Orthodox Archbishop Jonah Lwanga is dead

The Archbishop of the Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Jonah Lwanga, has passed on this evening at the age of 76.

“Our spiritual father has gone to be with the Lord,” the Orthodox Church said in a brief statement on Sunday.

The cause of his death is however not yet known as details are still scanty.

Born in 1945, Lwanga studied at the Ecclesiastical School of Crete between 1964 and 1968 before attaining a degree in Theology and Philosophy from the University of Athens.

Between 1979−1981 he served a Secretary of the Orthodox Mission in Uganda and in May 1981, he was ordained a Deacon before becoming a priest a year later.

On 12 May 1997 he was elected by the Holy Synod as Metropolitan of Kampala and All Uganda.

Lwanga has been vocal and on several occasions has not spared government in condemning its excesses.

In 2019, Lwanga said the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party would soon collapse for “disturbing the nation”.

“We are going to suffer human rights abuse until NRM is dissolved. And it (NRM) is going to dissolve very soon. I say this prophetically, it is not going to be there because it has disturbed this nation very much. It is going to dissolve. And when it dissolves, then things will go wonderfully,” Metropolitan Lwanga said during his Easter message.

Lwanga’s words came on the background of killings and human rights violations in the country then.

However, a few days later, President Museveni donated shs300 million towards the construction of the Uganda Orthodox Cathedral at Lubya Hill, in Rubaga Division in Kampala.

The Uganda Orthodox Church constitutes of 0.1% approximately 300,000 to 400,000 followers.