbisibwe who was on Tuesday closing a two-day South Ankole Diocese Agronomic Farmers’ Training aimed at equipping clerics and heads of development in all parishes in Ntungamo Town Council, said that Church land is meant to benefit Christians, not particular individuals.
“Please stop renting out church land, but instead use it for projects such as coffee which will benefit the whole church and will save it from depending on tithe,” he said.
“If the head of the laity fails your church to develop, please make a change and select another one and I will not hesitate to dismiss or discipline a reverend, archdeacon, lay reader and any other who was posted in the area to develop it but is now blocking the church to do its projects on church land,” he further noted.
The Diocese recently received Shs259m from the Church of Uganda secretariat for the construction of a coffee huller machine in the area.
Bishop Ahimbisibwe said for the church to fight poverty amongst the Christians they have to embrace commercial agriculture.
The Bishop’s warning follows the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, His Grace Dr Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu’s advice that church land should be utilized to scare away resilient grabbers.
“If you have a piece of land, ensure that you put up a structure or cultivate there something because we have land grabbers who may target it. They have a very good strategy of stealing church land and they are not even scared of curses from us,” he warned.
Dr Kaziimba said that the grabbing of land is rampant in dioceses making up the Province of the Church of Uganda which has affected the development of the dioceses.
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