Rev. Can. Francis Tumwine

The Diocesan Fathers union office was established in January 2017 and is headed by Rev. Canon Francis Tumwine as the Diocesan Fathers Union Coordinator

MESSAGE

I would like to express my grateful acknowledgement of the existence of fathers union in South Ankole Diocese in the province of the church of Uganda.

Fathers union is a Christian male heads of families. It is the newly activated organization in the church and within this organization male heads of families are invoked to participate actively while supplementing efforts of Christian women to develop homes, the church, and the nation holistically.

The objective of Fathers union are similar to those of Mothers union and they are;-

  1. To encourage members to keep Holy matrimony vows
  2. To promote and cultivate Christian values and mutual respect of members
  3. To spread the gospel of fathers union to non-members
  4. To mobilize and sensitize parents to bring up children on a Christian foundation
  5. To provide counseling and guidance services to Christian families
  6. To enlighten and interest members on home, church community participatory development
  7. To identify challenges facing Christian families and to formulate policies and guidelines to address them.

Fathers Union works hand in hand with Mothers union and prayer ministry in the department of mission in the Diocese. Since its inogulation in 2012, the organization has managed to be established in all parishes of the Diocese. It has established administrative structures starting from sub parish level to the Diocesan level.

Fathers union at the Diocesan level has opened an office and it is within this office that the Diocesan fathers’ union coordinator is running the work of coordinating the organization Diocese wide.

The organization has both internal and external conferences and workshops. Among the conferences include the 2016 all men conference which was held in September 2016 and the conference was attended by 547 men.

Before the conference, in the year 2014, fathers union had a Diocese wide thanksgiving and 12,970,500= was raised.

In order to eradicate poverty, and combat hunger, Fathers union at sub-parish and parish levels have already established both food and money generating projects like banana plantations and tree planting projects. At the Diocesan level, the organization is planning to have tree nursery beds in order to empower rural tree planting and coffee planting. The organization is yet to acquire a plot in town and develop it for money generation.

Many more conferences and workshops are to take place at parish, Archdeaconry, and Diocesan levels.

All these are aiming at the fulfilment of the Diocesan vision “A Diocese that glorifies God” and I hope through God’s grace and mercy, all will come to pass.

Rev. Canon Francis Tumwine

Diocesan Fathers Union Coordinator

South Ankole Diocese