By Denis Jjuuko
In the cities where our elites go for holidays and conferences, you find buildings that were built centuries ago. Well maintained and sources of tourism revenue. A lot of such buildings are Churches or places of worship.
As cities develop and more people get themselves out of poverty, the most affected thing is religion. So Church pews become empty. Believers are replaced by tourists who regal in the old architecture.
As Kampala expands, the people who go to pray at Christ the King Church will decrease. As Ugandans get themselves out of poverty, they will attend Church less. The more educated people are, the less they believe in heavenly stuff.
That explains why religion is stronger in poorer communities (it is mainly blacks and other poor people that fill up Churches in the US. The Catholic Church has more believers in developing and low developed countries than in the West).
So I see Christ the King Church’s numbers dwindling in the years ahead. If you live 20-30kms out of the city, you will patronise your local Church more than Christ the King. It also makes business sense. You get to know people who are of valuable contact to you. In a cosmopolitan Church like Christ the King, you hardly get to know any one. In a local community Church, it becomes family.
In fact a lot of people who go to Christ the King morning masses are there because of traffic jams in Kampala and partly because of lack of parking spaces. If you have an appointment in town for 8.00am or 9.00am, it is advisable you leave your home at 5.00am or 6.00am arrive in Kampala early, get parking and then go pray. That way you don’t miss the appointment.
As the city expands and more offices are established out of Kampala’s Central Business District, so will the numbers of early morning and lunch time worshippers at Christ the King Church.
In my view, Christ the King didn’t need to break down the current Church to build a bigger one. The current numbers that frequent it are actually the peak. And as the old adage goes: what goes up must come down. They should have maintained the Church as it was and only make it look better with fresh paint and renovation here and there and in the future, it would be a much more attractive building to tourists and a few parishioners. People would be happy to go to a church that is 200 years old as tourists. That is what is happening in the West, it will happen here.
#OutToLunch is Denis Jjuuko’s compilation of lame and flaky ideas.
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