{"id":23584,"date":"2021-12-25T15:18:17","date_gmt":"2021-12-25T15:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=23584"},"modified":"2021-12-25T14:41:29","modified_gmt":"2021-12-25T14:41:29","slug":"clerics-call-for-repentance-during-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/clerics-call-for-repentance-during-christmas","title":{"rendered":"Clerics call for repentance during Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>Religious leaders have urged Christians to use the Christmas season to reflect upon their lives and return to God, after what they described as a year of many society ills accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Bishop Joseph Anthony Zziwa, the chairperson of Uganda Episcopal Conference, an assembly of Catholic bishops, said some of the events that have transpired throughout the year in society are against God\u2019s expectations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we prepare to celebrate Christmas, we must take time and reflect on how far we have allowed the Holy Spirit to guide us individually, and, as a country in all dimensions,\u201d Bishop Zziwa, who is the head of Kiyinda-Mityana Diocese, said on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cWe have continued to witness wanton loss of life due to criminality, inadequate health care and other ills. Therefore, we appeal to all persons to respect life for it is a gift from God,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Amid the rise in teenage pregnancies precipitated by the prolonged closure of schools due to Covid-19, Bishop Zziwa condemned society\u2019s response towards abuse of children while calling upon parents and guardians to counsel and support the victims.<\/p>\n<p>He also urged Christians not to lose hope as they face trials and tribulations.<\/p>\n<p>The same message was echoed by Church of Uganda Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have faced many challenges this year; we might even think of some of them as afflictions. But, I call on every Ugandan to take time during this Christmas season to think about the impact the birth of Jesus has had on the world and on history. Only Jesus can give us the hope we need,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Bishop Kaziimba also decried that the pandemic has worsened gender-based violence (GBV) in families.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere has been a huge increase in teenage pregnancies during the pandemic, and it\u2019s likely that many of those girls will not return to school next year,\u201d he said in his Christmas message.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is tragic. But, the problem isn\u2019t a crisis of promiscuous daughters. The problem is a crisis of male family members raping and exploiting their own daughters. To our girls and daughters, I ask your forgiveness for the men in your family who have shown such selfishness and cruelty,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Daniel Matte, head of Seventh Day Adventist Church in Uganda said: \u201c&#8230;I want to appeal to all Ugandans to allow Jesus Christ to reign in our hearts and pray for everyone who has faced difficulties during this year. Don\u2019t lose hope and faith in the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>[email protected]<\/b><\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\">Uganda<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Uganda. Religious leaders have urged Christians to use the Christmas season to reflect upon their lives and return to God, after what they described as a year of many society ills accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Bishop Joseph Anthony Zziwa, the chairperson of Uganda Episcopal Conference, an assembly of Catholic bishops, said some [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":23583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-23584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Clerics call for repentance during Christmas - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Religious leaders have urged Christians to use the Christmas season to reflect upon their lives and return to God, after ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/clerics-call-for-repentance-during-christmas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Clerics call for repentance during Christmas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Religious leaders have urged Christians to use the Christmas season to reflect upon their lives and return to God, after ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/clerics-call-for-repentance-during-christmas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-25T15:18:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/12\/img-61c72d8104c55.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/clerics-call-for-repentance-during-christmas#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/clerics-call-for-repentance-during-christmas\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Clerics call for repentance during Christmas\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-25T15:18:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/clerics-call-for-repentance-during-christmas\"},\"wordCount\":441,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/clerics-call-for-repentance-during-christmas#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/12\/img-61c72d8104c55.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/clerics-call-for-repentance-during-christmas#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/clerics-call-for-repentance-during-christmas\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/clerics-call-for-repentance-during-christmas\",\"name\":\"Clerics call for repentance during Christmas - 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