The moderator of the URC’s Eastern Synod, which has enjoyed a ten-year partnership with the Presbytery of Zimbabwe, has lent his support to the country’s Christian leaders who recently called for ‘peace and calm’.
The Revd Paul Whittle was speaking after Zimbabwe’s army took control of the country, put veteran President Robert Mugabe under house arrest and announced it was targeting ‘criminals’ around him.
His own party, Zanu-PF, has now stripped him of the party leadership, yet he remains determined to cling onto power.
As a prompt and thoughtful response to these events, the Presbytery made a joint pastoral statement with the heads of Christian denominations in Zimbabwe and called for an interim government to be formed, to ‘oversee the smooth transition to a free and fair election’.
The church leaders said they wanted to make clear to the army ‘that it is their responsibility to ensure that human dignity and rights are respected’.
Mr Whittle said, ‘Eastern Synod has had a partnership with the Presbytery of Zimbabwe for around a decade. We greatly value that link, which has been of mutual benefit and, as Synod Moderator, I value the personal friendships that I have established as well as the formal link between Synod and Presbytery. I have had the delight of visiting Zimbabwe on five occasions and currently hope to be able to continue in leading a group visit planned for December. I have been in touch with the Revd Tinashe Chemvumi, Moderator of Presbytery, who assures me that all is currently “peaceful and calm”. I hope and pray it stays that way and my prayers and thoughts are very much with the people of Zimbabwe in these uncertain times.’
The church leaders said: ‘We see the current situation not just as a crisis in which we are helpless. We see the current arrangement as an opportunity for the birth of a new nation. Our God created everything out of chaos and we believe something new could emerge out of our situation.’
President Mugabe has led Zimbabwe for 37 years, and his policies have been widely regarded as the cause of its economic decline over the past two decades.
Picture: Al Jazeera English
