Ntagali tasked to reverse trend of youth abandoning the church

The increasing number of the youth, who are abandoning the Anglican Church to join the Pentecostal churches, has prompted a call on the church's top leadership to take appropriate steps to avert the trend.

The church youth leaders echoed their concern while interacting with the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda (COU), Stanley Ntagali at a dinner hosted in the Archbishop's gardens at Namirembe in Kampala on Friday evening.

The dinner was intended to contribute funds to support the provincial annual youth and students convention 2018 scheduled for December.

The youth reported to Ntagali that in some of the Anglican churches, it was a crime for anyone who attempted to adopt renewal norms such as praise and worship on instruments of music on top of invoking the Holy Spirit.

Mary Kamuli Kutesa, the director legal services at Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), who was guest speaker, noted that it was a big challenge for the church to lose young people in a country where majority are youth and are expected to spearhead transformation.

She insisted that this threatened the future service to the ministry of Christ with the people who would serve the church opting out.

According to Kutesa, the rate at which Islam and the born-again movement is growing in the country was not good news for the church calling for expanded initiatives that would keep the youth in the church.

It is estimated that at least one fifth of Uganda's population are born-again Christians.

According to the 2014 national census, in the last 10 years, though Catholics and Anglicans remained dominant faiths in the country, they were losing believers to the Islamic faith, Pentecostals and the Seventh Day Adventists.

Islam have since gained significantly, increasing from 12.4% in 2002 to 13.7% in 2014. While the Pentecostals gained from 4.7% to 11.1%. The traditionalists also registered a slight gain from 1.5% to 1.7%.

Anglicans reduced from 36.7% to 32% representing about 11 million people of the total population of 34.6 million people. The Catholics reduced from 41.6% in 2002 to 39.3%, translating into over 13.5 million people.

According to Uganda Bureau of Statistics the Catholics and Anglicans had declined, due to the expanding Pentecostal movement with most of the youth becoming born again in the life full Pentecostal churches.

Ntangali assured that the church considered youth programs apriority insisting that the youth faced many uncertainties in life which lined them up at cross roads.

"We need to prepare the young people and mentor them for leadership, whoever does not want to give way for the young people is selfish and not wise," Ntagali said.

Noting that the church was under taking a number of programs and reforms to support youth empowerment programs, the Archbishop appealed: "As young people you need to set your priorities right. Many youth have lost the way after they failed to set their priorities right."

Ntagali, who revealed that over 1000 youth would attend this year's youth convention at Uganda Christian University in Mukono, added that the church would use it to boost the youth agenda in the church programs.