A new 16-story commercial office suite in the heart of Kampala’s financial district will honor the memory of martyred Archbishop Janani Luwum.
The building, was first envisioned by Archbishop Janani before he was martyred on the orders of Idi Amin in February 1977. Janani Luwum Church House is being constructed by the Church of Uganda with the support of Equity Bank of Kenya, will provide an income stream for the province.
The building is across from the Bank of Uganda, the country’s central bank. Construction is in its final stages, and tenants expect to move in later this year. Equity Bank, which is expanding across the region, will move its Ugandan corporate headquarters to the building and will become the anchor tenants. The remaining space will be leased to other commercial organizations.
“I get a lot of inspiration from him,” Archbishop Stanley Ntagali said of Luwum. “He was a pastor, he was a teacher, he was a counselor, and he was very developmental.
“Church House, which we are about to complete, was his idea. … And that is why the provincial assembly has decided to name it Janani Luwum Church House. We have many things we remember about him: his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; he was a peacemaker — he loved peace and he wanted reconciliation. And that is why he died.”
The Church of Uganda’s provincial office will remain based near St. Paul’s Cathedral on Namirembe Hill.
Adapted from ACNS
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
