Catholic churches get donation of 1,000 hymn books

Fourteen churches of Kamuge-Olinga catholic parish in Tororo arch-diocese on Sunday got a donation of 1,000 universal catholic hymn books from the family of Lawrence and Zoe Omulen during the Christmas carol competitions.

Omulen while handing over the hymn books to the participating church leaders at St. Daniano Catholic Church in Kamuge sub county Pallisa district where the function took place said each church got 40 hymn books to strengthen praise and worship in mass.

Children excited with meal cards as they lineup for food By Lawrence Okwakol

"Being a competition we gave the trophies to the best three choirs with shs.1, 000,000/=, sh.600, 000/=, shs.400, 000/= respectively and shs.200, 000/= for the rest of the other choirs", Omulen said.

The results of the participating choirs were St.Daniano  Kadengele 244, All saints Oladot  238,St.Joseph Abila 234,St.Henry Omaulon 226,St.Gabriel Okutai 219,St.Lawrence Kadesok tied with St.Stephen Kamuge-Olinga 208,St.Victor Kapuwai 201, St.Matia Lumumba Kalapata192 and St.Peters Ogwer 179.

Zoe Omulen said as a family they organized the event to enable the church choirs expose the creativity in enriching the church with new Christmas carol songs.

"We started planning for this event as early as February because we annually do it .So we had to purchase five trophies  and budget for the feeding of over 5 ,000 people who turned up for the event ", Zoe Omulen said.

Dr. Kiwanuka Lote retired bishop of Tororo arch diocese who was the chief guest said the donation of the hymn books was very timely as Tororo diocese is in preparation to lead the Uganda martyrs celebrations in 2018.

Kiwanuka said competition was an opportunity for the diocese to sieve out the talented choristers to form the diocesan choir that will grace the martyrs' celebration in Namugongo.

" I appreciate the efforts of Gaetano Ocheng the priest of Kamuge-Olinga for his love of sharing when he invited the visiting powerful choirs of Tororo and Jinja  to curtain Rise the event", Kiwanuka said.

Robert Ongodia of Akadot village in Pallisa sub county said Omulen's family is devoted in supporting the church as he built the most magnificent church in Tororo arch diocese of St. Daniano catholic church in Kadengele village in Kamuge sub county at shs. 1.5bn.

"Omulen is very instrumental because he  helped in resolving the land dispute which  Kamuge-Olinga parish had with the neighbours for over fifteen years in court when he bought them off and asked for forgiveness ", Ongodia said.

An Eleven year old Sam Okello said he likes the function Omulen organizes because even the children are not discriminated from adults when it comes to eating everyone is give a meal card and eat the same food.