Samuel Sindamuka Explained

Type:Bishop
Honorific-Prefix:The Most Reverend
Samuel Sindamuka
Primate of Burundi
Church:Anglican Church of Burundi
Archdiocese:Burundi
Diocese:Matana
See:Matana
Term:1992-1998
Successor:Archbishop Samuel Ndayisenga
Ordination:1974
Consecration:1975
Birth Date:1928
Birth Place:Gitara, Burundi
Death Date:2005
Death Place:Bujumbura, Burundi
Previous Post:Archbishop of the Province of Burundi, Rwanda and Boga-Zaire (1987-1998)

Samuel Sindamuka (Gitara, Province of Bururi, 1928 - December 18, 2005) was the first Primate of the Anglican Church of Burundi, then called the Episcopal Church of Burundi, entitled in French Église Episcopale du Burundi.

Sindamuka's parents were among the first converts to Anglicanism in his region and he was baptized in 1939. He studied to become a primary school teacher, working at first in Matana. He later became the headteacher in Matana and then Buhiga and subsequently inspector of all primary schools in the Matana area.[1] He married Flavia Kayeye and they had seven children.

Later he became the legal representative for church schools of the Protestant Churches Alliance, now called National Council of Churches.[2] He was also a member of the parliament of Burundi for four years, in the first years of the country's independence.

He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1974 and consecrated a bishop in 1975, to serve as diocesan Bishop of Bujumbura,[3] the new second diocese in Burundi. In 1987 he became Archbishop of the Province of Burundi, Rwanda and Boga-Zaire, until it was separated into its constituent countries in 1992.[4] He then became the first Archbishop of the newly created Province of the Episcopal Church of Burundi, from 1992 until his retirement in 1998. Meanwhile in 1990 he had become Bishop of Matana, swapping dioceses with Pie Ntukamazina, who became Bishop of Bjumbura.

His funeral and burial took place in St. Peter's Cathedral, in Matana, the Anglican Diocesan Centre in Bururi Province. The tributes given at the time of his death demonstrated how widely his faith and integrity were respected by both Burundi nationals and expatriates and by church members and political leaders.[5]

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/digest/index.cfm/2006/1/5/Thanksgiving_for_the_Life_of_the_Most_Rev_Samuel_Sindamuka The Anglican Communion Digest: Tribute Article to Samuel Sindamuka, January 5, 2006
  2. http://daga.dhs.org/urugopeace/Burundi/CNEB.htm History and details of the National Council of Churches of Burundi
  3. Web site: Episcopal News Service: Press Release # 79172 . 2022-04-08 . episcopalarchives.org.
  4. http://www.oikoumene.org/fr/eglises-membres/regions/afrique/burundi/eglise-anglicane-du-burundi.html World Council of Churches details on the Anglican Church in Burundi
  5. http://www.friendsofburundi.org.uk/Past/Obituaries/Samuel%20Sindamuka.htm Tributes to Archbishop Sindamuka