In 1988, while serving as Arch Deacon of Bunyoro Diocese in Uganda, John Rucyahana enrolled for a Masters Degree in Theology at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, USA.

During the early 1990s, he honored several invitations to preach in various churches; each pastoral visit would last three months. It was while on one such tour, in April 1994, when he saw horrific scenes of what was happening in Rwanda on CNN television.

"They were showing bodies floating on the River Kagera and Lake Victoria; and they said these were Rwandan Tutsis being killed. I decided to stop my mission and returned to my base in Uganda.”

In Uganda, Rucyahana mobilized eleven fellow priests from his Diocese, to travel on a fact-finding mission and witness what was happening in Rwanda.

In a minibus, the clergy drove to Kampala, and then on to Kabale in south western Uganda near the border with Rwanda. "We went to the nearest RPF post, where we requested to follow the advancing RPF troops.”

Their wish was granted, and they drove as far inland as Kabuga, and on to Nyamata. Whichever place they visited, one thing was constant: The sight of corpses everywhere. Still, they managed to take some pictures on their camera to save the memory for the benefit of others. They continued to Rwamagana, and further on to Nyamata, where they visited a mass grave for the first time, and an orphanage.

The purpose of the mission, the bishop explains, "was the deep desire to know what pain my people were going through, and the danger that the people who were trying to stop the genocide faced. I really felt that I needed to know. It was my duty and my right as a Rwandan. In a way, it was a selfish desire to belong where I really belonged.”

He admits that by its very nature, this was "a very tough calling”.

"But dangerous as it was, I did not want to lose awareness of the magnitude of pain that was in Rwanda. I wanted to see for myself and not be told or read about it.”

At one point, the adventure seemed out rightly frustrating even:

"Some of my colleagues were traumatized while others lost the ability to hold it again. One of them actually spent two days admitted in hospital because of trauma.”

Because of this, the priests were forced to wind up the trip after about one week.

Second home-coming

Back in Uganda, he prayed for Rwanda while he worked as Mission and Outreach coordinator for Bunyoro Diocese.

In 1995, the head office of the All Africa Churches in Nairobi asked him to conduct research on the role of the Anglican Church in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. "This assignment gave me opportunity to interview survivors alongside perpetrators to know who did, and who failed to do what in the genocide.”

That same year, Rucyahana returned to Rwanda with the African Evangelistic Enterprise in Uganda, which had organized a preaching convention in Kigali.

This was closely followed by the Conference of Church Leaders in Rwanda, whose intention was "to challenge them (church leaders) to get back to their evangelistic work, no matter how hurt or sinful they felt,” he explains: "The gospel had to be preached.”

In December of 1995, he and other church leaders from Uganda met with Paul Kagame, who was by then the Vice President of Rwanda. "He challenged us to come back and join our colleagues in ministry, emphasizing that we all had to sacrifice for the recovery of the nation.”

Three months later "I packed my bags and returned to Rwanda.”

"We found that the Church had no constitution and no canons. I was tasked with drafting a constitution for the church.”

After comparing the constitutions of the Churches in Uganda, Kenya and other countries, he came up with a draft and presented it to the council, which accepted.

In 1996, he was approached with a request to serve as Diocesan Secretary, and later nominated for Bishop because most Bishops had fled the country during the genocide. In 1997, he was consecrated Bishop of Shyira Diocese.

Joining politics

In 1999, Rucyahana was appointed Chairman National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC), effectively thrusting him into the realm of national politics. NURC’s mandate is to promote unity and reconciliation in the aftermath of the genocide.

He continued as Bishop of Shyira Diocese until 2011, when he retired at 65. For symbolism, he retired on November 14, his 65th birthday.

"I felt I’d done enough for the Church, and that the church needed other people to carry on,” he offers an explanation for his retirement at a time when the church still needed him.

"I had preached in jails, encouraged repentance and forgiveness, initiated reconciliation villages, and started Sunrise School in Musanze for children of both survivors and perpetrators.

I believed that something needed to be done to demonstrate that forgiving is healing. It makes you sleep.”

Politics and Gospel

He believes that reconciliation is "not a philosophy. It’s life: To repent removes the acidic guilt conscience from one’s heart. Guilt is like an acid. It eats you up.” He adds: "When you forgive, it benefits you first. When you are angry and bitter, you can’t think or perform right. Forgiving is healing, because it makes you think right.”

Rucyahana believes that upon his retirement from Church service, God used government leaders to call him to head the NURC. He argues that politics and the Gospel complement each other well.

"Politics is the management of a society/people and their belongings. On the other hand, the Gospel is the means by which people are governed, and the way they share their belongings. I don’t think they contradict, but they complement each other.”

He sees Rwanda as a country that has been blessed with the gift of good leadership. "President Kagame and his team are people selfless people,” he says adding: "I think that a leadership that does not think of revenge, that thinks beyond the pain of the present to see peace in the future, that looks beyond division and sees unity, is a special kind of leadership.”

He further reckons that; "In the history of genocides, Rwanda is the only country that stopped its own genocide, and the only one that offers restorative justice to perpetrators –in other words, condemning the crime, but not the criminal.

Over the years, the Bishop has curved a reputation as one of the country’s most effective leaders – advocating and advancing spiritual, economic, educational, and healthcare causes countrywide.

Some of his most vivid accomplishments in that regard include; founding of the Sunrise School in Musanze and the Urwego Opportunity Bank.

He also helped build about 600 housing units for the resettlement of returnees in Musanze, Cyanika, Shyira, and Nyiragikokora in addition to rehabilitation of Shyira Hospital, Inyange Health Center; and founding of the Bigogwe Health Center in Nyabihu District.

Rucyahana also served as Chairman of Prison Ministries Rwanda, an organization that offers religious outreach to prisoners in detention facilities. He only retired from the position last year.

Rucyahana's early life

He was born on November 14, 1945, to John Baptist Kabongo and Verdian Karerwe, in the northern part of Rwanda.

He started his primary school in Rwanda until 1962 when he fled to Uganda because of the violence in Rwanda at the time.

In Uganda, he joined his family which had fled three years earlier for similar reasons.In 1963, his family relocated to Goma, in Zaire, from where Rucyahana continued his education.

However, in November 1964, a wave of violence in the name of the Malele War hit Zaire (DR Congo), forcing the family back to Uganda and briefly settled in Ankole. They later moved to Kinyara Refugee Camp at Kigumba, in the north-western part of Uganda –farther away from home, Rwanda.

By 1965, he had started teaching children and evangelizing in the camp. He taught Mathematics, English, and French at Kinyara Church of Uganda Primary School, and in the same year, was appointed headmaster. It’s from here that he met a lady called Mukamurasa, a devoutly religious woman who would have lasting influence on him.

"Through her religious outreach in Rwanda, in 1966 I accepted Jesus as my savior and started witnessing for the same redemptive grace.”

"Jesus accepted me and I confessed his acceptance. Because of the pain and groans from my heart, he redeemed and accepted me. I would say it’s by grace that I got saved. What this means is that I did not deserve, work for, or merit it. I don’t say I accepted Jesus. He accepted me -as a miserable sinner, someone who craved salvation.”

"I believed that although Uganda had accepted and nurtured us, we had to instinctively know that we were on a mission –a mission to return to our homeland – Rwanda. We needed to pray for and relate well with Uganda for us to really understand who we are and what we needed to do for our own country. I used to instill this kind of thinking on my students.”

He later joined Kigezi Diocese to undertake community development activities like teaching local communities to form cooperatives, and how to grow and make nutritious food at home, besides preaching the gospel. He served in that capacity from 1968 to 1972 then enrolled at Bishop Tucker Theological College Mukono, from where he was ordained a deacon in 1974.

Between 1980 and1983, he was back at the school, this time for a Diploma in Theology, awarded by Makerere University. He went back to Bunyoro Diocese at Arch Deacon, before embarking on his Masters in Theology in the US in 1988.

Bishop Rucyahana is a father of five biological children and has been married to wife Harriet since December 20, 1969.