ZCC commemorates 500 years of reformation

THE Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) will this year commemorate 500 years after Reformation by launching a broad national plan that seeks to unite all Christians.

ZCC is an affiliate of the World Council of Churches (WCC), a universal mother body of Roman Catholic’s protestant churches.

History records that the Protestant Reformation was a rift from the Catholic Church which was initiated in Europe by Martin Luther in October 1517.

Although history reflect that there had been significant earlier attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church before Luther - such as those of Jan Hus, Peter Waldo and John Wycliffe; Luther is widely acknowledged to have started the Reformation with Ninety Five Theses nailed at a Church in Wittenberg, Germany, in 1517.

Luther began by criticising the sale of indulgences, insisting that the Pope had no authority over purgatory and that the Catholic doctrine of the merits of the saints had no foundation in the Bible.

In an interview with The Sunday Mail Religion recently, newly appointed ZCC general secretary, Dr Kenneth Mtata said the Reformation commemorations are coming at a time when his organisation is finalising a strategic plan that seeks to remain faithful to the founding values while being more responsive to the changing context, particularly in Zimbabwe.

Dr Mtata said last year in October, Pope Francis celebrated the Reformation together with Protestants (mainly through the Lutheran World Federation), an indication that the two camps have found common ground.

He said this will enable ZCC national strategic Plan 2017-2020 to encompass all Christians and strengthen Christian fellowship for a cohesive, just and prosperous Zimbabwe.

“ZCC strategic plan is being prepared in a context of much uncertainty where many challenges are negatively affecting any prospects of a united, peaceful, just and prosperous nation for which the Council envisions,” said Dr Mtata.

He added that his organisation has the potential to be a key and meaningful player in contributing to lasting solutions for Zimbabwe due to various reasons.

“Firstly being our past achievements, the pressure that we piled on the colonial government and the moral and material support ZCC gave to the liberation fighters through the WCC and their international partners.

“Second, through our 26 traditional member churches and given the relatively well educated pastorate leading congregations in every corner of country, ZCC remains one of the strongest ecumenical bodies in Zimbabwe,” Dr Mtata claimed.

He said his organisation’s strong presence in the ecumenical partnership with the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference, the Evangelical Fellowship in Zimbabwe and the African Independent Churches; all under the banner of the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHOCD), hold potential to strategically influence nation building processes.

ZCBC general secretary, Father Frederick Chiromba, concurred that they are working well with ‘protestant churches’ but said the current ZCC general secretary is Lutheran and his remarks should be taken in that context.

Father Chiromba said ZCBC was once a member of the ZCC, which should embrace all Churches in Zimbabwe, but only left ZCC for technical reasons and can choose to rejoin fully at any time.

“ZCC and ZCBC have maintained a close working relationship as separate entities.

“As for the Lutheran Church, one of the ‘protestant churches’, and the Roman Catholic Church, you will recall that they had a joint celebration in Sweden in October last year to mark 500 years of the Reformation and Pope Francis went for the celebrations.

“Because of this, the Pope has been described as “the Pope who understands Luther”. On one hand the church is always the same but on the other hand it is always reforming itself,” said Father Chiromba.

He highlighted that after 500 years, Catholics realised that they have more in common than what divides them.

“Talks have been going on for years between the two churches and other churches as well towards the realisation of some unity in diversity.

“We do not know what form that unity will take or how much diversity will be acceptable in unity and so the debate continues.

“We continue to work together, enriching one another to draw closer to Christ. Christ is the centre and our divisions only reflect how we each have drifted away from Christ,” he said.

Dr Mtata weighed in saying a document entitled ‘From Conflict to Communion’ was jointly written by Catholics and Lutherans to show how the Reformation was a necessary process of renewing the church.

“The document also points to the unfortunate part that this renewal process ended up in the fragmentation of the church.

“What the celebration in Lund, Sweden, actually did was to seal the agreement signed by Lutherans and Catholics (the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification) in Augsburg, Germany, in 1999. This agreement also ironed out one of the contentious issue of the Reformation and the two bodies found each other on these matters.

“Unfortunately, these agreements have not yet filtered to the pews and ordinary person or even ordinary pastor or priest,” said Dr Mtata.