The MDC has urged churches to desist from enabling Zanu PF’s rule but instead offer wise counsel and guidance to all political players.
These sentiments come after the InterDenominational Grouping of Local Churches, under the Auspices of Faith of the Nation, hosted President Emmerson Mnangagwa at its Third Edition of the Annual National Thanksgiving and Dedication Service in Bulawayo where support for Mnangagwa’s administration was expressed by its chairperson, Reverend Andrew Wutawunashe.
Bishop Nehemiah Mutendi, patron of the Indigenous Zimbabwe Interdenominational Council of Churches also said they would resist moves to bring a foreign mediator to solve Zimbabwean challenges in reference to MDC which has called for an international mediator to convene talks.
Mutendi, Bishop of the Zion Christian Church, also said POLAD is the only feasible platform for national dialogue where all political leaders must be involved in, describing those that have shunned it such as the MDC as lost sheep.
But the MDC said the church must be consistent in their actions and offer guidance to all political parties and not denigrate the other.
MDC Bulawayo Spokesperson, Swithern Chirowodza, told CITE that the annual National Thanksgiving and Dedication Service held Sunday showed support to President Emmerson Mnangagwa but denigrated the opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa.
He added that the aim of the service was noble but hoped the church could ‘strongly’ call for justice on behalf of those oppressed by the state.
“The calls for peace and unity, made at the Third Edition of the Annual National Thanksgiving and Dedication Service in Bulawayo, are good and proper except that our understanding of the Holy Word leads us to insist on justice for the oppressed.
“This includes those whose lives were terminated from the time of the Gukurahundi massacres right up to the killings of January 2019. For if God is the God of Peace, is He not the God of Justice?” Chirowodza questioned.
The MDC provincial spokesperson urged the clergy to follow examples set by the 12 disciples who in the bible spoke the truth no matter the circumstances.
“We must now urge the clergy in general and our self-styled prophets in particular, especially those that attended the 30 December 2019 inter-denominational rally, to wear that mantle with courage and consistency following the example of John the Baptist who spoke truth to power even at the expense of his own life,” he said.
“We also urge the errant among them to shun filthy lucre as they build their earthly kingdoms. Let them instead build the Kingdom of God and prepare the nation, including rapacious and murderous politicians.”
Chirowodza said it was through ‘sincere and inclusive’ national talks, that Zimbabwe could manage to solve its challenges.
“Zimbabwe has a golden opportunity to wake up from slumber and the delusion that ZANU alone can deliver it from the current quagmire. Through partiality, the Church must never appear to be enabling that delusion.
“The Church must rise to its God-ordained mandate of principled counsel as exemplified by its progenitors who include among others Prophet Elijah and Paul the Apostle,” noted the provincial MDC spokesperson.
The 2019/2020 National Thanksgiving and Dedication Service was held under the theme: ‘Counting our Blessings: Let us, through Home-Grown Unity, Affirm Work and Pray to Achieve our National Vision.’
The service is an annual event, which was inaugurated by President Mnangagwa in 2017.
