Local communities with connections to the Israel Ahimbisibwe family are adding their prayers and remembrances to those being offered in Texas, Uganda and beyond.
The Rev. Dr. Israel Ahimbisibwe, his spouse, Dorcas, and their five-year-old son, Jay, were found dead in their Houston apartment on Feb. 2, according to Diocese of Texas news reports.
Ahimbisibwe's eldest son, Isaac Tiharihondi, was arrested in Mississippi later in the week and has been charged with two counts of capital murder, according to media reports. Another son, Emmanuel, is in boarding school in California.
Ahimbisibwe, a native of Uganda, was the vicar of the Church of the Redeemer and chaplain at
Courtesy Photo: St. Stephen's Church, Cohasset
Israel and Dorcas Ahimbisibwe
the University of Houston. He had previously served as an assistant at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Houston.
The Diocese of Texas has set up a family fund, and information about contributing is available here.
The Ahimbisibwe family had numerous friends and connections in the Diocese of Massachusetts through academic and parish affiliations, including at Harvard Divinity School, St. James's Church in Cambridge and St. Stephen's Church in Cohasset.
Members of the Cohasset congregation gathered in remembrance on Feb. 8. "[Rector Margot Critchfield] offered a truly wonderful gathering this past Sunday attended by about two dozen parishioners and local townspeople who had befriended and been touched by the Ahimbisibwes," senior warden Kathryn Earle said by e-mail. "We said prayers and shared happy reminiscences and shed a few tears."
On Saturday, Feb. 28 at 3 p.m., the African Clergy Caucus in the Diocese of Massachusetts, together with the St. Peter's Anglican Ugandan congregation that worships at Christ Church in Waltham, will hold a memorial service at Christ Church (750 Main Street). Bishop Alan M. Gates will attend. All are welcome. A reception will follow the service. The offering collected at the service is designated for Ahimbisibwe's 80-year-old mother in Uganda, according to service organizers.
"In Africa, we say, 'I am because we are,'" the Rev. Dr. James Githitu, chair of the Massachusetts African Clergy Caucus, said in an e-mail announcing the memorial service. "We should continue to hold our sisters and brothers in prayers."
--Tracy J. Sukraw