All One in Christ: the closing service of the UCZ's Golden Jubilee

The United Church of Zambia held the closing service of worship for its Golden Jubilee Celebrations at Nkana Stadium, Kitwe on Sunday 17 January 2016. The weather was gracious to us on the day. On Saturday evening, Mindolo Congregation hosted an Evening Prayer Service at the place where and on the anniversary when the UCZ came into being on 16 January 1965. This was led by Rev Kazovu, while Bishop Sinkala offered the prayers and Rev Silwenga preached on Visions and Dreams. The meeting continued amidst loadshedding and a heavy much-needed and much-prayed-for downpour of frontal rain.

 

We had left Lusaka on Saturday morning in the Synod Bus together with many of the Synod Secretariat including Mr Lee Holland, a former Mission Partner and Africa Secretary of the United Church of Canada and the Synod Advisor, Mrs Victoria Silutongwe. We were accommodated at a local guest house.

 

After breakfast on Sunday we were transported to the stadium and having cleared security, (my Sgian dhu remaining undiscovered!), we were directed to the Synod part of the stand at the Callow Pavilion. A comfortable black leather-padded three-piece suite and side-tables had been arranged for the President, First Lady and their entourage. They were to be the guests of honour. For the next hour or so the stadium gradually filled up until a congregation of thousands had assembled.

 

The service began just after 0900h with a March Past by the Combined Boy’s Brigade Band and the Girls Brigade Majorettes. The salute was taken by His Excellency, the Republican President, Mr Edgar Chagwa Lungu and the Synod Bishop.

 

Rev M B Silwenga opened in prayer followed by the BB Band who then struck up the National Anthem. Rev B S Kazovu constituted the gathering to officially close the Golden Jubilee Celebrations, which had reminded us of our oneness with God, each other and in Jesus Christ, and had led us to recommitting ourselves to proclaiming the Gospel and further unity in the fullness of life. It commemorated the comings together of the Church of Scotland and London Missionary Society at Chitambo on 1 December 1945; they were then joined by the Union of Churches on the Copperbelt on 26 July 1958  at Mindolo. Finally on 16 January 1965 the United Church of Zambia was formed at Mindolo with the Church of Barotseland and Methodist Missionary Society entering the then United Church of Central Africa in Rhodesia.

 

Deaconess Mabel Sichali together with 4 representatives from the Boys Brigade, Girls Brigade, Men’s Christian Fellowship and Women’s Christian Fellowship, as a sign of commitment to the proclamation of the Gospel for the next 50 years presented a Banner, a light and a Bible to the Synod Bishop and General Secretary. The Copperbelt Presbytery Bishop, then offered a Prayer of Thanksgiving.

 

The Call to Worship came from Isaiah 43:18-19, Nehemiah 1:18 and Hebrews 6:10, Rev Jane Kaluba and Rev Dr R Chimfwembe read these verses. The opening hymn was ‘To God be the Glory.’ After this Rev Bishop C Nkonde gave a Prayer of Praise and Gratitude for our many blessings in this life. A time of musical ministry then followed; we enjoyed praise and worship songs from the voices of the WCF Copperbelt Choir and Mount Sinai. Then the Rev J Matembo led us all in the Prayer of Confession. The Administrative Secretary Mr Rodger Ng’ambi welcomed all the various parts of the Body and read the Intimations. Rev Bishop Martha Siame, splendidly attired as one of Mpezeni’s Ngoni Chiefs, and guarded by an Impi of similarly-clad Church Warriors offered the Prayer of Intercession before the General Secretary Rev Dr Peggy Mulambya Kabonde framed the UCZ Agenda for the next 50 years.

 

The main strategy would involve Missional Congregations with a strong ministry for children and young people. Economic justice and climate change were other areas to be addressed. However, the Church’s core-activity was evangelism, sharing the good news and affirming life and life in abundance for all. In all of this Worship and Discipleship were essential to a public and private life of obedience and devotion to God. To fund this by faith and be sustained, the Church needed to be self-sustaining, self-propagating and self-governing and to rely on the overflowing grace and peace beyond human understanding, that which the world cannot offer.

 

Rev Bishop Mwape Chomba then led an Affirmation of Unity with responses from the congregation. A Prayer of Thanks was then offered for the opportunity the occasion afforded for a deepened spirituality for us all. This was followed by three representatives from the youth, MCF and WCF declaring in a prayer with the congregation a renewal of commitment.

 

 

The offering was then received and the Offertory Prayer given by Rev Bishop Edward Musonda. The Old Testament Reading came from Jeremiah 7:1-7 and was read by Deaconess Zulu.

 

Mr Holland then spoke on behalf of the UCZ’s Partners in Mission. He was followed by the Synod Bishop Rev Mutale Mulumbwa who stressed the necessity of remaining united and spoke of the biblical mandate to pray for our leaders. He appealed for greater openness and opportunities for the Church and Government to meet and talk with each other.

 

The President appealed to the Church to help keep the peace and maintain national unity, living up to the motto of All one in Christ. He paid tribute to the Church’s role in providing moral in-put, ministering through health and education facilities nationwide and its contribution to the gallery of national heroes and heroines. Zambia was founded on the principles and values they acquired at Mission Schools

 

The Rev H Silishebo, after leading the Congregation in a moving rendition of ‘Tiyende Pamodzi’ thanked the President and First Lady for gracing this historic occasion, wished them every blessing and stated that the Church was ready to play its part when called to.

 

The Rev K Kondolo, the Rector from the UCZ University College read the second reading from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 10:25-27.

 

Mrs Esther Lungu, the First Lady, read the third lesson which came from John’s Gospel 10:7-10. These verses include the UCZ’s Theme for 2016, “Christ lead us to fullness of life” Here the Good Shepherd asks his flock to contrast the life he offers with that offered by the thieves and robbers.

 

 

The Rev Benson Chongo was supported and encouraged before preaching by the congregation singing and dancing him into the pulpit. In his sermon he called for the  Government to address the people’s social and economic concerns and the Church would pray for the Government in this in all of its arms.

 

Rev L Chibuye then gave a Prayer of Dedicatiom to a Life of Perfection and Service.

 

The Service quietly moved into Holy Communion where the celebrant was Rev Chrispin Mbalazi. Teams of Ministers and Elders then distributed the bread and wine to the Communicants seated in the stands.

 

The winning ticket was drawn by the Republican President who graciously handed the Mini-bus prize to the UCZ University College. It was gratefully received by the Rev Kondolo on behalf of the College

 

The Closing Hymn was: The Church’s One Foundation, and Rev Bishop Patrice Siyemeto gave the Benediction and thereafter the Synod Bishop dissolved the Assembly.

 

A late buffet lunch was arranged at the Edinburgh Hotel for the Guests of Honour and other invited guests. As she was leaving the first Lady who had visited Mwandi last year greeted Ida and asked about the trafficked children we had been looking after, she had met them on her visit to the Mission. We then left Kitwe and set off back to Lusaka in the Synod bus, arriving both safe and well tired and elated around 2330h.

RAISING BOTH THE CEILING AND THE FLOOR

In Mwandi District of those holding senior positions of responsibility, only the District Commissioner, the District Education Secretary, the Deputy Commander of the local Police and the Hospital Administrator are woman. The Barotse Royal Establishment’s Mwandi Kuta has three women Manduna amongst the 16 members.

In the recently published Mwandi Chiefdom Strategic Development Plan the following gender considerations were raised:

·         Do girls get equal schooling opportunities?

·         Do women have equal access to microfinance, agricultural in-puts, marketing and value-addition opportunities?

·         How can women be more meaningfully involved in political discourse so their needs and issues are taken into account?

·         How can female-headed households be made more food-secure, educate their children and remain economically stable?

Regarding schooling opportunities, I have taken these ‘snapshot’ statistics from local schools and suspect that similar figures would be found at any other similar schools anywhere in Zambia.

TEACHERS SECONDARY

MALE            19         83%

FEMALE        4          17%

TOTAL         23

 

TEACHERS PRIMARY

MALE           9           26%

FEMALE     25          74%

TOTAL        34

 

Interestingly while Secondary staffing is overwhelmingly male, in Primary it is female.

ENROLMENT SECONDARY

BOYS       229           61%

GIRLS       144           39%

TOTAL       373

 

ENROLMENT PRIMARY

BOYS           707         49%

GIRLS          728         51%

TOTAL       1435

This looks promising as parity between boys and girls is reached. This seems to suggest that strategies against early marriage and school-girl pregnancies at this level seem to be working. This is despite the high poverty levels which have in the past led to high drop-out rates here

PERCENTAGES PER GRADE

	BOYS                      GIRLS
G7	50%                          50%
G8	51%                          49%
G9	45%                          55%
G10	60%                          40%
G11	73%                          27%
G12	75%                          25%

 

The Grade 7 figures pretty much reflect the ratio of boy to girl births, but there is significant girl-child attrition in Senior Secondary especially between Grades 9 and 10 and G10 and G11 From parity in G7 the number of girls in education is halved by Grade 12. This is an obvious area for research and attention.

Related to this and other gender concerns, World Renew is undertaking a gender analysis through its Southern Africa Ministry Team to assess gender dynamics and relations in households across Zambia Malawi Mozambique and in the communities and local organisations with which they work.  Its purpose to ensure that development programmes takes account of gender and other socio-economic factors so that all members of the community participate and benefit equally. The Church recognises that gender equality and women’s empowerment are necessary components for the success of any development programme concerned with Church, Community, Livelihood, Food-Security, Education or Health.

If we raise our eyes higher an interesting table was published in an insert called Gender Focus of December 2015, distributed recently by The Post newspaper. It was from a Gender Audit carried out in Zambia and published in July last year. It dealt with women in Decision-Making Positions in Government. This was the Cabinet:

POSITION	FEMALE No            %	MALE No             %	TOTAL Position Holders
President	0                0	1             100	1
Vice-President	0                0	1             100	1
Cabinet Ministers	4               20	16             80	20
Deputy Cabinet Ministers	5                13	22              87	38
Permanent Secretaries	7                17	35              83	42
Provincial Ministers	1               10	9                90	10
Directors Line Ministries	23             23	77              77	100
Deputy Directors	13             18	58              82	71
Assistant Deputy Directors	11              31	24              69	35

 

The political parties have all paid lip-service to increasing the number of women they will field to contest Constituency and Local Council seats in this year’s tripartite elections. President Edgar Lungu has said that he wanted to see at least 40 per cent of party positions held by women, arising from the Party Elections ahead of the August 11 National Elections. This was during the swearing-in ceremony of six male officials, deployed to various wings of Government.

This is not something peculiar to Zambia, a few countries such as Canada and Scotland have achieved gender parity in their Cabinets. In the Canadian Cabinet of 31 there are 16 men and 15 women and in the Scottish Cabinet of 10, 5 are men and 5 women. The European Country with the highest number of women in the cabinet is Sweden with 56.5%. Greece is the lowest with a cabinet that is only 5.3% female. Another poor performer is the British Government at 7^th from the bottom with 12.5% of the UK Cabinet being female. Work still needs to be done everywhere to bring greater gender balance to Cabinet Committees and public and private boards so that the gender imbalance is addressed at least in public life.