Friday, December 08, 2006

WORLD's 2006 Daniels of the Year:
Peter Jasper Akinola and Henry Luke Orombi

Jesus asked His disciples, "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A man clothed in soft garments?" John the Baptist, of course, was no such man, and neither are WORLD's 2006 Daniels of the Year Peter Jasper Akinola and Henry Luke Orombi. Their biblical stands are making a difference not only in Africa but in the United States, as the crisis in the oldest American denomination reaches its climax.

By Mindy Belz in Kampala.

At twilight the marabou stork still sits atop the tallest tree on Anglican Archbishop Henry Orombi's compound in Kampala, waiting for prey to come into view. Inside his home the archbishop is talking about other flesh-eaters. He is describing the scene when Uganda tyrant Idi Amin sent men for Orombi's lifelong mentor, then-Archbishop Janini Luwam. "16 February 1977," he says, as though it were yesterday. "From this place, from where we are sitting, they took him and killed him."

Luwam was a popular clergymen, "a passionate preacher, a great pastor gifted in engaging people," according to Orombi. Luwam spoke out against Amin's murderous regime, attracting international attention. One night armed men from the defense ministry showed up just under the stork's tree with a political prisoner. His hands had been nearly cut off at the wrist but left dangling and bleeding as a way to lure Luwam from the house. When the archbishop came out, they beat him with gun-butts and demanded to search his home for weapons.
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