Our good God blessed us and we were joined by the Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, Theodore II. He officiated at the parish of St. Anthony on Orthodox Sunday. In his speech he thanked God, who has given him the privilege of being in Uganda on this day, a country and a church that has given much to the Orthodox Church. He referred to the pioneers of this Church and the path of Orthodoxy in Africa. He announced the election as General Superintendent in South Sudan of Fr. Innocent Byakatonda, a professor at the Kenya Seminary from Uganda, who studied at the Theological Seminary of Thessaloniki and was under the care of the Brotherhood of Orthodox Foreign Mission in Thessaloniki. On the same day he blessed the foundation of the women’s monastery of St. Mary. The miracle of the day was the rain that fell immediately after the foundation ceremony. We had been without rain for a long time and there was great concern among the people and the government about a great drought. The Ministry of Interior had issued a notice that people should be very careful because we would not have rain for a long time to come. The Rev. Our Metropolitan Iona had informed the Patriarch of this unfavourable situation. His Beatitude prayed for it at the Divine Liturgy and in a short time God opened the sky and by now it was raining and people were sowing in the fields. I remember, when I was a boy, every time the blessed Metropolitan Theodore came to our village it rained. Afterwards, the Patriarch visited the children of the orphanage in the parish of Metamorphosis, who welcomed him with great emotion and joy.
π. John Kibuka
