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The strong collective moves by the Vapostori churches, the indigenous Apostolic groups identified in the public eye by their white robes, to enter more into the mainstream of Zimbabwean society are welcome and needed.

In meetings recently, the churches have brought up a range of requests, basically wanting local authorities and the Government to respond to their move into more mainstream activity and to be treated largely the same as other religious groups.

As the Constitution gives every Zimbabwean freedom of religion, the churches are on solid legal ground. One area now moving into the centre stage is church sites. This, in many ways, is a sign of the mainstreaming of the Vapostori as in their early days this was not even on the agenda and even a couple of decades ago there was little enthusiasm when it was brought up by Harare City Council.

Changes in land use, the problems of finding public open spaces that can be used for religious purposes, the need for ever better sanitation and the need to protect church members from vandalism and attack obviously mean some changes.

We cannot imagine any objection to the allocation of church sites. Because of the worship practices of most Vapostori the way the site is used, and the architecture of the buildings, will be very different from most other religious groups, but so what.

A properly allocated church site would allow a Vapostori group to fence off their land, for a start, and thus protect their members while they are communicating with their Maker.

It was also allow practical things like a proper ablution block, and for many some sort of office space for the growing administration.

Should a congregation wish to continue pray and worship in the open air, this is not a problem.

In fact a future architectural design could well see a church site with a structure around the four sides, containing the offices, ablutions and perhaps a veranda, with the open worship space in the centre in the form of landscaped surroundings, and perhaps even with a water feature, such as an artificial running stream.

Most important though would be that the church site would be the congregation’s own place, allowing them to develop what they wanted to develop in the way they wanted to develop this.

Fairly wide latitude is given to a church with the wider society just checking things like fire escapes, bathrooms and other safety and practical matters. Other areas that came up in discussion with Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Monica Mutsvangwa were such things as being included on the list of religious leaders sworn in as honorary marriage officers.

Again this should be considered. The honorary officers are all in churches which enforce monogamy, since the marriage celebrated is the civil marriage along with any extras that might appear in canon law, such as no divorced people to be married in church.

But any of the Vapostori churches that do have strict monogamy could have a marriage officer appointed if there was a suitable person available.

The tricky problem of vaccination is seeing movement and change in attitudes as more of the Vapostori leadership sees the essential difference between prayer, medical treatment and vaccination.

For a start prevention of disease is not the same treating disease, and secondly prayer for healing is sometimes answered by sending a human agent to do the work.

Again, the mainstreaming of these churches helps in the negotiations, and showing members that they do have civic responsibilities, which include protecting their neighbours by having their children and themselves vaccinated.

There are, of course, certain areas where the freedom of religion is not absolute, generally when people can come to physical harm through some religious practice, or where children need protection.

The new Marriages Act that has now become the operational marriages law of Zimbabwe has changed the church law of most religious groups, simply with the minimum age of 18, which was hardly universal before.

Other aspects of that new Act stress what could have been a belief not always enforced, such as ensuring that both parties are totally agreeing to the marriage.

Some of the critics of Vapostori base their criticisms on the wilder statements of arch conservatives whose views do not reflect either their leadership or the general feelings of members. But this is hardly unique to the Vapostori.

Most communities have the odd few people who follow what our traditional leaders now identify as perversions of the true intent of customary law, which in any case with the advent of independence is a living law, rather than something chiselled into stone by an ignorant colonial official with preconceived ideas sitting down with a warped elderly conservative more than 120 years ago.

In many ways in the colonial era the Vapostori were a positive element in society, pushing hard for indigenous Zimbabweans to reject many of the colonial assumptions and become self-supporting and independent people not tied to the settler systems. With independence, and the mainstreaming of those views, these churches are more of a pure religious group, and many have adapted to the new society, one they helped create.

The reports of the discussions now increasingly in progress between the leadership of most of these churches and the leadership and representatives of the wider civil society are positive, necessary and useful. No one can ever expect total agreement. Many religious people, regardless of their affiliation, find some civil mores objectionable, but in other areas they can work with the civil authorities, or at least in parallel with them, and at the very least not oppose policies that help people.

Now local authorities and others need to recognise this new trend of mainstreaming and respond positively.