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In an opening devotion, Rev. Prof. Devison Telen Banda, Reformed Church in Zambia and Justin Mwale University, challenged participants to ask questions that are key to rediscovery and restoration. “If we don’t raise critical questions, if we are not going to question our systems, if we don’t question ourselves, if we don’t question even our interpretations of scripture . . . this will only be another outing.”
Rev. Dr Sidwell Mokgothu, bishop of the Limpopo district of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa and chair of the Gauteng Council of Churches, representing the general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, reminded participants that this conference returns to the issues of prophetic witness after 40 years. He noted that this occurs while hearing the “echoes of the struggle, the songs of hope, and the voice of the God of the Kairos, the God who always speaks.”
Rev. Canon Dr Moses Matonya, general secretary of the Christian Council of Tanzania and chairperson of the Fellowship of Christian Councils of Churches in Southern Africa, welcomed those who were present as those “extending the Kingdom of God by what we do.”
Emphasizing the diversity of participants, he noted that this event fulfilled the command of Jesus to “be one.”
Representatives from local councils of churches raised deep concerns about issues driven by the shared colonial legacy.
Rev. Dr Kenneth Mtata, WCC programme director for Life, Justice, and Peace, suggested that society and politicians no longer take the church seriously because the prophetic voice – the saltiness and the light of the church – are not heard or feared. He noted that ecumenical coherence is crucial to counter the well-coordinated forces of evil and said that this conference will focus on moving the church in the region back to a prophetic focus, “aligning what we are doing as a church with the cries of the people.”
He reminded participants of the factors the Kairos document identified as contributing to the church’s failure in prophetic witness: not reading the signs of the times and not being politically sensitive.
Co-hosted by the World Council of Churches, in collaboration with the Fellowship of Christian Councils in Southern Africa and the South African Council of Churches, the conference and seminars will continue until 16 June.
