The Archbishop praised the Mukiibis for their resilience to stand as an exemplary couple not only to their children, grandchildren and congregation during their time of service but to all Ugandans who have had something to pick from them for their 70 years in marriage.
The Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Dr. Stephen Samuel Kaziimba Mugalu has blamed enumerated challenges including marriage break ups, escalation of domestic violence prevalence and other social vices, and advised couples in Christian marriages to pick some outstanding tips to ensure their relationships last for their lifetime.
The prelate singled out mutual love, forgiveness, foregoing certain worldly pleasures in option for peace in the home, and cautioned that failure to observe these and other virtues is a beginning point in marriage break ups in the world.
“If you fail to show compassion to your love partner in addition to fulfilling other obligations, you are on the road to abetting the breakage of your relationship and you have no shortcut to maintaining it other than sticking to the vows you made as you sealed your wedlock,” he pointed out.
The Archbishop made the remarks while presiding over the platinum jubilee anniversary of Rev. George Mukiibi and Beatrice Nalaaki Mukiibi on Monday at Nakifuma in Nakifuma-Naggalama Town Council in Mukono district. The function attracted four bishops including; Enos Kitto Kagodo of Mukono diocese, Moses Banja of Namirembe diocese, Wilson Kisekka of Luweero diocese and Jackson Matovu, the retired bishop of Central Buganda diocese. Bp. Banja who led the couple, Rev Mukiibi (96) and his wife Beatrice (88) in a re-staging their ‘I do’ vows, said that him and his wife Prof. Olivia Nassaka Banja are marking 24 years of holy matrimony.
96yr-Old-Reverend Who Survived NRA Rebels Twice Celebrates 70 Years in Holy Matrimony
The Archbishop praised the Mukiibis for their resilience to stand as an exemplary couple not only to their children, grandchildren and congregation during their time of service but to all Ugandans who have had something to pick from them for their 70 years in marriage.
“Marking 70 years in holy matrimony is not a simple thing one can joke with! For my entire life, this is the second couple I am witnessing, after the first one last week on Monday at Mukono Cathedral when Ssalongo and Nalongo Ntulume were also celebrating their marriage platinum jubilee. If marking 70 years of age today is a very big milestone, what about 70 years in marriage? We must glorify God for this achievement,” he said.
He added that being humans like everybody else, Rev. Mukiibi and his wife Beatrice cannot say that it has been a walkover but they must have mastered the art of loving each other, forfeiting certain things.
“When a 96-year-old Rev. Mukiibi and Maama Beatrice organize a marriage platinum jubilee celebration, it’s not their function but it’s for their children, grandchildren and the rest of us to pick a lesson that although some people consider marriage as a hard thing with persistence and prayers , they we can also make it,” he noted.
He said that for him and Maama Margaret, they are 41 years in marriage but still, when they join the Mukiibis in such a celebration, they get more reasons to push on.
He urged Christians to always look for such examples to reflect upon when it comes to marriage other than making famous couples that break up by sharing them all over social media and making headlines in newspapers.
“I thank Rev. Mukiibi for diligently serving as a classroom teacher and at the same time a reverend in the war-torn Luweero district in Kavumba and other parishes. Surviving the rebels’ wrath twice and remaining in service nonetheless is no mean achievement”, Kazimba said.
Turning to the wife, Archbishop said that unlike the wives of the clergy today who swim in a world of simplicities, in her days, marriage was similar to serving a punishment and that if she did not relent, then she indeed needs to be celebrated.
“These days we have service providers taking on a number of functions at Churches including cooking, but during Maama Beatrice’s times, all chores were her responsibilities, including preparing food for hundreds of Christians during church functions. I know of a wife to one of the church Ministers of those days who warned my wife not to wholeheartedly do all that work saying she had developed a backache over too much work,” he said.
One of Rev. Mukiibi’s granddaughters, Rev. Juliet Kansiime, the wife to Archbishop’s chaplain, Johnson Kansiime said that their grandmother, Beatrice always emphasized that she had two pockets, the one in front where she kept all the good things Rev. Mukiibi did and the second one at her back where she would place all the bad and annoying things he did.
Rev. Kansiime, who is the Deputy Chaplain for the Kampala campus of Ndejje University, said that their grandmother told them that being a clergy did not deter Rev. Mukiibi from making errors in marriage but she never reflected on them.
“She always told us that this was her hat trick and implore us to keep in her footsteps which we are striving to do”, she said.
Bp. Kagodo thanked Rev. Mukiibi for his resilience and hard work as a servant of God and disclosed that after clocking his mandatory years of retirement from Namirembe diocese in 2000 and got to Mukono diocese at his retirement home, he continued to serve under Mukono until just of recent when his health condition could not enable him.
In an interview, Rev. Mukiibi praised his wife, Beatrice for being loving, hardworking, caring and not quarrelsome.
A son to a lay reader, Samuel Balaba, Mukiibi was also commissioned as a lay reader by Namirembe Diocese at the age of 26 at Ndejje, and he also served as a classroom teacher at Bbowa-Mpumudde. Freshly married, the couple served in various places including Bbowa, Bukuuku, Kavumba all in present-day Luweero Diocese until their relocation to Kiziika in Bugerere, (present-day Mukono Diocese) to escape the wrath of the Luweero Triangle war.
