African Evangelist Dies in Nairobi
Episcopal News Service. May 26, 1988 [88115]
NEW YORK (DPS, May 26) -- The Rt. Rev. Festo Kivengere, 68, world-renowned evangelist, founder of African Evangelistic Enterprise (AEE), and Bishop of Kigezi Diocese in Uganda, died in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 18, after a long struggle with leukemia.
In March Bishop Kivengere thought he had won his battle with the disease. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Southern Africa, Archbishop Yona Okoth of Uganda, and other bishops had prayed with him for healing and anointed him. After that he gained strength and proclaimed, "This is Lazarus you see!" He remained in Nairobi to be near the hospital, but kept hard at work. His last act on May 18 was to dictate a letter of condolence to the family of retired Archbishop Erica Sabiti, first African Archbishop of Uganda, who had died a short time before.
Kivengere was born in Uganda in 1920. He was trained as a school teacher in Tanzania, and taught there for many years. He also studied in the United States, receiving his Master of Divinity degree from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 1967. He was ordained to the diaconate in Pittsburgh in 1966, and to the priesthood in Kigezi in 1967. He served as a priest in that diocese until 1972, when he was consecrated Bishop of Kigezi.
Parallel to his work within the Church was his leadership of African Evangelistic Enterprise. He founded the organization in 1965 with John Wilson (who was killed in 1985 on one of his rare trips to Kampala) and Michael Cassidy, as a service body to the churches of East and Southern Africa. Aid and development projects went hand in hand with preaching missions, and Kivengere gained an international reputation as an evangelist and as a spokesman for his country's needs.
In 1977, Bishop Kivengere was among those bishops of Uganda whom the nation's dictator Idi Amin summoned to appear before his State Research Bureau after they had written a letter to protest conditions in the country. Amin released all except the Archbishop, Janani Luwum, who was never seen alive again. Kivengere went home to Kigezi, where he was warned, "They're coming for you, too." He fled with his wife on foot and crossed the border into neighboring Rwanda. Eventually he reached Nairobi. Much of his time in exile was spent in the United States, where he settled in Pasadena, Calif. He traveled extensively, preaching and teaching about the situation in Uganda.
After Idi Amin was overthrown in April of 1979, Kivengere went home, but a good part of every year thereafter was taken up with evangelistic tours and trips to raise money for AEE, which was playing an increasingly important part in reconstruction efforts in Uganda.
Kivengere was never afraid to speak the truth as he saw it -- whether to Amin or to the Ugandan leaders who followed him. According to Misaeri Kauma, Bishop of Namirembe, a director of AEE and a longtime friend of Kivengere, "Festo was not afraid of anyone. You couldn't persuade him to change his words, if he was convinced he was right. He had a very strong, iron heart, full of the love of God."
Sometimes his convictions caused controversy in Uganda. In December of 1984, he ordained three women in his diocese to the priesthood. He had previously tried to introduce the issue of women's ordination in the Provincial Assembly of the Church of Uganda, with no success. He was so convinced that his stand on ordination was correct that he went ahead with it anyway, without waiting for a consensus.
Bishop Kivengere and his wife, Mera, had four daughters. On May 24, a funeral service was held for Kivengere in All Saints Cathedral, Nairobi; on May 26, a second funeral was held at Namirembe Cathedral in Kampala, Uganda; and on May 29, a final funeral service will be held in Kigezi in the bishop's own cathedral. Burial will be at Kabale.
The news of the death of the Right Reverend Festo Kivengere, Bishop of Kigezi in the Church of Uganda, will bring sadness throughout the Anglican Communion. In his frequent visits to parishes and dioceses across the Episcopal Church, Bishop Festo endeared himself to our people. He was a true apostle of reconciliation and love, arousing the evangelistic fervor of dioceses and parishes as they undertook ventures in mission.
The Anglican Communion has lost an articulate and inspiring preacher, and the Church in Africa one of its most courageous leaders.
I join the Church of Uganda and his bereaved family in giving thanks to Almighty God for Bishop Festo's untiring zeal and witness to our Lord Jesus Christ. My wife, Patti, joins me in sending to Mera Kivengere, Bishop Festo's wife, to Archbishop Yona Okoth, primate of the Church of Uganda, and to all the people of the Church of Uganda, our prayers that you will meet the coming days with faith, courage, and the comfort of God's consoling love.
May Archbishop Luwum and the other Martyrs of Uganda receive Bishop Festo, and lead him into the eternal life of fuller service in the paradise of God.
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