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Leaders of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches

Stanely Mushava Features Correspondent
The Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), a largely Protestant grouping of denominations, epitomises the aphorism: unity in necessary things, freedom in doubtful things, and charity in all things. The interdenominational fellowship, convened around ecumenism, civic engagement and humanitarian intervention, is one of Zimbabwe’s most accomplished development agencies.

A prophetic voice of note in the country, ZCC is on the alert both to avert and respond to gender-based violence, political intolerance and economic injustice through sustained advocacy of the scriptural values of universal equality and human dignity.

ZCC, together with the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ), the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference (ZCBC) and the Union for Development of Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe (UDACIZA) constitute the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHCD), a roughly comprehensive representation of the country’s Christian landscape.

Ecumenism in Zimbabwe is not so much alphabet soup as it is coordination for better delivery. The combined authority, ZHCD, this week pledged to build as many schools as possible to meet the country’s growing educational needs.

The growth and dispersion of the country’s population has created the need for 2056 new schools, according to the Primary and Secondary Education Ministry, and churches have committed to partner Government in this work.

Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) acting general secretary Gabriel Manyangadze spoke to Herald Review on the educational contributions and ecumenical body’s church in the community.

Now in its 52nd year, ZCC is made up of 26 Christian denominations and 10 para-church ministries on a joint mission to eliminate poverty and promote sustainable, home-driven and scripturally informed development.

“Denominations which constitute ZCC are reaching out to areas which were not included in the original missionary work of the church,” Manyangadze told Herald Review.

“Reformed Church in Zimbabwe and the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe have recently opened new mission stations, with clinics and schools being established,” he said.

“Church of Christ is currently building a new mission station near Gweru. We are also opening new areas for mission work in some of the newly resettled areas as we seek to serve the people of Zimbabwe ‘that they may have life, and that they have it more abundantly’ as the Lord Jesus taught,” he said.

These developmental efforts are being carried out at a time when most denominations in ZCC and their ZHCD partners have been weaned from the financial sponsorship of the mother church.

Remarkably, the local churches have not been derailed from their traditional commitment by the challenge but have embraced self-reliance and sustained the development work under their stewardship.

“Our member denominations have managed to the transition by answering the biblical question: ‘What is in your hands?’ Most of the work that is currently maintained by our members is wholly funded by the local church,” Manyangadze said.

Manyangadze said some ZCC member churches are holding donor conferences for their own parishioners and raising the necessary resources for development and recurrent expenditures.

“The Anglican Diocese of Central Zimbabwe is constructing a state-of-the-art hospital at St. Patrick’s Mission near Gweru through money wholly raised from local contributions. The transition has not been easy but with God’s guidance, our members are pulling through,” he said.

ZCC is responsible for coordinating the development work of the different ministries in its ambit.

“The ecumenical body’s mission includes facilitating and encouraging churches in Zimbabwe to carry out their evangelistic and developmental activities according to biblical principles,” Manyangadze said.

“We also provide a forum for churches in their common work of leadership development towards liberation, reconciliation, justice, peace, human development and rights. We also carry out our prophetic mandate through advocacy at all levels and capacity building of churches and communities,” he said.

ZCC’s educational mandate is not only directed at building up communities but also capacitating Christian leaders for effective stewardship as well as developing competent leaders for various sectors.

“In light of the consistently changing administrative environment of the social, political, economic and legislative spheres, ZCC has initiated a ZOU-accredited diploma programme to enhance capacity in church administration and management,” the ZCC general secretary said.

“We continue to encourage our members to raise standards of living for the people of Zimbabwe and as you know we have two of the local universities that are funded and run by our member churches, Africa University and Reformed Church University,” he said.

Manyangadze also intimated that Methodist Church in Zimbabwe and the United Churches of Christ in Zimbabwe are in process of putting up universities.

ZCC’s has also spread its educational efforts beyond the formal sector to develop messages corresponding to the social challenges of the day.

“We have extended our efforts beyond formal education which was the focus during the time of the missionary pioneers. We have challenges which must be addressed through coordinated educational efforts such as HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns.

“Most ZCC members have responded fully to this pandemic through care work and also by way of sensitising church members on how to respond to the affected and infected,” he said.

“Our denominations have set up viable HIV/AIDS desks that assist in reducing the issues of discrimination and these have changed significantly the way people preached about HIV and AIDS.

“We even became part of a worldwide programme on One Body Material that taught the clergy on how to preach about issues of HIV/AIDS from the pulpit,” he said.

Despite its debilitating effects, drug abuse continues to spread among the youths, partly through the influence of various forms of entertainment and particular sections of Zimdancehall which advocate the uptake of habit-forming substances in the name of ghetto culture and religion.

Christian denominations have had to update their approach in order to effectively reach out to the youths and prime them for conscious responses to peer influence.

Manyangadze said ZCC member denominations are working with different youth groups in the member denominations who know both the language of God and the language of the ghetto on issues of drug and substance abuse.

As the prophetic voice of society, ZCC is constantly responding to issues of gender-based violence, political violence and economic injustice through a call to all involved to respect scriptural values.

“We also have embarked on peace programmes that assist communities to be tolerant of each other’s different opinions be it on political, religious or developmental issues,” Manyangadze said.

“ZCC also focuses on issues of gender-based violence and domestic violence where the members of the council have signed a commitment to tackling both issues at an ecumenical level. As a result of this, members have drafted gender policies for their denominations, though speed in response still differs from one denomination to another,” he added.

“Equality and justice are at the heart of our work. That explains our care for the underprivileged and the vulnerable through provision of health facilities and educational services where Government has not managed to reach.

“We say with the prophet: ‘Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!’ Ultimately, it is our Christian mandate to call upon fellow Zimbabweans to ‘depart from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it’ as these will in turn correct problems such as economic injustice, poverty and crime,” Manyangadze said.

ZCC is alert to the food security challenge occasioned by El Nino its service arms, Christian Care and Lutheran Development Service, as part of Action by Churches Together (ACT) Alliance.

“These service arms have launched an appeal worldwide for resources to enable the church to respond to this disaster,” the general secretary said.

“The church has always been part of relief work since the formation of ZCC in 1964 and Christian Care in 1967. There are other responses that happen at local church level every Sunday that respond to the needs of those in response to the call by the ZCC for this kind of response to save lives,” he said.

In 2009, ZCC became part of the climate change discourse and teamed up with other Christian councils in the region to petition the United Nations (UN) responsible for the challenge.

“A ZCC delegation was part of the ecumenical movement in Copenhagen, followed by our attendance at COP 17 in Durban where we were part of the ‘We Have Faith’ Campaign for a binding commitment by world leaders to climate justice,” said Manyangadze.

“We also participated in the historic COP 21 in Paris, after a long regional campaign where we were part of a cycling caravan from Maputo Mozambique to Nairobi, through Pretoria, Gaborone, Harare, Lusaka, Lilongwe, and Dar es Salaam,” he added.

“ZCC also teamed up with other local ecumenical bodies such the EFZ, ZCBC and UDACIZA to discuss the outcomes of COP21. We are currently on the ground in Makoni and Zvishavane sensitising communities on the effects of climate change and assisting communities to adapt to the changes,” he said.

One of ZCC’s recent disaster responses was the intervention in Tokwe Mukosi disaster where churches were opened for the affected, with member denominations contributing food, clothes, medicines and shelter to assist the distressed.

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