ZAMBIA: ZCCB, Other Church Bodies Pledge Leading Role in Country’s National Dialogue and Reconciliation
Bishop George Lungu, ZCCB President
Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB), the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) have pledged to take lead in the national dialogue and reconciliation process being called for in the country.
In a communiqué released yesterday, the Church bodies said that they are taking up the responsibility as a calling from God to reconcile the nation in order to bring peace and harmony among God’s children in Zambia saying in so doing, ‘they neither seek political mileage nor publicity’.
The Church Mother Bodies said they have learnt from the recent past in which the country’s political leaders failed to abide by what was agreed upon during the Inter-Party Dialogue meeting held at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on 29th, March, 2016, which the Church organized in order to respond to the many electoral and human right issues that were troubling the nation at that time.
The Pastoral leaders have since attributed the current state of political division and socio-economic decline in Zambia to failure by leaders across the political divide to abide by the very commitments they made to end political violence, and the misapplication of the Public Order Act and electoral corruption.
They stated that they are aware of the immense expectations and trust people have put on the Church in Zambia to lead the much talked about dialogue and reconciliation process.
They have however refused to be drawn into the discourse of who should lead the process and which other religious organizations should be part and parcel of the leadership in facilitating the dialogue and reconciliation process.
Despite this, the Church Mother Bodies said they will draw valuable lessons learnt from their historical success in 1991, they brought Dr. Kenneth Kaunda of UNIP and Dr. Fredrick Chiluba of MMD to a round table dialogue meeting at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Lusaka which resulted into Zambia welcoming the multiparty dispensation in a peaceful manner without bloodshed.
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