Mon, 28 Aug 2017 13:53:33 +0000
By Chikumbi Katebe
THE Church must see the great need for reconciliation to remove bitterness, anger, violence, hate and divisions that have rocked the African continent, observes Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia executive director Pukuta Mwanza.
Reverend Mwanza said the church was a critical and integral part of society which required to bring people together in reconciliation. He was speaking at the 38th National Convention of the Church of God (Zambia) held under the theme: “Go and reconcile the world to God through Jesus Christ.”
He said the reconciliation facilitated by the church must ensure to retain friendships and build a strong bond between enemies to remove bitterness and hatred.
“The world is a broken community. There are conflicts between and within nations, between regions, political opponents and even between families and this is the primary cause of gender based violence.
“Reconciliation is about people in a conflict being brought together by personal effort or through the work of a mediator in order to create peace and harmony,” Rev Mwanza said.
He said the declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation pointed to a strong desire to commit this unique family to serve God.
Rev Mwanza said the ministry of reconciliation has been passed on to the church to help find solutions to numerous conflicts between people, organisations and political parties to help bring harmony among the people.
He said the Church must be seen in the forefront to help in defusing the tension in the country, especially to remove the bitterness, rebellion and conflict among the people.
“We have been a beacon of face and refuse for many years and decades since the founding of our great nation. Recently we have been seeing the ugly face of division emerging and sliding a wedge between political groups, gender, regions, chiefdoms etc. Even in work places,” Rev Mwanza said.
He said Zambia must unite, and that all forms of ethnic and political differences that ruin society must be destroyed.
Rev Mwanza has also advised the church to always provide spiritual guidance to national leaders at whatever levels to help them make progressive decisions and also as a way to support the governance structures in Zambia.
