Until Saturday, October 29, little
was known of the head of the Evangelical Orthodox Church (EOC), a
splinter group from the Roman Catholic Church that follows the Eastern
(Antiochian) rite of Catholicism.
In fact many adherents of the Antiochian
rite did not know who their presiding bishop was. All they knew was Rev
Fr Jacinto Kibuuka, who fell out with Kampala Archbishop Dr Cyprian
Kizito Lwanga over his charismatic preaching.
Born on December 5, 1976 at Bweera in
Kasese, Dr Tom Sibayirwa Kiiza is the pioneer bishop of the EOC in
Uganda but with churches under his jurisdiction in Benue state, Nigeria
and Texas, USA.
He attended primary school at Kamukumbi
in Kasese between 1983 and 1990. In 1991, aspiring to become a Catholic
priest, Kiiza enrolled at St Mary’s Seminary Virika in Fort Portal until
August 1999 when he joined the Consolanta Missionaries.
They took him
to their Kenyan seminary for further formation studies, graduating in
2002 with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Religious Studies.
He was then posted to Mozambique for
pastoral work for a year, giving him opportunity to travel to Portugal
and South Africa. In 2003, he went back to Kenya and joined the Catholic
University of East Africa (CUEA) for a Master of Arts degree in
Theology, graduating in 2007.
“That is when I crossed to EOC because
my mind and conscience told me I wouldn’t be happy under the Roman
Catholic Church; so, I wrote a letter requesting to be allowed to leave,
and I was allowed,” Kiiza told The Observer. “I was never suspended. I
left on my own and once they accepted my request to leave, I was let
free to serve God in any church.”
In 2008, he enrolled for a joint
Master’s and doctoral program in Religious Studies and Theology at St
James Seminary Florida, USA, which is operated by the Holy Catholic
Church International, and an affiliate of Dayspring Christian
University.
He got his PhD in 2011 two years after
his consecration as bishop of EOU at a low-key function held at a hotel
in Namugongo near Kampala.
“I was ordained on September 17, 2009 by
Archbishop Rodney P Rickard. In fact it is that day that we consider as
the birth of EOC in Uganda,” Kiiza said.
Despite being a bishop of a faction of
the Catholic Church, he got a teaching job at CUEA in 2011 until 2013
when Mountains of the Moon University, Fort Portal, hired him as
academic registrar.
“I am also in community development
running an NGO, Ekisande Rural Development Centre in Kasese. I also run a
number of schools, health centres and orphanage support programs,”
Kiiza said.