*THE CHURCH IN THE NEWS*
(Churches And Clergy Making Headlines This Past Week)
September 18th, 2021
Headlines:
Lutheran Church Appeals For Donations For Its Coronavirus-hit Schools
Churches Can Now Exceed 100 People If Congregants Are Vaccinated
T.B Joshua's Wife Officially Takes Over SCOAN
Founder Of World's Largest Church David Yonggi Cho, Dies At 85
The News In Detail:
*Lutheran Church Appeals For Donations For Its Coronavirus-hit Schools*
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe is appealing to its community for donations following coronavirus outbreaks at its five schools in Mberengwa District, Midlands Province.
Over 150 COVID-19 cases were recorded in recent days at Chegato High School, Masase High School, Mnene High School, Musume High School and Mnene Primary School.
Chegato High School is the hardest with over 102 students and 3 teachers infected, followed by Masase High School with 40 and Mnene High School with 18 cases, Mnene Primary School (7), and Musume High School (6), all students, as of Thursday, 16 September 2021. The church’s bishop, Rt Rev Kenneth Sibanda, said:
The affected students and teachers have been isolated. The Ministry of Health and Child Care is managing the situation. The cases are reported mild and students are all in stable condition. Testing is in progress.
Among the items the church desperately needs are face masks (preferably disposable), sanitisers, prescribed medication, food for the day scholars who have no budget in the boarding, fuel (for the Mberengwa health team as it would like to make frequent visits to schools to monitor the situation), and tents (to create more space). Added Rev Sibanda:
For any donation please contact, ELCZ Central Diocese Education Office Contact Person-Mrs T Shumba 0712040200/0773481868.
Your prayers are needed at this critical moment.
Source : News Report
*Churches Can Now Exceed 100 People If Congregants Are Vaccinated- Govt*
Speaking after the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said churches can now exceed 100 people if congregants are vaccinated.
Mutsvangwa said churches taking into account their size, can now move from 100 people per service to half their capacity if congregants are fully vaccinated. She however said other social gatherings such as weddings and funerals are still limited to 100 people since it is difficult to enforce the need for vaccination at such events.
She said:
Cabinet discussed the request by churches for a review of the number of congregants allowed in church services to at least a third, taking into account the size of the church. While all other gatherings shall not exceed 100 persons, with regards to churches, Cabinet has resolved that only vaccinated congregants can attend and should be limited to 50 percent of the holding capacity of the church.
Cabinet’s decision follows a High Court ruling by judge Justice David Mangota last Friday that ruled against a decision barring unvaccinated congregants from physically attending church services. Mangota said the ban on unvaccinated congregants violated citizens’ constitutional rights and freedom set out in the declaration of rights.
Source : NewsDay
*TB Joshua’s Wife Officially Takes Over SCOAN*
The wife of late Prophet Temitope Balogun, aka T.B Joshua, has officially taken over as the new leader of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN.
The church named Evelyn Joshua as its new leader replacing her late husband who was the overseer of the whole SCOAN.
SCOAN announced the development on its verified Facebook page in a statement saying the church activities would be under the guidance of God and leadership of Mrs. Evelyn Joshua.
“Good Morning. We thank you for all your prayers and your love for the ministry since the glorious home call of our dear father, servant of the Most High God, Prophet T.B. Joshua.
“We thank you for keeping the faith. It is now God’s appointed time, to the glory of God, for The SCOAN to soldier on with the divine assignment under the guidance of God and the human leadership of Mrs. Evelyn Joshua.
“We urge you all to join us in prayers as we wish for God’s guidance and divine wisdom in her new God ordained role,” reads the statement.
The church urged members and followers to pray for TB Joshua’s wife as she takes on her new role.
Her appointment as church leader comes after, SCOAN elders met and selected her as TB Joshua’s successor as there was no succession plan for the church.
Following her husband’s sudden demise in June, there were reports of succession wars within the church as some of the church leaders allegedly fought to assume leadership of the church. Due to the wrangle, some of the leaders involved in the tussle have been evicted from the church premises.
Source : Facebook
*Founder Of World’s Largest Church, David Yonggi Cho, Dies At 85*
David Yonggi Cho, the co-founder of Yoido Full Gospel Church, has died. He was 85.
The church is the world’s largest congregation headquartered in Seoul, Korea, which encompasses a network of churches that once claimed more than 800 000 members.
Yonggi Cho, who retired from leading the church in 2008 and was named pastor emeritus, died at 7:13 AM at a Seoul hospital, on Tuesday.
According to The Korea Herald, he had been under medical treatment suffering a cerebral haemorrhage since July last year.
Yonggi Cho was born in 1936 as the eldest of nine children in the southeastern rural county of Ulju to a family with Buddhist beliefs.
His family moved to the southern port city of Busan after the 1950-53 Korean War broke out.
He is known to have come to believe in God after being diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis when he was 17 years old.
He was introduced to Christianity through a friend of his sister and decided to follow the religion.
Cho met with Kenneth Tice, a missionary from the Assemblies of God, an American Pentecostal denomination in Busan and began helping him.
In 1956, he entered a Full Gospel college in Seoul to study theology. While there, he met Choi Ja-shil, who later became his mother-in-law and a close religious associate.
After graduating in 1958, he opened a tent church in northwestern Seoul, which later moved to Yeouido, a financial district in the capital, and became Yoido Full Gospel Church.
In 1993, the church was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest single congregation with around 700 000 members ― it currently has 570 000, The Korea Times reported.
He engaged in many social activities other than religious pastorship at the church.
He established the newspaper Kookmin Daily in 1988 and set up Good People, an international non-government development organization for human rights, environment and child welfare.
In 1996, Cho received the Order of Civil Merit Mugunghwa Medal for supporting the free treatment of children with heart disease.
In 2005, he received The Family of Man Medallion from the New York Christian Church Council in the United States; and in 2007, the Proud Korean Certificate from the United States Federal Council.
In 2009, he was awarded a medal by the Cambodian government.
Cho stepped down as a senior pastor of the Yoido Full Gospel Church in 2008 and served as a pastor emeritus.
He was sentenced to a two-and-a-half-year prison term suspended for four years in 2017 for causing 13 billion won ($12 million) worth of losses to the church by instructing its staff to buy unlisted stocks at prices over twice the market value.
His funeral will be held Saturday at the grand hall of Yoido Full Gospel Church in central Seoul after days of mourning, according to the church.
Source : News Report
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