Choir members have been urged to dedicate their talent to the service of God other than seeking their own glory. This call was made on Thursday March 20, 2025 by Rev. Fr. Dr. Deusdedit Musinguzi, chaplain of choirs and Parish Priest of Our Lady of Assumption Rwanyena Parish at the parish grounds at choir competitions.
Quoting St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo who said that “he who sings well prays twice”, Fr. Musinguzi said that choirs help people in praying well during the liturgical celebrations. “God gave you that talent of singing with beautiful voices, so use them to serve him,” said Fr. Musinguzi.
He expressed gratitude to God for the occasion of the music presentations by the joint choirs. He thanked the catechists from outstations (hiikas) for supporting their choirs and thanked choir members for the dedication and efforts put in practice thereby emerging victorious on the centre level. He urged the choir members to keep up the spirit and continue for the betterment of a lively liturgical celebration. Fr. Musinguzi said this is part of the many on going parish programs that are of the diamond jubilee celebrations with climax set to be in July 2025.
Rwanyena Parish has got 40 outstations (hiikas) and music competitions started on the muluka level (a group of hiikas in the same locality) them to the Centre level and climax of the competitors were held yesterday on Parish level which saw six choirs compete. These were Rwanyena, Ryakarimira, Mumugyera, Katuna, Karujanga and Kahungye.
Three songs were completed for and these were: Twesiime yaimwe abanya Uganda twena, Mwije tutojiere Mukama and Maria ori omuhiirwa. At the end of competitions, Rwanyena was declared winners with a total of 251 points, followed by Kahungye with 234, then Ryakarimira with 229, Katuna with 220, Karujanga with 210 and finally Mumugyera with 180 points.
Mr. Boniface Byamugisha, the adjudicator of the competitions thanked the Parish Priest for supporting the choirs and arranging the choir competitions in Rwanyena Parish. He said he awarded marks basing on harmony, voice balance, accompaniment, word diction, facial expression and uniformity. and each was allocated 20 marks.
He thanked the catechists for supporting the choirs and the choir trainers for always leading choir practice. He also thanked choir members for the time invested in choir practice and for their smartness.
Each choir was rewarded with a goat as a gift for having dedicated time and resources to participate in the competitions, but also as a motivation to keep them up with the spirit.