Saint Paul’s Cathedral Namirembe, commonly referred to as Namirembe Cathedral, is the oldest Anglican church in Uganda.
The history of Christianity in Uganda is interesting! Back in April 1875, Sir Henry Morton Stanley, a British explorer and journalist, had a wonderful meeting with the King (Kabake) Mutesa,) of Buganda.
In their meeting, Stanley shared an interesting story about Christianity and the King was happy. The enthusiastic king picked a lot of interest and consequently, asked Stanley to write a letter to Queen Victoria of England to send missionaries. The letter was published in The Daily Telegraph newspaper in England on 15th November 1875 and the Christian world was amazed!
After two years in 1877, eight missionaries from the Church Missionary Society arrived in the country and Christianity was introduced to Uganda. The Christian faith was originally preached only to the immediate members of the court of King Mutesa ii then later spread out to his subjects.
On 18th March 1882, the first Anglican Ugandan was baptized and subsequently Christianity started spreading out.
The current St. Paul’s Cathedral was constructed between 1915 and 1919 using earthen bricks and earthen roof tiles. The cathedral is still standing.
The remains of Bishop Hannington who was murdered by one of the chiefs, were buried at St Paul’s cathedral. Get to know more during the tour.
Visiting Namirembe cathedral as part of Kampala city tour will give you an insight about Christianity in Uganda, the difficulties churches went through especially during the days of political turmoil.