GETTING TO ZERO - WORLD AIDS DAY COMMEMORATION 2013

WORLD AIDS DAY EVE

World Aids Day was commemorated in Mwandi with what has become a  local tradition . At 1700h on Sunday evening the staff and general public met at the Simunga (Big Tree) at the market for the March led by the UCZ Boys Brigade Drums to the Candle-lit AIDS day Eve Service at the Mission Hospital Chapel. Those participating included choirs some hospital staff, government employees, adult members and children from the Mwandi Churches and members of the public. All the children from Orphan and Vulnerable Centre carried red balloons.

The Service began with a prayer from Father Natun of the Roman Catholic Church. The congregation was then welcomed by Mr Sililo who represented the Mwandi District Commissioner, Mrs Afuna Chali, then Mr Kenny Lubinda gave a word of encouragement. Our Candle Lighting Ceremony began with one candle being lit and its light passed on to the next individual who in turn passed their light on until all the candles were lit. There followed a moment of silence in loving memory and in respect for loved ones who have died from AIDS. Pastor Kalimina from the New Apostolic Church then preached a short sermon on human stigma and the compassion of God. The UCZ Praise Team followed up with some appropriate choruses as did the Faith Tabernacle and the Catholic choirs. Pastor Muleba then closed in prayer.

 

It was appropriate that the service took place on the first Sunday of Advent, a time of expectancy and hope for Christians, a time for lighting candles of hope, as we wait for light to come out of the darkness again and remember the importance of the light coming into our lives over 2000 years ago. The light and the silence for the departed brought our fellowship, our support for one another and our prayers together. The lighted candles bringing hope for new beginnings and new opportunities on our journey in life.

 

 

 

WORLD AIDS DAY

The next day the forms from the Basic School were arranged under the shade of the big spreading trees in the school yard. The soft furniture from the Head’s office was placed at the disposal of the Guests of Honour. The school, hospital and government staff gathered at 0900h for the opening prayer and singing of the national anthem. The newly appointed District Medical Officer welcomed the Government Guest of Honour, Mr Sililo, the Assistant District Commissioner, who gave the opening speech.

 

The two school choirs along with the Faith Tabernacle and Catholic Choir all participated in the event. The Basic School High School and the RC Choir all entered teams for the 2 Round Quiz. Over and above this were drama sketches and traditional dancing all stressing the importance of HIV prevention, treatment care and support and including possible areas of gender inequality that work against these efforts to provide care, access and adherence with stigma and discrimination. This Commemoration ended at around 1230h with a closing prayer.

 

 

WESTERN PRESBYTERY COUNCIL MEETING

Last week was the annual Presbytery Council held this year in Senanga on 28 and 29 November. It only took us 3 hours to travel the 300km distance from Mwandi as the pontoon ferry at Sikuka is now in operation. Tarmac on the roads all the way too!

There were Pastoral and Finance Committee Meetings on the Thursday. The full Council convened on Friday, at Senanga Main Church and worked through till 2000h, despite the power cut; reading reports by torchlight. This meant that we completed all the business in a day. The UCZ Synod Bishop and General Secretary were both in attendance

After the opening hymn, HY5 (Psalm 37) and a prayer, Council followed its usual pattern with welcome, roll call and apologies. The main business of the morning was matters from Synod and Presbytery. Synod business ranged from fundraising for the new investment complex, Church Workers Conditions of Service, the new UCZ University College at Mindolo and the 2 theology students from Western Province. The importance of the establishment of Presbytery and Consistory Land Committees was stressed to help minimize embarrassing and difficult wrangles and deal with challenges to Church property. Guidelines concerning Charismatic Worship and the new Sunday School Syllabus had been published. We also remembered with affection the life, work and witness of Rev Alice Mulenga of the Community Development and Social Justice Department who died recently.

The Presbytery items were concerned with human resource issues and Church workers. Physical infrastructure dealt with manse renovations, the Lilelelo fence and JAA assets. Finances covered assessments, visitations and special Sundays. Events on the Church Calendar included Rededications, the MCF AGM and WCF National Rally, the Western Bishop’s exchange with Muchinga in May and the Synod Bishop’s Pastoral Visit in August 2014. 8 delegates were elected for the Synod Executive Meeting taking place in June. A Presbytery Committee was formed to begin making arrangements to celebrate the UCZ’s Golden Jubilee in January 2015. Finally, the Butoya Retreat was scheduled for September 2015

Thereafter, came reports from Consistories, Presbytery Committees, Health and Education Institutions and other Church groups. The meeting closed with a hymn prayer and the Grace.

The next morning as we were about to set out to return home we heard the news that the 54 Barotseland activists who had been facing treason charges had been set free as the Director of Public Prosecutions had entered a ‘nolle prosequi’.

Altogether 84 activists had been detained in August for allegedly agitating for the restoration of sovereignty to Barotseland. 30 activists had been released earlier last month at a court appearance. Amongst the latest releases we learned was Clement Sinyinda, the former Ngambela, the Barotse Prime Minister, who had also been charged with treason.

The Court told the activists that they were discharged, not acquitted, and could be rearrested at a later date should the state decide to do so.

Human Trafficking

We are often tempted to look on the abolition of slavery as one of the crowning achievements of Western Christian civilization, forgetting that virtual slavery still exists today; its most obvious forms in child and bonded labour.

In this year when we celebrate the 200^th anniversary of David Livingstone’s birth, it is depressing to realise that the slave trade still exists but it is euphemistically nowadays called “trafficking”. Human trafficking is a worldwide and multi-faceted phenomenon with the shipping of refugees as part of it. We have witnessed the tragic consequences from modern slavers plying their commodity from North Africa to Southern Europe; exploited people packed in unseaworthy vessels. While these events have been given the due and necessary prominence in the media, we here have recently had our own disturbing incidents.

Firstly, last year there were two orphaned boys from rural Shangombo who were lodged for a while at Sesheke police station after being discovered at the Zambian-Namibian border about to be ‘trafficked’ to South Africa. This we heard on good authority from the District Social worker. A long running local problem here has been the sending of children, both boys and girls, from this less developed area of Zambia to the more prosperous part in Namibia called Caprivi, to work for a pittance as domestic servants and herdboys.

Another incident occurred earlier this month, when a UCZ Mission Worker was travelling back to Mwandi from Lusaka on the Mazhandu coach. His suspicions were raised by a group of around 20 silent and cowed children travelling with an adult male and other adult ‘helpers’. They were Congolese and in speaking to the accompanying adult male our worker’s suspicions were raised. He phoned Mwandi Police, the Office of the President Officer and the District Social Worker, who stopped the bus and arrested the adult suspects and took the children into care.

 A week later people from Namibia were arrested in the village offering children sweets and wanting to know where and with whom they lived trying to find out how vulnerable they were with a view to ‘buying’ them. We are fortunate that Mwandi still has such a strong sense of community that outsiders are easily recognized.

The sale of people as commodities, whether as domestic servants, as sex workers or as bonded labourers is happening in both Zambia and Scotland. In spite of laws to the contrary, people are still keeping their fellow human beings in economic and physical bondage. This will only change when the welfare and needs of people take precedence over the economy and profit.

It is good to see the Church supporting the campaign to eradicate this modern-day slavery. Link: http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/speak_out/social_issues/human_trafficking  Human beings have been created in the image of our God and are loved and seen as having equal value by our liberating God. Therefore, for a Christian, it is sinful to do nothing while fellow human beings are being sold as just another commodity on the market.

It is also good to see the Scottish Parliament taking steps towards a Scottish anti-human trafficking strategy, making human-trafficking a specific crime and providing support for victims and survivors.  Link http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/crimes/humantraffick

But as the Church of Scotland points out, to succeed this measure requires cross-party agreement and Scottish opposition to slavery has a long and distinguished history from St Patrick to Livingstone and the Scottish Abolitionists including Brougham and Rev Andrew Thomson.

Livingstone’s last words on the matter were: “All I can add in my solitude is, may Heaven’s rich blessing come down on everyone, American, English or Turk who will help to heal this open sore of the world.”

And today in Scotland’s Parliament that means, Conservative, Green, Independent, Labour, Liberal and Nationalist.