AMECEA: Tracing Roots of AMECEA Pastoral Institute-Ggaba

As AMECEA Region anticipates the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of AMECEA Pastoral Institute, AMECEA Online news visited St. Mbaaga Major Seminary, in Ggaba Uganda where the institute was first established and discovered that it occupied a place that was previously a Major Seminary belonging to the Mill Hill Missionaries.

The AMECEA Pastoral Institute (API) is the only Institute of its kind in the AMECEA region, providing ongoing formation and renewal in a conducive setting enriched by dialogue among lay persons, Religious men and women and clergy. It’s establishment dates back to 1967 when the association’s founding fathers realized that there was a need of establishing a catechetical institute which would be a training ground for Priests, Religious and Laity on subjects such as Catechesis, Pastoral Theology, Liturgy and Applied Theology, in response to the new catechetical challenges of the time.

According to Rev. Fr. Joseph Sserunjogi, Rector of St. Mbaaga Major Seminary in Kampala Archdiocese, Archbishop Emmanuel Nsubuga (Later Cardinal) who was then the Local Ordinary of Kampala, gave the permission to use Ggaba Seminary buildings for the proposed institute.

“This place was the location selected by Mill Hill Missionaries to start a Theological Major Seminary where seminarians from Jinja Seminary could come and study theology, that was way back in 1930,” Fr. Sserunjogi explained, adding that this went on up to 1967 when the Mill Hill Seminary ceased to exist because the Uganda Episcopal Conference (UEC) decided to establish a system of National Seminaries.

The AMECEA Plenary Assembly of 1967 gave the official approval of the project to establish the Pastoral Institute and Fr Ton Simons, member of the Congregation of Missionaries of Africa, also known as the White Fathers, was appointed as director. The Institute was officially opened on 1 February 1968.

The Mill Hill Seminary premises hosted the Ggaba Pastoral Institute of Eastern Africa as it was called then, from 1967 to 1975 when political instability in the country led to the relocation of the institute to Eldoret Diocese in Kenya, where it is currently situated. Despite the relocation, the Institute has retained the name Ggaba Pastoral Institute.

The 16^th AMECEA Plenary Assembly held in Lusaka, Zambia decided that API be incorporated into Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Thus, it became CUEA Ggaba Campus. The campus opened its doors to the first group of seven students pursuing the Pre-university programme in September 2008. Currently CUEA Ggaba Campus has a students’ population of 800.

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By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News