THE CHURCH IN THE NEWS
(Churches and Clergy Making Headlines This Past Week)
23rd October 2021
Headlines:
👉🏻Mapostori Seek to Affiliate with Zanu PF
👉🏻EFZ Engages Youth On Child Marriages, Sexual Abuse In Churches
👉🏻Former AFM Members Disrupt Church Services
👉🏻Rest In Peace Rev Tsvakai Of THE UDACIZA
The News In Detail:
Mapostori Seek to Affiliate with Zanu PF
ONE of the largest apostolic sects with membership across the southern African region has applied for official affiliate status with Zanu PF and in return, the sect leaders would rally their followers to vote for the ruling party.
The sect said the ruling party had listed opposition to homosexuality and same sex marriages as one of the main requirements for collaboration.
Zimbabwe criminalises same-sex relations, but the Constitution guarantees rights such as equality and non-discrimination.
Zanu PF has, however, listed resolute opposition to homosexuality and same sex marriages in response to the request by the leadership of the apostolic congregation, Johane Masowe WechiShanu WeAfrica.
This followed a meeting that Zanu PF acting political commissar Patrick Chinamasa held with the church’s leader, Bishop Andby Makururu on September 2.
Makururu was accompanied by 37 members drawn from the district and provincial leadership ranks, including members of the 250-large “prophetic council”.
“The meeting explored modalities for collaboration between the church and Zanu PF, especially in the area of economic empowerment, agriculture, mining, touring etc … They applied for affiliate status with Zanu PF and I briefed them on the requirements,” Chinamasa revealed in a series of tweets.
According to Chinamasa, some of the demands include sharing Zanu PF values, preservation and defence of the national interest, national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Zimbabwe, resolutely opposing tribalism, regionalism, nepotism, corruption, racism, religious fanaticism, among others,
The church promised to fulfil Zanu PF’s requirements.
Chinamasa said he was in a meeting when contacted for comment.
Zanu PF acting spokesperson Mike Bimha and Tafadzwa Mugwadi, the party’s information director, refused to comment, referring the NewsDay Weekender to Chinamasa.
Zanu PF has always drawn support from the apostolic sects, especially during elections.
In February 2019, Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe president Johannes Ndanga said President Emmerson Mnangagwa was God-ordained while addressing mourners at the burial of United Apostolic Church Independent Church of God Archbishop Chiutsi Zihowa Motsi in Mt Darwin.
In a research titled White Garment Churches (Vapositori) and Zanu PF Party Politics in Zimbabwe: True Marriage or Marriage of Convenience During and Post-Mugabe era, researcher Phillip Musoni argues that Zanu PF had a marriage of political expediency with the church.
Source : News Report
EFZ Engages Youth on Child Marriages, Sexual Abuse in Churches
In an effort to reduce child abuse, Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) recently conducted a youth leadership training at Langhorne Presbyterian Church in Masvingo educating youths about Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR), sexual abuse and child marriages.
Source : Tell Zim
Former AFM Members Disrupt Church Services
HARARE – Some former members of the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) in Zimbabwe attempted to invade the Glaudina Assembly on Sunday and were thwarted by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP).Former church members aligned to former president Reverend Cossum Chiangwa reportedly besieged the church premises before the Sunday service and clashed with congregants loyal to Reverend Amon Madawo.
Police attended the scene and dispersed Chiangwa’s loyalists leaving resident Pastor Kunaka to conduct the service.
One of the church security officers told H-Metro that no one was injured during the clash. He said:
We found the losing faction members already by the premises and we had a misunderstanding until police detail came.
They wanted to disturb our church service but the coming in of police officers helped much in resolving the differences.
They left and no one was injured or arrested and we carried on with our service.
Meanwhile, police officers manned Dzivaresekwa AFM Assembly and no service was conducted as leaders were urging people to return home and come next Sunday.
This comes after the AFM secretariat sent a circular message signed by the Overseer to various assemblies on Saturday urging people to tighten security ahead of Sunday church service expecting the losing faction to disturb their services.
According to The Sunday Mail, the battle to control AFM started in 2018 and has played out in the public for the past three years.
It resulted in the emergence of two rival camps, one led by Madawo and the other by Chiangwa.
The dispute between the two camps spilt into the Supreme Court after a group led by Chiangwa filed an appeal against a High Court order which gave Madawo’s faction blessings to lead the church.
The row over control of the church and its assets was sparked by the church’s council meeting held at Rufaro, Masvingo in 2018.
The meeting, as part of its resolutions, passed a vote of no confidence on the president of the church Reverend Aspher Madziyire.
The results of the council meeting saw leaders of both factions taking the matter to court.
Source - H metro
REST IN PEACE REV TSVAKAI OF THE UDACIZA
_By_ _Dr_ _Tinashe_ _Gumbo_
The Union for the Development of Apostolic Churches and Zionists in Africa (UDACIZA), General Secretary, Rev Edson Tsvakai is no more. He passed on yesterday, the 17th of October 2021. He has not been well for some time. As a member of the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHOCD) Technical Team, I am deeply saddened by this development. I am expressing my feelings here in my personal capacity as a member of a broader team that worked with Rev Tsvakai.
I have personally directly interacted with Rev Tsvakai for the past six years in the framework of the ZHOCD, where my organisation is the current Secretariat for the platform. The ZHOCD is an ecumenical platform that brings together four mother bodies namely the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC), the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ), and the UDACIZA. Together, these Christian bodies represent more than 80% of the Zimbabwean population (ZHOCD Consensus Call Proposal, 2021). This makes it a major player in Zimbabwe’s public life. The platform has its origins in the Heads of Denominations (HoD), a loose coalition established in the early missionary periods when the various heads of denominations came together to coordinate their policy in engagement with the state and in sharing perspectives on how missionary work could be executed.
For me, Rev Tsvakai has been a key player in the ecumenical movement in Zimbabwe. He completed the equation when it comes to the composition of the ecumenical actors in the country. The late was very unassuming but very effective in his execution of the Church collective processes.
Furthermore, the now late was a stabiliser and indeed Church work requires a character of Rev Tsvakai as the situation is aways fluid.
At the time of his death, Rev Tsvakai had proved to be a true ecumenist. Ecumenism, is when Christians who belong to different Christian denominations work together to develop closer relationships among their members for the promotion of Christian unity. Rev Tsvakai made it easy for ZHOCD members to make collective decisions regarding nation building processes. I remember very well, that Rev Tsvakai was an ardent believer in national dialogue. He always reminded his colleagues of the Church’s efforts in the early 2000s, when the Zimbabwe We Want Discussion Document was crafted. He still held that the Church, working together could influence positive change in Zimbabwe.
As a member of the ZHOCD Technical team, I got to clearly understand Rev Tsvakai’s belief in ONE Church-he was truly an Ecumenist. In him, as the technical team, we knew that we had a strong leader. His combination with Pastor Blessing Makwara of the EFZ, Fr Fredrick Chiromba of the ZCBC and Rev Dr Kenneth Mtata of the ZCC, was a marvel to work with. The team was so united that as the ZHOCD technical team, we felt motivated to do more for the Church. Here was a team of the General Secretaries that steered critical nation building processes towards a united, just, peaceful and prosperous Zimbabwe. As firm believers in a comprehensive and inclusive national dialogue, these General Secretaries managed to mobilise the nation around this process.
Now that Rev Tsvakai is no more, I can already feel the gap that as the ZHOCD technical team we will endure. I thank God for the time we had with Rev Tsvakai. By the way, Rev Tsvakai’s strength manifested in his being a natural man. He was natural, he remained natural and indeed, he did not pretend to be what he was not. He could strongly express his views in his mother language. He was humble and always ready to learn. Oh yah, without him, the ZHOCD will be poorer.
Rest in Peace Rev! Till we meet again!
Source - Church News
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