Luweero Secondary School Chaplaincy
THE STATE OF CHAPLAINCY AT LUWERO SECONDARY SCHOOL
“Chaplaincy” relates to the direct and indirect services rendered by the individual designated as the School Chaplain by the Church, in this case, Luweero Diocese. In essence, the services are pastoral and administrative in nature, with specific responsibilities set by the appointing authority (see, for example, the Diocesan Job Description for a Parish Priest, posting instructions, etc.) and the administration at the deployment station (thus the need for regular and sporadic communication with the above). Additionally, these responsibilities are communicated through a variety of initiatives or events.
As a result, chaplaincy hosts the following mandatory pastoral weekly communal programs:
- Sunday Chapel, 7:00–11:00 am, held in the Main Hall as two services (serving boarding students S.4–S.5 at 7:00–9:00 am and S.1–S.3 at 9:00–11:00 am);
- Monday Chapel, 7:00–9:20 am, held at St. Mark’s Cathedral;
- Wednesday Prayer Assembly, 7:00–8:00 am, held at the school assembly grounds; and
- Tuesday Teachers’ Fellowship, held in the staffroom during lunchtime, competitively! And the Monday Support Staff Fellowship (10:00 am–11:00 am), hosted at the DH.
Besides the compulsory programs, our optional pastoral weekly communal programs are what we refer to as Sunday fellowships (3:00-6:00pm)
Apart from the above scheduled activities, we also run occasional communal programs like:
- Celebration of church feasts (such as Easter, Christmas, Lent, Saints’ Days, holidays, and provincial-diocesan events),
- Officiating occasional school life services (such as dedication of candidates, induction of new students, and commissioning of student leaders);
- Internal and external missions and/or outreaches, group guidance and counselling sessions, chapel celebrations, and workshops and trainings.
Due to sacramental-didactical significance, I now wish to separately account for the pastoral duties of baptism and confirmation, together with pre-confirmation and pre-baptism catechism as standalone activities. We annually hold a confirmation service of all successful catechumens, sometimes this is preceded with baptism, which we also prepare on other occasions as need arises.