When Rev. John Charles Odeke speaks about education, he does not do it casually. For him, the opportunity to study was never guaranteed.

“I was a school dropout,” he says.

Today, Odeke is a priest serving in Achukudu Parish in Napak District, northeastern Uganda. Heis also a theology student at Uganda Christian University (UCU) Mbale University College, through the support of UCU Partners. But his path to priesthood and theological training was marked by long periods of waiting.

I am an Anglican priest in Madrid, Spain. I often observe this practice of letting the practices of our tiny Protestant community be determined to a great extent by not doing what the Roman Catholics do. I understand the historical and contextual reasons for this practice. But in the long run it is not a recipe for fruitfulness. In the same way, the winsomeness of the Christian faith should be allowed to stand on its own.