Video for March 27th
Bishop Richard: Hello everybody and welcome to this week's video, the second week of a video from Gulu in northern Uganda. And we're coming to the end of our time here now. We've experienced the most wonderful hospitality, most wonderful inspiration from the church here and I'm delighted that Simon and Sarah Cordell, who have been hosting us, are able to come and sit.
We're sitting under a mango tree. It's a balmy 33 degrees, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. And we're going to have a little bit of a chat about their life here, what's encouraged them, what's challenging them. And I think it's really great to be able to share directly with you because of course Simon and Sarah were much loved, parish priests in our diocese and have come here and have been here for the last two years.
So Sarah, do you want to kick us off?
Sarah: Hi. It's great to see you and to be with you. Thank you. We've really enjoyed our week with Bishop Richard and Deborah, and it gives us a chance to reflect on all that we're doing here and what we're seeing, how we're seeing God at work. We've enjoyed evening Bible studies with half a dozen students, each weekday evening helping them explore or explore together Paul's letters. And the bishop is ducking out just as we're about to start on the delights of the Book of Revelation.
Bishop Richard: And what is your role, Sarah, in the college?
Sarah: I'm the principal here.This college has 53 students and about 10 members of staff. There are three of us who are full time, the director of studies, the administrator and myself and others who work in the diocese and as clergy in the surrounding parishes. But give their time to teach here up to 8 or 12 hours a week.
Bishop Richard: Okay, thank you. And it has been a huge encouragement to me to get to know a few of the students and thinking that the future of the church in Uganda is in very, very good hands in the students who are here in their depth of spirituality and their passion for the gospel.
So Simon, what are you up to?
Simon: Well, I have two roles that I am undertaking in the diocese. The first is to introduce and then oversee a course called Rooted in Jesus, which is an African developed discipleship course that in fact I've been involved in for some years previous to coming out with the Church Mission Society. We introduced the course into the diocese a year ago with a conference. In fact, it was the Largest conference that Rooted in Jesus has ever had. Such was the enthusiasm for it, and this year has seen the rollout of the course into the diocese with the feedback of some really remarkable testimonies and encouragements from the churches where it is now being undertaken. Some of these are very far away from any large city or habitation, and the levels of education that you get in the villages deep in the, in the bush as it's known here, can be, for example, key stage one equivalent. And so, having an oral-based discipleship course is something that is actually really important, and it's based on memory verses because many of the people will either not have Bibles, which is an issue, or if they had them, would struggle to read them.
So that's one thing. The second thing that I'm doing is that I'm involved in household transformation in the diocese. The part that I've had to play in that over this last year has been developing a coffee and cocoa plantation in the diocese that will be an exemplar to others, setting up a coffee cooperative in the diocese so that surrounding farmers can benefit from the training that will be on offer in due course and hopefully through a project which we're doing alongside the government, benefit from free seedlings which will make an enormous economic impact on the lives of their households as we seek to lift people out of poverty. Because here, about 72% of the population is below the World Bank defined poverty level. It's a very poor area that's been devastated over a 20-year period by civil war, and even now, 15 years after that ended, the effects of that, in terms of a broken culture and dependency, are very evident in people's lives and across generations.
Bishop Richard: Thank you. One of the things that's been a real privilege here is to see how the church is absolutely integral to the development of society, not just within the church but also in the wider culture. And that's been extraordinarily encouraging to see and to be invited to be, to be a part of.
I wanted to ask you both the following question: It is Lent. We're actually probably coming towards the end of Lent when this video is going to be recorded. I wanted to ask you a couple of questions really. One is how has being here changed you spiritually and what does it look like, Lent, in a place like this?
I mean we think about giving things up, which are usually luxuries when people are 73% are, uh, below the poverty line. What does fasting look like? I mean, I know most of the churches here have a day every week where they fast and pray for the life of the church, but what does it look like perhaps for individuals to engage with those disciplines?
Sarah: The preaching of my colleagues has shown that the students are encouraged to be more careful and attentive in their prayer and Bible study over the Lenten period, perhaps to fast more often. We have a prayer fast on Fridays here in college, which some of the students take part in and they're encouraged to be more serious, serious about this. The emphasis that I've heard is of seeking to follow Jesus more closely, especially sharing in his sufferings, so that by some means they might hope, also to share in his resurrection.
Bishop Richard: And Simon, what about you?
Simon: Yeah, I would say similar. The exhortations that are coming from the bishop and members of the diocesan staff are very much towards, as in the uk, actually a period of self reflection, great fasting and prayer and a better engagement with Bible study and their personal devotions. It's taken very seriously.
Bishop Richard: This is a week here, you know, the water doesn't work very well, the electricity goes off quite a lot, there's lots of insects, and it's all a bit difficult if you're used to Western luxury. You've been living here for now just over two years. What's it been like?
Sarah: You learn to be thankful when you press the electric switch and the light comes on. You learn to be thankful when there's enough water in the water tank to be able to flush the toilet. We have that luxury of a flushing toilet. So we've learned to live, thankfully for what we do have, aware that we live at a much higher standard than the people we're in the midst of.
Simon: Absolutely. Thankfulness is something that comes very naturally here because there are so many things that actually, in Britain we would just take for granted. Here you just don't see. And there is another aspect to that as well, which is here in the midst of life, there is death and it's very close. This is a society where all of the time you're often hearing of people who've died of a disease that in the UK might have been preventable or indeed the other big thing here is mortality on the roads. It is quite bad, not the least because everybody rides around on motorcycles and horror of horrors, very few will actually wear helmets.So motorcycle accidents are very often extremely serious and fatal.
Bishop Richard: Thank you. Well, can I say thank you on behalf of Deborah and myself for your hospitality. It's been absolutely wonderful to be here and I think I have been so extraordinarily impressed with the depth of the spiritual passion amongst the people in the Church of Uganda. I think perhaps one thing I've learned is that in our travelling, in the morning, we pray, and in the evening, we give thanks and place everything that we are doing here in the hands of God, who loves us and watches over us.
So, thank you again. Thanks for watching, friends. And I think this might be the last one actually, on my travels next week, I hope maybe in the garden again. So continue to have a good Lent and I'll see you next week.