Rwandans yesterday flocked to different churches for prayers to mark the end of 2013 and the start of 2014.

Eve Mukaneza, who goes to Eglise Vivante de Jésus Christ, said the day gave her an opportunity to thank God for availing her blessings in 2013.

"The previous year was a tough one. Poverty hit our family to the point of failing to afford even food, but toward the end of the year I landed a job and those problems were put to rest. That’s why I came to church to thank God for that,” she said.

Theoneste Kamana, a follower of the Kacyiru Parish of the Anglican Church, was out to extend gratitude to God for protecting his family.

Sophia Uwimana, of the Roman Catholic Church’s St Famille Cathedral in the City of Kigali, said she recently completed high school despite financial challenges, so the turn of the year was to show appreciation to God. 

In his message to faithful at Kacyiru Anglican Parish, the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Rwanda, Onesphore Rwaje, called upon the flock to be thankful to God for enabling them to get in the New Year.

"We need to extend our heart-felt gratitude to God for the new lease of life He has granted us,” he preached.

He also called upon Christians to take on virtues of humility, sacrifice and generousity in the New Year, saying "not giving your creator due praise brings about spiritual emptiness.”

Rwaje also thanked God for blessing the country with progressive leaders.

Rev. Straton Gataha, a senior pastor with Eglise Vivante de Jésus Christ in Kigali, urged his congregation to get more involved in work that glorifies God.

"We seem to be always asking God to bail us out but I think it’s time we started asking ourselves how we can give back to him too. It’s that way that people will be able to leave the troubles of the past year and get into the new one feeling stronger and more whole,” he said.

Apostle Paul Gitwaza, the senior pastor at Zion Temple in Kicukiro District, urged the faithful to always be thankful to God, not just during festive seasons.

"It’s time we realise the need to always seek guidance and pray so that we do not lose focus from what the Almighty God expects us to do,” Gitwaza said, adding that people make the year’s resolutions, they should seek heavenly grace to achieve them.

Collective effort

At Healing Centre Church in Remera, Pastor Emmanuel Ntayomba, urged Christians at the overnight mass dedicate their lives to God.

"It’s important to note that our prayers should among others be directed towards future plans for the good of our country and citizens,” Pastor Ntayomba said.

He urged the faithful to look back and see what people managed to achieve the previous years to identify their weaknesses if they are to work better in 2014. 

Meanwhile, at St Etienne Cathedral, believers put South Sudan in their prayer, imploring God to restore peace in the world’s newest nation currently torn apart by political impasse.

The Dean of the Cathedral, Bishop Louis Muvunyi, who is also the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Kigali, was at pains describing the suffering that children, women and elderly of South Sudan are going through.

"It hurts to see the people who have come through much suffering to celebrate independence go back to much pain and suffering while we celebrated Christmas and now, the New Year,” Bishop Muvunyi told the congregation.

More than 1,200 people have been killed in the conflict that started December 15 following what President Salva Kiir said was a coup attempt by his former deputy-turned-foe Riek Machar.

Machar, who denied he attempted to overthrow Kiir, is now leading a rebellion against the government. More than 200,000 civilians are reported to be displaced by the conflict.

Religious leaders in South Sudan have urged people to discourage the spread of violence across the country’s 10 states. 

Father Joseph Makuey, a Catholic priest in Unity state, earlier said the Church was deeply concerned about the crisis.

Makuey described the infighting between members of the SPLM as "meaningless to the people of South Sudan” and asked them to pray for peace in the nation that seceded from Sudan in 2011.

The Dinka, to which Kiir belongs, are purportedly pitted against the Nuer, Machar’s tribe, in what threatens to blow into a full-scale civil war if not halted.

Reported by Ivan Ngoboka, Eugene Kwibuka, James Karuhanga and Susan Babijja