Praying Against Child Sacrifice

Ugandan Christians are using the 40 days of Lent, which began on Wednesday, to pray for an end to child sacrifice, a practice that in recent years has been on the rise in the East African nation

In a letter sent to Ugandan church leaders last week, conservative Anglican Archbishop Henry Orombi called on Christians to pray against witchcraft and human sacrifice, the Catholic Information Service for Africa (CISA) reported.

During a press conference last week with Pentecostal church leaders, Orombi said the “Weeping for Uganda’s Children” prayer effort was aimed at encouraging Ugandans to repent and ask God to forgive and heal the land, Uganda’s New Vision reported.

“There is greed, corruption and an inhuman thirst to spill innocent blood because our society is degenerating owing to greed, Godlessness and moral corruption,” Orombi said.

Leaders of the Orthodox, Catholic and the Seventh Day Adventist churches are also participating in the 40-day prayer campaign. Orombi’s diocese also is one of several conservative groups to embrace breakaway Episcopal congregations at odds with the U.S. branch of Anglicanism over its election of an openly gay man as bishop in 2003.

Since November, 100 children have gone missing in Uganda, CISA reported. Many are feared dead in what police say are bizarre rituals to attain wealth. As recently as Feb. 21, the body of a 16-year-old girl was found in Uganda’s Kibaale District, four days after she disappeared. The girl’s genitals and fingers were missing, and her head had been shaved.

In January, Ugandan police formed a committee to pre-empt human sacrifice by creating awareness, supervising and helping local forces to investigate, and doing spot checks on vehicles.

Orombi encouraged Ugandan church leaders to develop weekly themes on the issue of child sacrifice throughout the 40 days of Lent.

“Let us together call upon the Lord,” Orombi wrote, “to bring an end to the vice of human sacrifice and comfort those who mourn.”