When Bishop Dr. Prof. Daniel Muwanga and his wife Victo Lillian Biwoye gathered family, friends and fellow ministers on Tuesday, 21st July at Kimaka Faith Ministry International in Jinja City to give thanks for 25 years of marriage, little did they know the event would quickly move beyond celebration.
Presided over by Archbishop-Elect Prof. Mugume Bagambaki Richard of Upper City Covenant Churches and attended by representatives of the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports Mama Janet K Museveni, the thanksgiving became a pointed message to the wider church and to the nation.
The Muwangas said their silver jubilee was meant as both testimony and challenge, proof that it is possible for ministers to walk for decades without scandal, and a call for God to do the same in other homes and in public life.
“Proud to have steered the family for 25 years without any sexual scandal that have always riddled and ripped into families of some or most great men of God once considered spiritual giants,” Bishop Muwanga told the congregation. “Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise” James 5:13. “And today, we are singing.”
Why the family matters to Church and Nation.
Before delivering a speech, Bishop Muwanga paused to lay the foundation: the family is not a side issue to reflect on why the family matters to the Church of Christ here on earth and the nation.
“The family is the first church, the first school, and the first government, if the family is strong, the Church is strong. If the family is strong, the nation is strong. But if the family collapses, everything collapses with it”, he remarked.
He argued that God designed marriage in Genesis 2:24 as “one man, one woman, one flesh, one covenant.” From that union comes children, character, and community. That is why, he said, the Bible spends so much time protecting it.
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church” Ephesians 5:25.
“Train up a child in the way he should go” Proverbs 22:6.
“What God has joined together, let no one separate” Mark 10:9.
And the nation is in total agreement because the Constitution of Uganda in Article 31 recognizes marriage as between a man and a woman, and calls the family “the natural and basic unit of society.”
“No wonder the family is under attack from so many fronts, we are seeing divorce rates climb, infidelity normalized, homosexuality promoted as an alternative, pornography in every phone, and a culture that tells young people marriage is outdated. The devil knows: hit the home, and you hit the Church and the nation”, Muwanga warned.
When Anointing Is Not Enough.
He traced the problem back to Scripture, warning that gifting has never been a guarantee against moral failure, adding that anointing alone is not enough.
“For centuries, even from Biblical times, powerful anointed men of God like King David, Samson and Solomon among others fell down with thuds due to sexual sins which later followed their families or generations,” he noted.
The bishop then expounded on each case to show both the fall and the way back. King David, described in the Bible as “a man after God’s own heart,” fell into adultery with Bathsheba and arranged the murder of her husband Uriah. The consequences were immediate: shame, family betrayal, and violence that haunted his house for years. Yet what set David apart was not that he never fell, but that he repented deeply.
He cited Psalm 51 which records David’s cry: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love… Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” It was that brokenness and return to God that preserved his heart before the Lord, even after failure.
Samson, a Nazarite and judge of Israel set apart by God with supernatural strength, lost his calling through compromise. His entanglement with Delilah led him to reveal the secret of his consecration. Captured, blinded and made to grind in an enemy prison, Samson’s story shows how small compromises can dismantle a big calling. In his final prayer he turned back to God, and God answered him one more time.
Solomon, the wisest king who built the temple, allowed 700 wives and 300 concubines to turn his heart to idols. A kingdom that began in gold ended in division. The wisdom that built a temple could not keep his own heart.
“Even today such cases of sex scandals have not spared men and women of God holding priestly offices: from church teachers, pastors, Reverends, Reverend Fathers, archdeacons, bishops and archbishops. We have had eye-soring issues, some which hit the newspaper, radio, TV airwaves and social media platforms and became fodder,” Bishop Muwanga said, adding anointing without character is a leaking vessel.
“Like Josiah, We must return to the Book”From there Bishop Muwanga turned to King Josiah to speak directly to Uganda and the world by recalling 2 Kings 22–23, when Josiah, at just 26 years old, discovered the Book of the Law in the temple during a time when Judah had drifted into idolatry, child sacrifice, and moral decay. Priests had compromised. Leaders had normalized sin. The nation had forgotten covenant.
“When the Book was read, Josiah tore his clothes and wept,” Bishop Muwanga said. “He did not blame the culture; he did not call a press conference or staged a demo at City Square to defend the palace. He gathered the elders, renewed covenant, tore down altars, and led the nation back to God.”
Applying it to today, the bishop said: “Uganda and the world are like Judah in Josiah’s day. We have built big ministries, big companies, big titles, but we have misplaced the Book. The family is under attack. Leaders are falling. Our young people are being sacrificed on the altars of lust, drugs, money and witchcraft.”
He pointed out that Josiah’s revival did not start in the streets. It started when the Word was found and the king repented first. That is what I am calling for today. Let us as ministers, as politicians, as lawyers, as doctors, as parents — find the Book again and tear our hearts before God.
“If our schools taught the Book again, if our parliament debated the Book again, if our markets traded with the fear of God again, and if our homes read the Book again — then Uganda would see the same turnaround that Judah saw under Josiah”, he stressed.
Not just a church problem.
The bishop was quick to say this crisis is not limited to the pulpit. “This is also not limited to men of God,” he said. “There are actually more even in the secular world — among powerful politicians, lawyers, academicians, medical or health professionals, musicians and others whose lives have gone down to the dogs because of lack of self-control.”
He added substance abuse, alcohol, drugs, licentious lifestyles and extravagance to the list. “No wonder many are in jail while others are under probes, while others have fallen from grace to grass. While others resort to witchcraft to sustain their jobs and marriages.”
“The devil’s target is the same,” he warned. “John 10:10 says ‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.’ He wants to steal your marriage, kill your testimony, and destroy your legacy. But Jesus came that we may have life, and have it abundantly.”
What the Church, the Bible, and the Nation Say. The Muwangas balanced the warning with what Scripture and doctrine teach about faithfulness.
The Bible calls marriage a covenant, not a contract. “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” Ecclesiastes 4:9. It calls believers to diligence:
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord” Colossians 3:23.
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved” 2 Timothy 2:15.
“Flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness” 2 Timothy 2:22.
And to leaders: “Be shepherds of God’s flock… watching over them willingly” 1 Peter 5:2.
The Church of Uganda, in its canons and marriage liturgy, teaches that marriage is “a lifelong union, for better for worse, in sickness and in health.” Divorce is treated as a tragedy, not an option, and reconciliation is always the first path.
The nation, through law and policy, also recognizes this. Beyond Article 31, Uganda’s National Gender Policy and Children’s Act all assume that stable families produce stable citizens. That is why the Office of the First Lady was represented at the service — because what happens in the pastor’s home affects what happens in the classroom, the clinic, and the courtroom.
Bishop Muwanga said that kind of diligence must start in the home. “The pulpit and the bedroom are both altars. If one is defiled, the other loses power.”
Voices Across History.
To reinforce the point, he drew on voices across church history and across continents.
From Britain, Charles Spurgeon, the 19th century Baptist preacher, warned: “A minister may fill his pews, his communion roll, the mouths of the public, but what that minister is on his knees in secret before God Almighty, that he is and no more.”
John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, told young preachers: “Give me one hundred men who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not whether they be clergymen or laymen, they alone will shake the gates of hell.”
And from America, modern evangelist Billy Graham often said: “The greatest form of witness is the life we live.”
From Africa, the Bishop also cited voices closer to home. He named Bishop Festo Kivengere (1919-1988), one of Uganda’s most respected evangelists, Anglican bishops and former Bishop of Kigezi who became a voice of reconciliation during Idi Amin’s regime, taught: “Revival is not just big meetings. Revival is when Christians go home and their families become different.”
Kivengere paid for that message with exile, yet he returned to preach forgiveness instead of revenge. For Bishop Muwanga, that is the model Uganda needs now — revival that begins in the living room, not just on the crusade ground.
Dr. Myles Munroe, the Bahamian pastor and leadership teacher widely followed across Africa, said: “The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but a life without purpose. And the greatest tragedy in ministry is power without character.”
Munroe’s books and conferences have trained thousands of African pastors and business leaders, which is why the bishop quoted him to young ministers in the room. “We don’t need more titles. We need more character.”
“Not by might, but by the Holy Ghost”
For the Dr Muwangas, the difference in their 25 years has not been strength or image. Mrs. Victo Lillian Biwoye was described by the bishop as “equally prayerful,” and together they said the anchor of their home has been prayer and repentance.
“We have had seasons of disagreement. We have had seasons where finances were tight and the pressure was real,” Muwanga testified. “But we made a covenant: we would not go to bed angry, and we would not make decisions without prayer. That’s how the Holy Ghost kept us.”
Muwanga continued quoting Zechariah 4:6 “Not by might nor by power but by the Holy Ghost,” “Mary told the angel ‘How will it happen’ but the Holy Ghost came upon her. The same way the Holy Ghost should come on every marriage, to start with every minister’s marriage. It is time for revival.”
He admitted the 25 years have not been without challenges. “This does not mean we did not have problems, but that we are always quick to repent and reconcile and seek God’s ways.”
“Nonetheless, 25 years of grace is worth celebrating. We thank God for the grace of seeing us through all these years of living together without a single scandal and we pray for the same to continue guiding us,” Bishop Muwanga said.
From there the thanksgiving turned into a declaration. “God is sweeping Uganda for revival and spiritual effectiveness. During this season of revival, we will focus on renewable vows in marriage. We have launched revival to tell the world that it is possible. It is not over yet.”
“God is able to keep us. God, being a covenant maker and covenant keeper, has the capacity to help us make marriage covenant and give us power to keep them. God is reviving our marriages as ministers of the gospel. Our marriages as ministers have been hit left and right but it is not over yet. The Holy Ghost of Acts is still the same.”
The presence of representatives of the First Lady added a civic note to the spiritual one — an acknowledgment that strong homes among clergy and leaders matter beyond the pulpit.
Conclusion.
By turning a personal milestone into a public charge, Bishop Dr. Prof. Daniel Muwanga and Victo Lillian Biwoye have asked Uganda’s Christian fraternity and its leadership class a direct question. If grace could sustain one home for 25 years, can it not sustain the rest?They issued a challenge to the Church of Christ here on earth and to Uganda.
If one home can stand for 25 years by prayer, repentance and the Word, then other homes can do.
If Josiah could turn a nation by returning to the Book, and if Bishop Kivengere could turn a nation by returning to forgiveness, then Uganda can still be turned.
The message from Kimaka is clear that before we fix the pulpit, the parliament, the judiciary and the executive as well as our streets and roads or the economy, we must fix the home.
This is because when the family stands, the Church stands and when the Church stands, the nation stands. With God, all things are possible.
