Church mother bodies, faith-based organisations shun meeting 

Fri, 23 Jun 2017 10:11:17 +0000

By SIMON MUNTEMBA

 THE Church mother bodies and faith-based organisations in Zambia yesterday shunned a self-regulatory meeting organised by the Ministry of National Guidance and Religious Affairs (MNGRA).

The ministry organised a meeting to review a document that was drafted in 2013 which proposes a self-regulatory framework for churches and other faith-based organisations.

Subsequently, in March this year, the first meeting was convened, chaired by the Religious Minister, Godfridah Sumaili and it was well-attended with participants from almost all the churches and other faith-based organisations. The ministry called for another meeting to finalise what was discussed in March with regards to the draft of the self-regulatory framework and map out the way forward on the collaboration among the various stakeholders.

According to the last minutes of their meeting obtained by the Daily Nation, it was agreed that the churches would again meet on Thursday, June 22, 2017 at Lusaka’s Government complex to review on self-regulatory framework and probably finalise it.

However, only a few attended the scheduled meeting yesterday prompting the ministry to postpone the meeting until further notice.

“Government through my ministry organised for this meeting because we don’t want to regulate the churches and other faith-based organisations, rather we want the church to regulate itself,” she said.