Diana Nkesiga

Reverend Diana Nkesiga
Reverend Diana Nkesiga (top centre, the woman in pink) at the Phumla Retreat Centre in Kampala, which she founded and owned with her husband, the late Solomon Nkesiga
Denomination	Anglican church
Alma mater	Kyambogo University Bishop Tucker Theological College
Personal
Nationality	Angolan
Born	Diana Mirembe Barlow 1960 Munyonyo
Spouse	Solomon Nkesiga († 2015, aged 55)
Children	Ignatius Nkesiga, Themba Nkesiga, Edith Nagawa, Evelyn Namugumya
Religious career
Ordination	1994
Website	Facebook profile

Diana Nkesiga was one of the first women to be ordained by the Anglican Church of Uganda. After earning her degree in theology, she was denied ordination but was permitted to become a commissioned worker in 1989 and a deacon in 1991. Passed over for the priesthood in 1992, she pushed authorities in both Uganda and then South Africa, where she was doing mission work to allow her to be ordained. Finally in 1994, she was ordained by the Anglican Church in Uganda. Returning to South Africa, she had difficulty finding a placement as a priest until Bishop Desmond Tutu intervened. After 13 years in South Africa, she returned to Uganda in 2005. She is currently the Vicar of All Saints' Cathedral in Kampala.

Diana Mirembe Barlow was born in 1960, in Munyonyo to Mary Nantongo and Hugo Barlow. After attending Nakasero Primary School and Gayaza High School, she entered the National Teacher's College Kyambogo in 1981. She graduated in 1983 with her certification as a teacher for English and religious education. When she completed her degree, she taught at Gayaza High School for three years before entering Bishop Tucker Theological College in 1986 in Mukono. Barlow met fellow student Solomon Nkesiga in September, 1986 and after a three-year friendship, they decided to marry and were wed at St. Francis Chapel in Makerere in 1989, the year of her graduation.

Solomon's first position was to teach at the Anglican Martyr’s Theological Seminary in Namugongo Nkesiga was given a status of commissioned worker in 1989, by the Anglican Church, but she was not allowed to preach. Commissioned workers were people who were not ordained but were more highly educated than lay readers, and were either unpaid or paid significantly less than ordained clergy. Instead, she made money from selling tomato sauce, which she had learned to make at a trade show. It was the era of war in Uganda, with the Ugandan Bush War followed by the insurgency and life was difficult. Nkesiga was made a deacon in 1991, and was scheduled to be ordained as a priest in 1992, but was passed over for the ceremony due to her pregnancy with the couple's second son. Later that year, they were offered the chance to do missionary work in South Africa and moved to the Diocese of Grahamstown, in Grahamstown, South Africa.