The Dilemma Of Syncretism in The Church Of Uganda Christian Faith Development from 1877 to 2019

Abstract

The Anglican Church of Uganda has been impacted by the increased syncretism brought on by the continuance of African Traditional Practices (ATPs) by her faithful members today. Its against this context that this study set out to perform a thorough analysis of secondary data to investigate why syncretism has persisted in the Church of Uganda despite the large proportion of Christian identities present in the organization today. The main objective of the study was to find out why although Christianity has been present in Uganda for a long time ATPs have continued to co-exist in Christian practices, posing a barrier to the growth of the Anglican Church of Uganda's faith. The study was guided by qualitative research methodology that involved a review of secondary literature of textbooks and journal articles on the research problem. The findings were that the overall uneasiness within the Christian community led to animosity and hatred that drove Christians to witchcraft tendencies, was one of the factors contributing to the continuance of ATR practices by Christians. It was further established in the review of literature that existing studies have not taken keen interest to identify ATR values that align with or complement Christian values which could be a major source of the problem. It is recommended that the Church should research non-conflicting values from ATR that could be incorporated into Christianity to avoid overlaps. The church should further open more spaces for dialogue with lead spiritual figures of ATR to strike a win-win outcome.