The three Church mother bodies in Zambia say they are saddened expressed at the outbreak of Cholera.
Addressing a media briefing in Lusaka at Kapingila House, in Lusaka, the three Church mother bodies have since expressed sympathy with the families that have lost loved ones to the epidemic.
This is contained in a statement that was presented by Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) President Bishop Alfred Kalembo, Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) Board Chairman Bishop Paul Mususu and Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) President Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu.
The Church leaders have since pledged cooperation with the government that has banned mass gathering of people to prevent further spread of the disease and indicated that they will support the efforts of other stakeholders in the battle against the disease.
They also prayed for God’s peace, comfort, and encouragement during this time of national crisis.
Below is the full statement from the three Church mother bodies.
STATEMENT ON NATIONAL DIALOGUE
1. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this brief Press Release presentation and we wish you all compliments of the season.
2. Since we are still in the Christmas season, on behalf of the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ), Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) and Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops(ZCCB),we avoil ourselves of this opportunity to wish you and through you the nation at large a grace-filled time and God’s abundant blessings in this new year and indeed always.
3. The theme and message of Christmas is presented to us by St. Luke the Evangelist when he quotes the angel who appeared to the shepherds: “/ bring you news of great joy to be shared by the whole people. Today in the town of David a Saviour is born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” St Luke continues, “With the angel there was a great throngof the heavenly hosts praising God in the words, ‘Gloryt o God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those of good will”‘ (Luke 2:10-14). Therefore, joy and peace are the themes of Christmas.
4. The source of the Christian joy, happiness and peace is the fact that we belong to God and participate in God’s life. Therefore, we must respect and reverence each human life and each other as members of God’s household. The greatest gift we Christians can give to the world is the joy and peace proclaimed by the angels. In fact, the birth of Christ marked a
· definitive reconciliation between humanity and God. Therefore, we are called to live as a reconciled people.
5. In the Bible, peace means love, forgiveness, reconciliatio,n good will and good relationships between people. This is the good news meant for people of all races, pigmentation, religions, tribes, political affiliation and ideologies. This is the peace we wish for our nation Zambia. However, there can be no peace without justice at personal as well as at all levels of society.
6. True dialogue means a change of heart, attitude and behavior. It is a project, an on-going process and effort. It is the way of life for us Christians which should be heard in our words, seen in our faces and actions because
it is in our hearts. Lack of peace hurts everyone especially the weak, the elderly, the poor, women and children. It hurts us Christians because we are essentially brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ who identifies himself with the same poor and the suffering.
7. 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. We therefore earnestly appeal to all our political leaders to stop insulting each other or anyone who does not agree with their political opinion and 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 or political violence and to bring culprits to book by handing them over to law enforcement institutions. 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 level the playing field. These leaders of political parties must restrain themselves and their members from making inflammatory or irresponsible statements.
8. We also call upon media houses to refrain from sensationalism and polarization of people or political institutions; let them not join the irresponsible people who want to be spoilers of the process and the noble objective of a successful and fruitful national dialogue.
9. Peace cannot come to our country if successful administrations do not take drastic steps to stamp out the endemic corruption among public servants which has reached epidemic proportions against the backdrop of the highest poverty index since the dawn of our political independence in 1964. It is unacceptable that some public service personnel have amassed enormous wealth in dubious or highly questionable ways and within a short time in the service. It is a scandal that year in and year out, the Auditor General’s report reveals hair raising miss-application and miss• appropriation of huge sums of public funds by public officers but few, if any culprits, are punished. For how long shall public anger be restrained given
the high unemployment levels particularly among young adults. Unless most of these young adults whose number increases each year can be quickly absorbed by the labor market, we might be sitting on a latent volcano! That is why national dialogue and reconciliation is critical so that
politicians and other stakeholders can address the situation and assist the current administration to grow the economy to accommodate job seekers.
10. We believe in dialogue because it is essential for holistic national development as there cannot be any meaningful development where there is tension and lack of effective as well as peaceful engagement among various groups in the country. It is for this reason that we support and wish to contribute and make ourselves available for the restoration of peace in the country through dialogue.
11. We are saddened by the recent outbreak of cholera in Lusaka and other parts of the country and the loss of more than 50 persons from this epidemic. Our hearts go to the many families who have lost their loved ones from the disease. We pray for God’s peace, comfort and encouragement during this time of national crisis. We pray for the various teams working on the ground to fight the cholera outbreak so that this may be overcome quickly and life may be restored to normal. We support the efforts of other stakeholders in this battle against cholera and pledge ourselves to collaborate with government in addressing the epidemic.
May God blessour nation Zambia !!
Signed and issued on 8th January 2018
BishopAlfred Kalembo
President of CCZ
Bishop Paul E. Mususu
Chairmanof EFZ
Archbishop Telesphore G. Mpundu
President of ZCCB
these are the real bishops and not the bishops of Lungu; i am sad over the deaths; no one needed to die from chorela in this day and age; i hope street vending will be outlawed forever; what a shame;
Bravo Bishop for this ubuntu! But where are those merchants known for masquerading on our streets and TVs as Prophets and miracle flipping con-men with their commercialized anointed oils and expensive bottled waters? It looks like they have taken cover from Zambians. This is at a time when miracles matter.
Its sad that cholera has continued to wreck havoc on our people. We should have learnt from the crisis in 1970, 1991 and 2008. As a country we have surrendered to dirty. Lusaka’s streets look like Mogadishu in the coastal Banaadir region. Lets value cleanliness and all will be well. We mourn with those that have suffered losses in this avoidable crisis.
On dialogue, let it be an open inclusive national issue where all stakeholders should interact and contribute to the dialogue on national issues. Anything short of inclusion would be a waste of time. National dialogue in multiparty system cannot be a preserve of 2 leaders. Excluding our >30 political players would be a dangerous oversight.
If anything, Professor Gambari is better left to deal with the innumerable problems in his nation of Nigeria. Better he mediates between the Buhari Government and the Boko Haram not forgetting the never ending Biafra crisis.
Rubbish from the 3 Church mother nonsense.
that’s good by the mother body to discuss issues even when things are bad(cholera)