Retired Ugandan Primate Dies
Episcopal News Service. May 26, 1988 [88114]
NEW YORK (DPS, May 26) -- The Most Rev. Erica Sabiti, retired primate of Uganda, died in Kinoni, Uganda, on May 15, at 92. Archbishop Sabiti was the first African Archbishop of Uganda.
Sabiti studied at King's College, Buddo, a famous church-run preparatory school near Kampala. On graduation, he was one of the first students to go to Makerere University. He first became a school teacher in Ankole, his home area. He and his wife Geraldine had seven children.
Sabiti was ordained to the diaconate in 1933 and to the priesthood in 1934. He served a number of congregations as priest until 1960. On May 1 of that year he was consecrated as Suffragan Bishop of Toro-Bunyoro-Mboga (a see located in western Uganda and eastern Zaire). Later that year he was translated to Ruwenzori Diocese. In 1966, he was elected Archbishop of what was then the Province of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. (Boga-Zaire was added to this jurisdiction in 1972). Sabiti was also an Episcopal Canon of St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem, from 1966-1974.
The eight years of the Archbishop's leadership were a difficult but vital time both in the life of Uganda as a nation and in the life of the Church in Uganda. Uganda had gained independence from England in 1962 but there were several historic kingdoms contained within the country, and trying to create a modern, parliamentary state in this context caused a series of political crises for the young nation. Many spiritual demands were made on Sabiti during this difficult period. However, the political situation went from bad to worse when the government of Apolo Milton Obote was overthrown in 1971, and Idi Amin Dada, came to power. In 1974 the Archbishop retired to be replaced by the Rt. Rev. Janani Luwum, Bishop of Northern Uganda. Three years later Luwum died at the hands of Amin.
In Sabiti's years as primate, the Church in Uganda saw many changes. A church constitution was written and the Diocese of Kampala was created to serve as a seat for the Archbishop. These changes brought misunderstandings and divisions in the Church which took years to heal.
Archbishop Sabiti's greatest ministry to the Church in Uganda was in terms of spirituality. In the words of his friend and colleague Bishop Misaeri Kauma of Namirembe, "He always set a tone of evangelism and spirituality, and kept this insistence to the very end."