Thursday, February 17, 2118
Liturgical Color: Red
The 2nd to Last Sunday of Epiphany (World Mission)
Almighty God, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, you revealed the way of eternal life to every race and nation: Pour out this gift anew, that by the preaching of the Gospel your salvation may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Epiphany
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who took on our mortal flesh to reveal his glory; that he might bring us out of darkness and into his own glorious light.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
The 2nd to Last Sunday of Epiphany (World Mission)
The Last Sunday of Epiphany (Transfiguration)
Archbishop of Uganda and Martyr
Anglican Commemoration
Janani Luwum was Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, killed in February 1977 after he and his bishops sent President Idi Amin a written protest against killings and disappearances. The state announced that he had died in a car accident; the body, opened at his home village, carried gunshot wounds. He is commemorated as a martyr on 17 February in the Church of England and The Episcopal Church, and on 3 June in several other provinces.
Janani Luwum was born in 1922 in Ngora, Uganda. Educated at Makerere University and ordained to the Anglican priesthood, he became Bishop of North Uganda (1969-1974) and subsequently Archbishop of Uganda (1974-1977). During Idi Amin's brutal dictatorship, Luwum became a courageous voice for the persecuted. In 1977, he and other bishops drafted and signed a memorandum addressed to President Amin documenting the widespread murder of innocent civilians and the persecution of Christians. On February 16, 1977, shortly after delivering the memorandum to Amin personally, Luwum disappeared. The government claimed he died in a car accident, but evidence overwhelmingly indicates he was executed. His martyrdom made him an international symbol of Christian resistance to tyranny and became a defining moment in African Anglican history.
African martyr; defender of the persecuted against state tyranny; symbol of prophetic episcopal leadership in the face of systematic violence; witness to the suffering church in modern Africa.