Spending unusually lengthy hours inside churches to pray has been blamed on the rising poverty burden among the youth across the Acoli sub-region.
On Friday, while gathering for the 2025 Annual Prayer Breakfast organised by Favour of God Ministries in Gulu City, religious leaders said that the poverty puzzle among the youth cannot be solved unless the youth begin to practice their faith with actions.
Rev. Samuel Francis Opiyo, the Gulu University (Church of Uganda) Chaplain, said that young people are too lazy to work and have now resorted to spending unnecessarily long hours in church praying to God.
‘Many of our youth are very lazy, and all the time they are in church praying, praying, and praying. It’s good to pray, but there is time for everything. There is time for prayer and there is time for work. What will God bless if you are not doing anything?’ Rev. Opiyo told the congregation.
He implored religious and political leaders to encourage the youth to focus on work and live by the examples of Jesus’ apostles, who lived by their works.
‘It is a huge problem that we need to address because our prisons are full of young people, energetic men, who should be doing something to fight poverty. Gender-based violence is too much in Northern Uganda; people are killing each other because of poverty, yet the solutions lie with us here,’ he added.
Because the youth are stuck in poverty, Bishop James Ochan, the head of born-again churches of Northern Uganda, said, they have resorted to prostitution, while the males have become drug addicts and robbers on the streets of urban centres across the region.
‘If your stomach is empty, it doesn’t matter how many prayers you say. You need to survive, and that has driven our young people to the streets, robbing and killing others. Young girls are in the streets. If you walk in the streets of Gulu City, you will find young people selling themselves.’ Bishop Ochan said.
According to Bishop Ochan, the problem is exacerbated by a lack of practical Christians to guide those going astray.
‘We are not having practical Christians. What are we doing as leaders in this region? Poverty is something manageable only if we can join hands as the body of Christ and encourage our people to work. We need to reevaluate our priorities and help the young people,’ the prelate said.
However, according to Bishop Godfrey Loum, the Northern Uganda Diocese bishop, the division among the political, civil and religious has exacerbated the poverty problem in the region.
‘Bluntly, the church thinks the political leadership is corrupt and incompetent, but the political leadership thinks the church does not have the moral authority. How can we talk to God’s people if I don’t have that? The people are on their way. But we in leadership, can’t we hold ourselves accountable?’ Bishop Loum wondered.
Brothers and sisters, we are gathered here as leaders of people and communities that are still rising from the ruins of war. It is very difficult for people who are in survival mode to differentiate what is right and what is wrong, and it is our role to guide and direct them, he added.