Star of the Sea is in the beginning stages of forming a sister parish with Mary Mother of the Church, a Catholic parish in Nyakishenyi, Uganda. Star of the Sea parishioners can pray especially for and help with the needs of our sister parish. To learn more or to be a part of the Sister Parish Committee, please contact Tammi Murray by email or by phone at 360-550-5517.
About the Sister Parish Committee
The motto of the Sister Parish Committee is "Friendship Begins on the Journey" which translates as "Omukago gutandikira aha Muhanda" in Rukiga, the language spoke by the people on our Sister Parish, who are referred to as Bakiga.
Mission Statement The Sister Parish Committee at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church strives to deepen our faith and experience the universal catholic church through developing a Sister Parish relationship with our sisters and brothers at Mary, Mother of the Church, Nyakishenyi Parish, in Uganda. Guided by Gospel values and Catholic Social Teaching, we desire to foster solidarity and cultivate creativity for a mutually beneficial relationship of sharing, understanding, and respecting each others values, cultures, and resources.
About Our Lady Mary Mother of the Church
Our Lady Mary Mother of the church Nyakishenyi parish started in 1963 separated from Kitanga parish which was a mother parish. Its population is 49,878 and out 35,000 are
Catholics. It is found on the hills 60km North of the Diocese of Kabale cathedral, in South Western Uganda. The parish headquarters is found on Kajumiro hills Kajumiro Catholic centre. The parish is endowed with fertile soils and the majority of Catholics depend on agriculture. The majority of Catholics are peasants and most food grown in the parish is for home consumption and very little for sale. Coffee is grown as our major cash crop. Most people are of poor background.
Our Lady Mary Mother of the Church Nyakishenyi Parish has 11 catholic centers and 24 Village churches (“Hikas”) totaling 35.
All the Centre are led by the Eucharistic Ministers and village churches by the catechists. All Catechists reside at the churches. Priests stay at the Parish. Nyakishenyi has one priest Fr. Karugaba Silverinus.
Our Lady Mary Mother of church is built at Kajumiro catholic centre, because Kajumiro is in the middle, other centres are around it. When missionaries came to Kabale, formally known as Kigezi, they started church school which later became government aided school after independence of Uganda 1962. There are now 21 government aided school in the area, out which 13 are Roman Catholic Church founded.
There are two secondary schools and one is a Roman Catholic Church founded. Despite the presence of schools in the area, there are many catholics who can not read and write.
The church cares for health wellbeing of her people by teaching them to be clean and live in a clean environment. People are encouraged to take children for immunization and other primary health care services and takes part in the HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention campaigns. The parish has one health centre at the parish. The health centre serves both in and out patients and it has a maternity ward. It serves people of all religious denominations.
Parish Projects
Our lady Mary mother of the church Nyakishenyi parish runs the following projects.
Construction of a new church building.
Since our parish started in 1963, the parish church was constructed by that time. The building is now old and has cracks and because the church building is too small for the people who come for Sunday services we most of the time celebrates the holy Eucharist outside in the open under trees. Hot sun and rainfall on many occasions interrupts the services. It is for this reason that the parish council resolved to start construction of a new church building. As Nyakishenyi is a hilly place, clearing of the building site has started.
Parish Awareness
The Christians are fully aware of the power of prayer. They believe that it is way of taking a moment to unite and talk to the creator. They are divided into prayer groups for adults and youths. We call the groups lay postulate movement.
The following are the youth movements in place:
Church choirs- in all churches in the parish.
Legionaries.
Eucharistic crusaders.
Besides prayer the youth have development projects at the church such as tree planting for income and environment protection, tea growing and they are organizing to start a micro finance project.
The adults on the other side have the following prayer groups movements.
Legionaries.
Group to play for the soul in purgatory.
Catholic charismatic renewal
St. Jude Tadeo group.
A group for catechists.
Basic Christian Communities
Besides praying together some of these groups have started saving and credit organizations in order to fight poverty which is the biggest problem in the area. This has been done through the following ways:
Save for Burial
“Ebibina Byengozi”. (Groups that are intended to carry sick persons in the community to the nearest health unit).
Challenges
Funding the construction of the parish church is difficult because most Christians are poor.
The health centre at the parish headquarters is not big enough to meet the growing population in the area.
Improvement of our schools. Most of the schools were built by missionaries and are not enough for our many kids. In relation to this, we have a number of orphans due to the scourge of AIDS. Our Parish has had its fair share of this problem like most parts of Uganda.
Inadequate protected water sources. The water we have at the parish premises is tapped from the house roofs which are not clean at all. We have gravity water but the communities around the parish have less income to improve on the existing old water pipes and water stands and it is not enough for bigger communities. However, there is no clean water in the villages far from the parish.
Prayer from member of SPC from Mary, Mother of the Church:
The greatest gift we can offer to God is "PRAYER" especially the Holy Eucharist. Prayer unites us as a family of God. It lightens the whole world and brings hope and Joy even to the remotest corners of the world. We count on the invisible but powerful help of prayers. Our Mother Mary and Patron Saint of our sister Churches is ever praying with us and for us.(JOHN:19:26-27) So that the whole world is lit up at every moment and that there would never be darkness. May we join Her to pray for one another.
