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UCU bans non-Anglican worship at own campus
Uganda Christian University Vice Chancellor, Rev Can Dr John Ssenyonyi. Courtesy photo
Mukono. Uganda Christian University Mukono (UCU) has banned non-Anglicans from worshipping at the campus, saying the institution is founded on the Anglican faith and values which need to be given space and protected from interference by other religious faiths.
“While we recognise the worship of other people, it is not welcome to this campus,” the Uganda Christian University Vice Chancellor, Rev Can Dr John Ssenyonyi, said.
“Uganda Christian University is established on Anglican foundation and there is need to respect this setting. All worship which is not Anglican and that accepted by the University’s Chaplaincy should be conducted outside UCU campus. Those who have been doing so must stop immediately,” he said added.
Rev Can Ssenyonyi said this on Tuesday during UCU’s community hour, where the university community, students and staff, congregate for prayers and episcopal interactions at the main campus.
Rev Can Ssenyonyi said all non-Anglicans are welcome to the university, but specified that in regard to worship, they will have to do it from their respective places of worship of their faiths outside the university.
“We call upon non-Anglican worshipers to respect us as we do respect their faiths,’’ the clergyman declared to the congregation.
At the same occasion, Rev Can Ssenyonyi introduced Ms Monica Ntege as the new university librarian replacing Dr Alex Mukungu.
Officials of the Catholic Church and Muslims Saturday Monitor talked to said they could not comment on an issue they had not been informed about officially. They argued that responding to such a decision they were not aware of would be commenting on hearsay.
Last year, UCU also banned opposite-sex visitors from entering students’ halls of residence. The ban triggered protests by the students at Bishop Barham University College in Kabale, an affiliate of Uganda Christian University.
The university administration also ordered the closure of all the small access routes to the UCU campus in Mukono.
In 2014, some unmarried students were suspended after they were found pregnant in a random medical check-up exercise carried out at the university campus.
The university administration explained that the suspended undergraduates were admitted as single students and were not supposed to engage in pre-marital sex under the doctrines of the Anglican faith, the foundation of the university. The administration also said the students’ conduct was in defiance of the university’s daily teachings for sexual purity.
