CCZ should move on without Bishop Sichilima – Fr Luonde
By Staff Reporter
SOCIALIST Party (Zambia) spokesperson Fr Richard Luonde says the resignation of Council of Churches of Zambia president Bishop Sydney Sichilima should not affect the work of the three church mother bodies in the country.
Last week, Bishop Sichilima, who is the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) synod bishop, resigned as the CCZ president and detached himself from the ongoing national dialogue process.
Fr Luonde, in an interview, noted that the resignation of “one Bishop Sichilima from the Council of Churches in Zambia presidency should be allowed and the CCZ should move on, CCZ is not about an individual but a collective organisation.”
“When we are appointed into positions, we have also a right to leave those positions. His resignation from being the president of the Council of Churches in Zambia could be a blessing. What should not happen is for other people to look at the person who has resigned to be an angel. That would be very wrong!” Fr Luonde noted.
“People who are seeing this resignation as a division in the three Church mother bodies are wrong. An individual cannot divide an entity where so many people belong to. Those who are politicising the resignation of the UCZ synod bishop from the CCZ and the national dialogue process are simply taking advantage of someone’s thoughts. He has his Christian and democratic right to resign.”
He added that if Zambia had to continue being a prosperous country, the political scenario ought to change and that the Church must play a key role.
“The Church is not an individual but it’s a collection of Christians,” noted Fr Luonde, a Chingola-based clergyman. “These are clergymen who should be exemplary. To quickly resign without sitting down to resolve the issues, it means you also wrong”.
Bishop Sichilima last week rebuked the statement issued by the three church mother bodies criticising the suspension of the operating licence for Prime TV.
Bishop Sichilima said the churches secretaries did not seek authority to issue the statement, which he termed political and was against the position of the CCZ.
