Singing hope: Soweto Melodic Voices

THE South African dimension of Just Festival is further re-inforced by the presence of the enchanting Soweto Melodic voices, who are here with particular backing from Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

A special message from Dr Tutu was given by video at the official opening of Just at the beginning of the month.

Soweto Melodic Voices offer a vibrant, life-affirming, celebration of traditional and contemporary African music, dance and song. Performing in Edinburgh for the first time, following international success, they promise audiences a visual and sonic delight.

​ The group say: "Our members are young adults who have grown up amidst the poverty of Soweto and have experienced first-hand hardships and bereavement through HIV/AIDS."

Seeking to transcend these hardships by friendship, mutual support and the joys for performing, the group raises funds for the prevention, treatment and orphans of HIV/AIDS. An uplifting and affirmative experience showcasing the power of community.​

You can hear and see them from 16:00 – 17:00 at St John's Church again today, Tuesday 20th August, then 21st (22nd from 14:00 – 15:00), and finally on 23rd. Full details and booking here.

Positive faith messages on HIV

BREAKING the stigma and silence around HIV and AIDS is vital to tackling the issue locally and globally, said Winnie Sseruma, a Ugandan Catholic who has lived with HIV for 23 years, at a powerful discussion as part of the Festival of Spirituality and Peace today.

Among the issues discussed was how preachers help or hinder the spread of AIDS, particularly in Africa. Ms Sseruma works with Christian Aid on awareness and action programmes.

She was in conversation at St John's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh, with Oonagh O’Brien from the Institute for International Health and Development at Queen Margaret University and Ewan Aitken of the Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland.

Since “Christianity reaches more people than healthcare” it matters what the churches and other faith communities say about HIV/AIDS, the panel declared: not just because of their reach, but because of their authority within the lives of millions of people. 

More on Bishop Christopher Senyonjo

BISHOP Christopher Senyonjo, who is speaking at the Festival of Spirituality and Peace in Edinburgh today, spent his entire ministerial career prior to his 1998 retirement in Uganda.

From 1974 until 1998, he was the Anglican Diocesan Bishop of West Buganda at Masaka. He completed a DMin at Hartford Theological Seminary, USA, which was key to his understanding of marriage and human sexuality, two areas which would define his later career.

Following his retirement from the bishopric, Senyonjo began counselling services for singles and married people. His pastoral work with LGBT people in Uganda and beyond began in 2001.

In 2010, he founded St Paul’s Reconciliation and Equality Centre for LGBTQ/Straight Alliance. Bishop Senyonjo has been a keynote speaker at a number of international human rights conferences, including two at the United Nations in 2010.

These two conferences helped to reinstate language protecting LGBT people against “extra-judicial” killings.

Bishop Senyonjo is in Edinburgh from 9-16 August 2011. He arrives in San Diego, USA, on 18 August and will be visiting California, Portland, Minnesota, Chicago, Boston, Washington, New Jersey and New York.

He will receive the Unitas Award from Union Theological Seminary before leaving the USA on 24 October. More here.

Uganda and 'sexual apartheid'

POLITICIANS, church leaders and others in Uganda, Ghana and elsewhere in Africa have whipped up dangerous surges of hatred against gay people. Uganda considered a bill that would make homosexuality a capital crime. 

In the midst of this storm, Ugandan Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, an Anglican, has courageously stood up for LGBT dignity and rights, campaigned against ‘sexual apartheid’, and shown enormous Christian and pastoral courage in the face of opposition, exclusion and even death threats.

The Bishop, whom the Huffington Post named ‘one of the ten most influential religious figures in the world’ in 2010, demonstrates what it means to have conviction and faith enough to side with all those whom Jesus called “the least of these my sisters and brothers.”

Bishop Senyonjo is currently on tour in North America and Europe. At the Festival of Spirituality and Peace he joins conversation with John Watson from Amnesty International in a compelling event entitled 'The worst Place in the World to be Gay?'

It takes place on Saturday 13 August, 12.30pm  – 1.30pm, at St John’s Church, Princes St, Edinburgh. All welcome.

Q&A with Bishop Christopher Senjonyo

THIS evening at 17:45 there is a showing of the powerful 'Getting Out', followed by Q&A with Bishop Christopher Senjonyo from Uganda, a courageous supporter of the rights and dignity of LGBT people, at the Filmhouse Cinema in Edinburgh.

The presentation is taking place under the banner of the 2011 Festival of Spirituality and Peace. Bishop Christopher is also speaking tomorrow, Saturday 13 August, from 12.30pm at St John's Church, in a conversation entitled 'The worst place in the world to be gay?'


These are both 'must see' events. Full film details and booking information here.

A voice alongside the voiceless

IN THIS video, Bishop Christopher Senyonjo speaks about his ministry with LGBT Ugandans, for the film Voices of Witness Africa (http://voicesofwitness.org).


Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo from Claiming the Blessing on Vimeo.

Scotland is positive

THOUGH the Festival of Spirituality & Peace kicks off fully on 6 August, one 'conversations' event has already taken place - a powerful and moving opportunity to hear and meet Canon Gideon Byamugisha, an Anglican priest from Uganda who has been openly speaking about living with HIV since 1992.

The African church leader has also been a long-standing, brave and outspoken critic of attempts to introduce a controversial anti-homosexuality law in his home country.

In 1992, Gideon became the first African religious leader openly to declare his HIV-positive status. He has since devoted his life to an AIDS ministry. This has taken him to over 40 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and many other parts of the world.

Hosted by David Johnson, director of Waverley Care, Scotland is positive was an opportunity to hear how personal experience can stand up to attitudes that stigmatise and discriminate against people living with HIV in Scotland and across the world. It was also a challenge to policy makers within the political arena.

Gideon Byamugisha is driven by a passion for the dignity and rights of all people, especially those marginalised, stigmatised and discriminated against because of their HIV-positive status. He has played leading roles in the Church of Uganda's AIDS programme, the Uganda AIDS Commission, World Vision International, the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, special conferences of the United Nations, ICMDA HIV initiative, and in founding the African Network of Religious Leaders living with or Affected by HIV and AIDS. There is now also an equivalent international network.