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GULU - The Provincial Prayer Peace Week, an event aimed at promoting peace in northern Uganda on Tuesday 23, 2024 kicked off at the St. Monica Tailoring School in Gulu City.

The 17th Prayer Peace Week organized by the Gulu Archdiocese is under the theme ‘Building the synodal church in communion, participation and mission for peacebuilding’.

The Prayer Peace Week attracted hundreds of pilgrims from Acholi, Lango, and West Nile regions.

Bishop John Baptist Odama, the founder of the peace prayer appealed to leaders to avoid doing things that would impact the citizens in the future.

Bishop Odama wants leaders to exhibit good leadership that will be remembered for eternity, stressing that the mission of the church is to build peace and harmony.

Bishop Wanok calls for peace

According to Lira Diocese Bishop Sanctus Lino Wanok, God creates peace, and we are all involved in its construction, calling all the faithful to take part rather than just watch.

"When a person erases God from their past and their journey. He elevates himself to godhood who cannot save himself,” bishop Wanok remarked.

The bishop further underlined that the domestic Church, or family, is the starting point of the road toward solidarity.

On his part, Bishop Nektarios Kabuye of the Orthodox Church prayed to God in his message to put an end to hostilities in Acholi, Lango, and West Nile.

The Holy Diocese of Gulu and northern Uganda's Exodus Bishop, Nektarios, also urged pilgrims to practice justice and harmony among themselves, urging pilgrims to offer their prayers.

Dr. Ambassador Olara Otunu emphasized the importance of truth and reconciliation, alleging that the people of Northern Uganda are experiencing the most horrifying suffering on earth, and worse than anything the previous leaders had ever shown.

Otunu clarified that the instability in Northern Uganda is caused by political power struggles and grave errors in judgment made by leaders.

“We must embark on truth-seeking and telling, we must know who did what to whom,” Otunu said.

Otunu believes that the truth will always set the people of Acholi, Lango, and West Nile free.

The newly chosen cultural leader of Lango, Eng. Michael Moses Odongo Okune emphasised that there is no peace between man and the environment, urging residents to wake up and offer guidance to the locals in order to halt environmental degradation.