The Council of Churches has observed that wrangles that have characterised the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) in the recent past are an affront to the body of Christ.
Council of Churches Secretary General Suzanne Matale says the church is the beacon of peace, unity and reconciliation and should therefore not be a place for riots and confusion.
Rev Matale told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka today that one of the pillars of resolving conflict is dialogue hence the church must be an example of how conflicts should be resolved.
She stressed that the church should not copy the model of politicians and other individuals who believed in personal confrontations to resolve issues.
Rev Matale pointed out that the church should lead by example and practise whatever they preached which is promotion of peace, unity and reconciliation.
“The Council of Churches in Zambia therefore is calling upon all its members to seek amicable ways of dealing with issues of misunderstanding”, she said.
The Council of Churches Secretary General said the church has always had procedures and processes of dealing with issues according to the scriptures.
She expressed hope that there would be no further incidents of such nature in the future.
Wrangles recently erupted in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the UCZ over allegations of misapplication of Church money and issues of immorality.
Yesterday, some irate church members threatened to burn the Matero UCZ church, accusing their pastor of immorality and alleged squander of church resources.
ZANIS
No wonder a lot of us now are sitting on the fence when it comes to religion, because men and women of the cloth are so unpredictable these days.:-?
They are unpredictable, right. One of the main problems is that they seem to be accountable to no one – being a church leader does not mean a person has suddenly become God Himself. If they could only keep themselves humble… it would put a stop to all this embarrassing squabbling.
tastors or clergy men have stopped being servants of God. they are now masters. thats why they can do all they like. they think church members pay tithes and offerings because of their preaching, noooo its because of worship