The Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ), the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) and Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB), have said that despite the public pronouncements that Zambia is a peaceful country, ‘the reality on the ground is different due to many acts of injustice, a growing culture of corruption, incidences of violence and utterances out of deep-seated hatred’.

They have appealed to the region’s political leaders ‘to stop insulting each other or anyone who does not agree with their political opinion’ and to ‘start genuinely to respect fellow political players as legitimate opponents with their constitutional right to hold their political opinion and to propagate it among the general public’.

“It demands that all political party leaders declare and enforce zero tolerance for political violence and to bring culprits to book by handing them over to law enforcement institutions,” they said.

“It means that all political leaders must give the planned for ‘national dialogue’ a chance to succeed by committing themselves to dialogue without preconditions with a view to levelling the playing field.

Read it all (requires subscription).

The Anglican Church has encouraged its members to seriously speak against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), corruption and political oppression.

Zambia Anglican Bishop and Primate of the Council of Anglican Province in Africa (CAPA), Albert Chama said this at the just-ended two-day Anglican 2017 high-profile Provincial Synod held in Gaborone.

The Central Africa Province Synod consists of Anglican bishops from Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe and convenes every three years. The main aim of the meeting is to deliberate on diocesan matters in the region.

“Our continent of Africa has been gripped with fear, deaths, ethnic divisions and many more evils one can think of.

Read it all.

Goodson Muleya originally hails from a village in the Mazabuka District in Zambia’s southern province. His parents died when he was seven and he was taken in by his uncle, but not treated well. Eventually, Mr Muleya ran away from home and spent time living on the streets while also trying to complete his studies and find work.

It was during his time on the streets that someone shared the gospel with him. Although like many in Zambia Mr Muleya had grown up going to church, he did not truly know and follow Jesus. It was after this chance encounter that he thought hard about whether he was truly a Christian and he decided he needed to change.

“After this confession my life was transformed,” he says. “I felt the need to forgive my uncle and everyone else who harmed me, as I was living in bitterness all these years after the death of my parents. Also, it dawned to me that not everyone who goes to church is Christian.”

Read it all.

“…go-getters” also outperformed the “do-gooders” on the job, seeing the same number of patients in their health clinics while conducting 29 percent more home visits and twice as many community health meetings. (After being recruited, everyone was told about the opportunities for career advancement, so that no differences in performance could be attributed to differing incentives.)

More important, updated data show that communities served by the “go-getters” are doing better on key health benchmarks such as facility-based childbirth, breast-feeding, vaccinations and nutrition. Based on these findings, the Zambian government changed its recruitment advertising as it looks to expand its health-worker program.

These two insights ”” committing to cash savings, recruiting “go-getters” for community service jobs ”” are just the tip of the iceberg. We have found that pairing experts in behavioral science with “on the ground” teams of researchers and field workers has yielded many good ideas about how to address the problems of poverty. Hope and rhetoric are great for motivation, but not for figuring out what to do. There you need data.

Read it all.

Read it all.

A campaign to tackle domestic violence set up by the Anglican mission agency Us (formerly USPG) has touched the hearts of church-goers in Britain and Ireland.

The campaign focuses on the work of the Anglican Church in Zambia to support women who face violence ”“ but is part of a wider concern of Us to address domestic violence worldwide. According to the UN, up to 70 per cent of women worldwide experience violence at some point in their lifetime.

Churches and church-goers were invited by Us to order and wear friendship bracelets as a reminder to pray for women. In addition, Us invited people to write messages of support for women in Zambia ”“ with hundreds responding. The messages will be distributed among women in Zambia.

Read it all.

Primate of the Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA) and Bishop of Northern Zambia, the Most Revd Albert Chama explained the purpose of the workshop during the opening ceremony held June 6 at the Chamba Valley Exotic Hotel in Lusaka.

He said: “One of the things which the church in Africa grapples with has to do with the financial sustainability of the church. However, this workshop is not about lecturing but learning from what has been done somewhere.”

Archbishop Chama challenged the participants to “open their hearts and minds” and learn from one another. He also emphasised that for the Church in Africa to be successful, there is need to learn from what other dioceses have successfully done and replicate it in their own areas.

Read it all.

The Primate of the Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA) said there is need for personal sacrifice from Christians in Africa if the Anglican Church there is to become self-sustainable.

Archbishop of CPCA and Bishop of Northern Zambia, the Most Revd Albert Chama, said this in Zambia’s capital Lusaka today during a special ground breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of a large executive housing building project by the Anglican Church in Zambia.

“Christians themselves need to sacrifice a lot by offering their expert services at low or reduced costs to help the Church become self-sustainable,” said the Archbishop. “But self-sustaining does not mean doing away with partners. We need to continue working and walking with others as Christ meant us to be.”

Read it all.

A group of Zambian Anglicans wowed by the impact of rural evangelism has challenged the Church to evangelise to the farthest parts of the country.

The challenge came following a week of church planting in one of Zambia’s most remote and neglected towns of Chama, a small town in the Eastern Province of Zambia. The headquarters of Chama District, Chama town is one of the most remote district headquarters in the country, lying just inside the eastern edge of Luangwa National Park.

Fr Katete Jackson Jones is a priest from Lusaka Diocese and one of the organisers of the project. He told ACNS today, “Most of the churches that we currently have in Zambia were planted by missionaries many years ago, but the Church today has not done much to plant indigenous churches in the country”.

Read it all

African Chief Jonathan Eshiloni Mumena will eagerly tell you about his ivory Star of David ring and the Texas flag on his tie.

…the tribal chief was not prepared for his son’s declaration that he wanted to get circumcised. Mumena read the pamphlets on circumcision’s health benefits, which argue that the procedure cuts HIV transmission by 60 percent, and agreed with his 18-year-old son.

Risking impeachment by the 60,000 members of his tribe, he had the procedure done in 2011 at the age of 47.

Mumena is among a growing number of Zambians opting for circumcision as a way to ward off HIV infection. In so doing, they are adding to the number of people who take on this ancient practice for cultural or religious reasons.

Read it all.

The Anglican Church in Zambia has welcomed the news that the country’s tourist capital Livingstone has partnered with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to fight child trafficking and child labour there.

“Being a border town, Livingstone is a fertile ground for human trafficking,” said Livingstone West parish priest Fr Emmanuel Chikoya. “Just recently 32 children were almost trafficked into a neighbouring country and members of the church were among those that exposed the incident.”

The city of Livingstone is preparing to co-host the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Assembly in August this year. Fr Emmanuel Chikoya has urged his parishioners to be vigilant as some visitors may take advantage of the event as an avenue for human trafficking.

Read it all.

“The church was really quite judgmental in the early part of HIV and AIDS,” [the Rev. Pukuta] Mwanza explained. “It was the source of stigma and discrimination because without sufficient information about HIV and AIDS, initially it was perceived as being solely linked to promiscuity, sinful behavior and so on.”

By the late 1980s, though, the church started to change its message and become “a very strong contributor to preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS ”“ caring for the people who had AIDS and for orphans,” Mwanza said. “In fact, some of the best practices that have been used in this country are those that the church has been able to adopt, such as home-based care system.

“The church,” he added, “…(is) now much more caring, more loving.”

Read it all.

A Zambian priest has challenged Christians across Africa to stand up and fight corrupt practices that are “soiling the fabric” of many countries on the continent.

The Revd John Kafwanka, currently Director of Mission at the Anglican Communion Office, was speaking following the recent arrest of Ugandan anti-corruption activist and retired Assistant Bishop of Kampala Diocese the Rt Revd Zac Niringiye.

Niringiye and eight other campaigners were arrested on Monday by the police at Uganda’s Makerere University for distributing pamphlets calling for an end to high-level corruption. The group was later released on bond.

Read it all.

The Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Cross today celebrated the Eucharistic Golden Jubilee to mark its 50th anniversary, under the theme “Jesus the Way the Truth and the Life.”

And President Michael Sata led high level government figures and other dignitaries such as First Republican President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda and Cabinet Ministers, U.S Queen Elizabeth’s representative amongst others to grace the occasion.

And Anglican Lusaka Diocese Bishop David Njovu says the cathedral Church which is the mother church holds a special place in many people’s hearts.

Read it all.

The ecumenical carnival to toast the golden jubilee of the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Lusaka is barely few days away.

The carnival is scheduled for September 16, would be convened to commemorate 50 years of the existence of the Cathedral since it was built in 1962 on what has become known as the Cathedral Hill over-looking the city of Lusaka.

Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Cross dean Charley Thomas and Priest Warden Nicholas Nyendwa are optimistic of a successful carnival to be held under the theme – Jesus is the way, the truth and the life – an adaptation from the New Testament book of John 14:6 in the Bible.

Read it all.