Budiriro will shine this week on Saturday when several churches under the flag Budiriro Fraternity, come together to compete for honours at a Choral Music Festival to be held at United Methodist Church in Budiriro 5 beginning at 9am.

The event which looks set to attract Christians and lovers of Christian music was the brainchild of participating and member churches of the Budiriro Fraternity, an affiliate organisation of Zimbabwe Council of Churches.

It will be held under the theme “Promoting Unity Through Musical Fellowship”.

Consistent with this theme, each participating choir will display their vocal and stage performing skills by singing two songs, one being the organisers’ set-piece on unity while the second song will be an own choice.

Among churches to participate include Methodist Church in Zimbabwe Budiriro 4 and 5, United Methodist Church Budiriro 5, The Salvation Army Budiriro Corps, Anglican Church St Faith CPCA, Reformed Church in Zimbabwe Budiriro, United Church of Christ in Zimbabwe, United Methodist Church Highglen and Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe Budiriro.

According to show organisers, the event which will be recorded live on DVD. It is a pioneer project and marks the beginning of future similar events to be held annually by member churches of the Budiriro Fratenity.

Speaking about the event, chairman of Budiriro Fraternity Tichaona Lloyd Mwadiwa was upbeat about programme saying the idea behind formulation of his organisation and the music festival was to bring about unity in the Christian movement.

“We decided to come up with this fraternity because we wanted to bring the Christian movement together. Unity is the core of the Christian movement. We went for unity because we have realised that we are facing challenges of divisions within the church.

“Most of the time the church is entangled in church politics. You also find that there are some people who are bent on causing conflicts in church through playing religion instead of praising the Lord.

“We want to break these barriers to unity by coming out as one Christian movement. Without unity the church will sink into oblivion.

“Sometimes we are proud to be identified with our various churches yet forgetting that denominationalism is a barrier to unity among Christians. We want to encourage a spirit of unity through worshipping together as one family in Christ” said Mwadiwa.

He added that although denominational boundaries will continue to exist, the basic principle of uniting for a common purpose which their fraternity was spearheading needed to be the glue which should bind Christians together.

He said the idea to hold the Choral Music Festival came about as an idea from pastors from various churches under ZCC who envisioned the idea of promoting unity through collaborative programmes such as music festivals.

Mwadiwa added that the idea came to fruition after their fraternity received blessings and technical advice from their pastors while additional support came through in the form of sponsorships from their various churches and the corporate world.

He said the idea to promote unity through music also sprang from their knowledge that people responded well to music and music had the power to bring together people from various spheres of social life.

He said his fraternal organisation desired to implement their pastors’ vision of unity through coming up with collaborative programmes such as sports galas and revivals.

The aim of such programmes would be to build on the success of this year’s music festival, through further cementing relations already cultivated among members of their various churches.

“As a fraternity we are saying we need to spearhead even more activities that are designed to bring together these various denominations. These can be recreational activities, sports galas or revivals.

“So we are inviting everyone to come and see what Budiriro is doing for the first time.
“It’s a pioneer project and we are continuously praying to God for this programme to be a success. After the festival we are going to have time to mix and mingle so that we get to know each other.”