In the Churches Blog
How to register and manage a church in Zimbabwe I
August 5, 2011
In Zimbabwe there is no law that directly deals with the registration of religious organisations. However, most churches can register as non-profit making or charity organisations and the law that deals with that is the Private and Voluntary Act. Under the act, organisations that are registered are deemed to be ...
Remembering Fr. Odilo Weeger, who left an indelible ink on Matabeleland soil
August 3, 2011
The story of development and community empowerment projects ever carried out in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland North would not be complete without giving credit to a Roman Catholic missionary Fr. Odilo Weeger. Today the province of Matabeland North, boasts one of the intact and state-of-the-art rural hospitals, St Luke’s, situated in the ... Mbare Report No. 99 Reflections on marriage
August 2, 2011
This report is reprinted from IN TOUCH WITH CHURCH AND FAITH #163, a Jescom publication. Julia wants to get married to her husband in church, but he is unemployed and cannot pay “roora/lobola”. Her parents are dirt poor and hope for some cattle/’mombe’ or the equivalent in cash. The purpose of ...
Fear in the Pulpit: Will Harassment Silence the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe?
July 13, 2011
A recent cover story in The Tablet, the international Catholic weekly (June 25), was titled ‘Fear in the Pulpit’. It details the challenges facing Zimbabwe’s Catholic Church, which it says has been branded ‘an enemy of the state’ by Robert Mugabe and his ‘secret police.’ The Catholic Church made news ...
Prophets and pastors comment on prophet Passion
June 30, 2011
RelZim.org recently reported on the controversy stirred by a young Prophet Passion. Trying to understand better the situation with prophets, we talked to Prophet Bothwell Phiri of River of Life. “Biblically, prophets never were better than others but simply fulfilled their mandate according to how GOD ordained them. Reading peoples ...
Mbare report from a Catholic priest
June 28, 2011
I remember him well, he was the city councillor for our ward in Mbare. He had a keen sense of justice and helped our J & P group in settling disputes. During the violent disturbances of 2008 he was badly beaten: his leg was broken and he had a head injury, ... The media tend to overlook Kunonga’s theological views
June 28, 2011
The running saga in the Anglican Church, Diocese of Harare has drawn international attention as seen in its coverage by such internationally recognized newspapers as the New York Times. I share in the sentiments expressed in a recent post … that the NYT and other media houses tend to emphasize ...
The NY Times article on Kunonga deciphered
June 23, 2011
At the end of May, RelZim.org replublished the NYT article on the situation in the Anglican Church in this country. Several days later a blogger tmatt posted his reading of the article on Getreligion.org with lots of thought-provoking ideas. Eventually, he concludes that “the Times team didn’t really seem very interested ...
How can a family feud involving magic be stopped
June 14, 2011
by Giovanni del Autore Here is a story a friend of mine shared with me a couple weeks ago when I told him that I contribute to blogs on RelZim.org: Two brothers in the Midlands province were involved in a dispute because the young brother was going out with the ...
The colonisation of the mind? African traditional religion in Zimbabwe vs ‘exotic religions’.
May 27, 2011
Bulawayo 24 has recently run a story on the scramble for lost souls among the Churches. There we learn about some curious ideas of a social commentator Prof. Claude Mararike. He thinks that Africans have their own culture which does not need any conversion and teaching. “People, particularly Africans, should ...