Image credit: Greg Rosenke on Unsplash
News from Zambia - Oct 24
On 24th October Zambia will celebrate 60 years of independence, thanking God that a diverse population of 73 different languages, brought together by lines drawn on a map in Berlin in the 19th century, has become a united nation, a stable democracy, where power has been peacefully transferred between different political parties several times.
We thank God also that Zambia has come through dangerous and difficult times. At independence in 1964, wars were raging in five of the eight countries bordering Zambia, cutting off the main route to the sea and bringing many refugees into Zambia. At independence there was no university and only a few secondary schools, so not many Zambians had professional qualifications or degrees. HIV/AIDS, Covid 19, cholera and malaria have brought many deaths. Severe droughts (including one this year) have caused famine and shortage of electricity, which is nearly all generated by hydro-electric schemes.
We thank God too for the rapid growth of churches and church membership and the good relationships between the different denominations in Zambia.
From 21st October, for two weeks, there will be a display in the north corridor, celebrating Zambia’s 60 years of independence.
Our link with the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) in Lusaka, through our weekly exchange of prayer requests, is being embodied this month by Revd Rosemary Fletcher being in Zambia for some of October. Rosemary will be representing Southampton Methodist District and strengthening our link with the UCZ, including worship with congregations linked with local churches here. Pray for safe travel for Rosemary.
Plans for visits by people to and from Zambia are planned for 2025. Pray that these will go ahead smoothly.
Pray for our brothers and sisters in the United Church of Zambia, as they pray for us.
Cecil King
Latest Requests from Ghana - Autumn 2024
Please see below for items needed for Ghana
News from Zambia - June 2024
Our Zambia link
July and August are cool dry months in Zambia. Travel is much easier, because the roads and tracks are dry. It is the season when regional and national conferences and other gatherings are held, especially during August when schools are on holiday.
This year the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) will hold the National Synod, which meets every two years; national office holders are elected.
Pray for wisdom and peace as these appointments are made.
On Thursday, 13th June, UCZ said thank you and farewell to Gina Siatwinda Oliver, a mission partner from UK Methodism who has been the UCZ’s Health Secretary. National Synod Bishop Sydney Sichilima spoke of Gina’s unwavering dedication to the church’s mission and to the community and her extensive travels throughout the huge country. Much of the UCZ’s health work, its hospitals and clinics, is in far apart rural areas; Gina has tirelessly visited and supported even the remotest clinics; her work has been during the Covid epidemic and the cholera outbreak – challenging times. Gina replied “Thank you for being an amazing team” – the team of health workers and administrators she has led.
It is our hope that Gina will visit Salisbury after her return to the UK. Pray for her, giving thanks for her ministry in Zambia. Pray also for Revd Emmanuel Kafwita Bwalya who is now acting Health Secretary of UCZ
Cecil King
Global Relations Newsletter May 2024
https://methodist-news.org.uk/cr/AQieeBCr5PAGGIWw0csCsIF8yBQm53dAbYI2D5fhdBHF2w5g77ueqTm6Leo7o1M
News from Zambia -
July 2024
Our Zambia link
The national Synod of the United Church of Zambia, which is the equivalent of our Methodist Conference, meets every two years. This year the Synod was held in Kabwe, in the centre of Zambia.
35 ministers and 9 deacons were ordained for ministry in the church. Rev Chipasha Musaba was re-elected as General Secretary of the church, and Rev Festus Bwembya Chulu was elected as the new Synod (national) Bishop.
Pray for the newly ordained and for Rev Musaba and Bishop Festus in their ministries.
Give thanks for the sustained life and growth of the church through hard times in Zambia this year – the cholera epidemic,
the severe drought causing crop failure and food and water shortages and the frequent electric power cuts.
Continue to pray for our sisters and brothers in Zambia as they pray for us.
Cecil King
Debt deal for Zambia
For nearly four years, Zambia has been trapped in negotiations to try and bring down huge debts that have destroyed the economy. This week, we heard that most of Zambia’s private lenders have FINALLY agreed to a deal to reduce debt repayments by up to $1.4 billion!
This is a big achievement that campaigners have helped win. Over the last two years, an impressive 10,000 of you signed petitions demanding debt cancellation for Zambia, thousands of you emailed your MPs and supported the campaign on social media.
You can read more here: https://debtjustice.org.uk/blog/debt-cancellation-deal-for-zambia?
Debt Justice
Drought situation in Zambia - March 2024
Climate change is a reality, and it is the poor who are affected the most.
Jenny Featherstone, a former Mission Partner in Zambia and now retired there (where she continues to work as a volunteer) sent this picture last week, and now updates us all on the situation. Please do read the article below which Jenny has sent to help in our understanding of our situation.
Sadly, in Jenny’s province ( Southern) of the small-scale farmers, i.e. those who mostly depend on the crop for their food with any surplus for income, 90% will lose their crops. There is a lot of fear as inflation is also at 13% and prices of basic foods are rising every week.
https://techcentral.co.za/southern-africa-driest-february-on-record/241025/
April 2024 - news from Zambia
Zambia is in a national emergency, because of the drought which has affected ¾ of the country, including the main food producing areas.
And this at the same time as the cholera outbreak which has killed hundreds of people and infected tens of thousands.
Pray for the people of Zambia and that food aid will be given.
The lack of rain also means that many people in Zambia suffer frequent power cuts because there is not enough water in Lake Kariba for the hydro-electric plant to generate electricity.
The United Reformed Church Wessex Synod Trust has sent a grant to our linked Lusaka Presbytery of the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) to support the church’s work to combat cholera. And the
Methodist Church World Mission Fund has also recently given a grant to the UCZ’s health work.
At our link congregation, St John’s UCZ in Lusaka, the minister – Revd Godfrey Gama – has been transferred to another congregation in the Chelston Consistory, and the appointment of a new minister for St John’s is awaited. Pray for the new minister and their family.
During March, the people of St John’s observed Mothering Week, celebrating and supporting the mothers in the congregation, and Youth Week, celebrating the Youth Christian Fellowship, as well as the Girls’ Brigade and the Boys’ Brigade, and praying for their members and leaders and their ministry.
Continue to pray for St John’s congregation, as they pray for us. Cecil King
Requests and thank you from Ghana
Before Christmas we had a request from Ghana for hymn books and bibles, among other things. Cornelius (our contact) is very grateful to all those who have sent him hymn books and Bibles, which he is sharing around folks in Ghana. If you know of a church who has sent him things, please do pass on his gratitude!
His original requests are below but he has recently written asking for:
- Bed sheets
- Musical instruments for children and young people
- Toys for children
Details of where to send are in the document below. Image shows a young people’s choir using copies of Hymns and Psalms in Ghana, rehearsing for Christmas.
New Year Message from Lusaka
Words from Bishop Lordwell Siame’s New Year message for January 2024 to the people of United Church of Zambia Lusaka Presbytery:
Five actions planned in response to the needs of our time:
1 As people in Lusaka’s growing communities have to travel long distances to access church buildings, to plant churches in new and upcoming communities
2 To build the capacity of leaders at all levels of church leadership.
3 As some youth members are moving out of our churches, to strengthen youth ministry, especially Sunday school.
4 Given the deficit of manse houses, to construct at least ten houses in the next five years.
5 To complete the rebuilding of Nambala Secondary School.
The theme for 2024:“A year of pressing on with courage” (Galatians 6:9).
The apostle Paul says “Do not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”.
My dear brothers and sisters, life is full of things that make us weary. That was true when Paul wrote this verse 2,000 years ago, and it is true today. And Galatians 6:9 encourages us not to give up. It might be hard, but it will be worth it.
Here at the end of his letter to the Galatians, Paul gives a word of encouragement about what will come if Christians persevere through the challenges they face. It is very easy for followers of Jesus to become discouraged. Life can beat us down, and we can face opposition, fatigue and even despair in doing good. It can feel like we are doing all this hard work for nothing. Growing weary in doing good is a constant danger in a Christian’s life. In that situation, we need to listen to Paul’s words – “at the proper time we will reap a harvest” – not just a single piece of fruit, but a full harvest.
I pray that you shall be prayerful, fruitful, dutiful and a blessing to the church and the people around you.
While it might seem like our work isn’t producing much, the reality is God is doing things we cannot see this side of heaven.
Rev Bishop Dr Lordwell Siame - Lusaka Presbytery Bishop
Good news story!
Following an earlier appeal a church’s Knit Stitch and Natter group sent five kilos of knitted baby clothes to Zambia.
Apparently giving baby clothes is not only useful for the babies, especially in the winter, but the gifts encourage the expectant mothers to come for advice and even for the births.
A parcel takes fifty-eight days to arrive, but they do seem to be arriving intact.
Very inspiring for our group members to be so useful.
For further information please contact Rosemary Fletcher
October 2023
October is the hottest month, and the month in which we shall celebrate the 59th anniversary of Zambia’s Independence Day – 24th October, 1964.
In the United Church of Zambia (UCZ), the special Sunday in October is on 8th October, when we shall observe Widows, Retirees and Orphans Sunday. The Bible, in the Old and New Testaments urges us to care especially for widows and orphans, and, in Zambia today, this is especially important because of the ravages of HIV/AIDS leaving very many orphans.
We are grateful for the several UK based charities supporting orphans in Zambia, especially helping children get through school.
Widows, retirees and orphans are the neediest people in Zambia, and at St John’s, Mtendere – our link congregation – the Community Development and Social Justice group led by Mukupa Chanda works to help such people in our neighbourhood.
Give thanks for the visit to Zambia of Revd Helen Everard from Fleet URC, which has strengthened our link with UCZ Lusaka Presbytery and pray for the development of more links between congregations here and congregations in Lusaka.
Cecil King
November 2023
Zambia celebrates 59 years as an independent nation on 24th October this year. To give thanks for that, there is a display in the North Corridor at Salisbury Methodist Church from 16th October to 20th November about Zambia, about the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) and about our link congregation, St John’s UCZ, Mtendere.
Pray that the rains will arrive in Zambia in November. As we heard at Holiday Club in August, these rains are essential after 6 months with no rain,
so that the crops will grow, so that the rivers and lakes will be replenished and so that Zambia will have enough electric power from the hydroelectric schemes on the Zambesi and Kafue rivers.
Pray for pupils in school preparing for school leaving exams at Grades 7, 9 ad 12. These exams are at the end of November and during December,
at the end of the school year.
Pray too for the ministers and deacons in training at the UCZ University who are completing their courses before starting ministry in January.
At St John’s UCZ, Mtendere, the congregation give thanks for growth in numbers this year and for full resumption of church activities after the Covid restrictions. One new project the Chelston Consistory has recently started is eye screening through the Community Development and Social Justice group.
This is a much needed provision.
Continue to pray for the people of St John’s congregation, as they pray for us.
Cecil King
December 2023
Praise God that the rains have begun, and pray that they will continue.
In December the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) looks forward to Christmas. The week before Christmas is “Christmas Revival Week” in the UCZ, when, in church and in all the church groups, we preach and pray that Christ will be born again in the hearts and lives of each of us and in the lives of people who have not been Christians.
December is also the month of public examinations, when school pupils write their school leaving examinations – after Grade Seven, Grade Ten and Grade Twelve. Pray for the young people doing their exams – and for their teachers and the people involved in marking the exams.
As in the UK, December is a month when people look to give support especially to children. Zambia has many thousands of orphans because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, so we work and pray to support the orphanages and organisations that support orphans through school and higher education.
At our link congregation - St John’s UCZ in Mtendere, Lusaka - we are asked especially to pray for the three robed choirs and for the Boys’ Brigade Band and for the witness they give to the birth of Jesus and the salvation he brings.
Continue to pray for the people of St John’s as they pray for us.
Cecil King
Rev Helen Everard’s visit to Zambia in July 2023
UCZ Newsletter - July/August 2023
Zambia - September 2022
We are asked to join with the whole United Church of Zambia (UCZ) in their sadness at the death of 25 Women’s Christian Fellowship (WCF) members in a road accident in Northern Province as they were returning from a WCF conference in the early hours of 19thSeptember. Pray especially for the bereaved families.
We hope that, early in October, the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) Bishop for Lusaka, Rev Lordwell Siame, will visit our area. He is to be at the URC Wessex Synod meeting on October 8th, and we hope that he may also meet people in our District. Rev Lordwell visited a few years ago, before he was Bishop, studying our use of church buildings for different purposes.
It is testimony to the outward looking nature of the UCZ that it is a sending church. Earlier this year, two UCZ ministers went to work as local church ministers in Jamaica. Already there are three UCZ ministers working in Methodist Circuits in England – Rev Teddy Siwila in Wolverhampton, Rev Dr Teddy Kalongo in Bristol and Rev Dr Peggy Kabonde in North Wiltshire. And Rev Damon Mkandawire is just taking up a post with the Council for World Mission – Mission Secretary for Ecology and Economy.
The UCZ sends ministers to other countries even though each ordained minister in the UCZ is working with thousands of church members. One matter that we hope Bishop Lordwell will talk with churches here about is building up lay leadership in a church with so few clergy for the number of members.
In our prayers, we are asked to remember especially health workers’ efforts to prevent the spread of the measles outbreak and also for the children and young people back at school preparing for their public exams in December.
Continue to pray for the United Church of Zambia Lusaka Presbytery, as they pray for us, and for travelling blessings for Bishop Lordwell on his visit to England.
Cecil King
Visit of Bishop Lordwell Siame to the District - October 2022
It was a joy and a delight to have Bishop Lordwell Siame of the Lusaka Presbytery of the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) in our District on October 9thand 10th. Bishop Lordwell told us of the long term consequences of lockdown for the United Church of Zambia (UCZ). UCZ’s income was solely from church members’ giving, at section and congregation level; lockdown meant no meetings, no collections and no church income. Also most church members are not salaried or waged; they are self-employed in trading or farming and during lockdown had little or no income, especially if they were involved in cross border business, because borders were closed; during lockdown they lived on whatever capital they had, which in most cases has now been exhausted.
The result for the UCZ has been no stipends for ministers – for months - in rural presbyteries for 18 months. Ministers whose spouse is a civil servant have been able to live on the spouse’s salary. (Ruth, the wife of Revd Godfrey Gama, is a secondary school teacher.)
Because most ministers in Bishop Lordwell’s Lusaka Presbytery live in rented accommodation, not church houses, even the housing of ministers has been at risk. Lordwell joked that, if only some of the manses the British Methodist Church no longer needs could be flown from England to Zambia, they would be very useful.
Lordwell became bishop just two months before lockdown started, and so his time as bishop has been preoccupied with finding ways of making the work of the UCZ financially sustainable. In June this year Lusaka Presbytery launched Umodzi Investments, a company 90% owned by the Presbytery, to generate income for the church by investing in commercial companies. Lordwell said that his vision is of the church supporting its needy members rather than the church needing support from them.
Bishop Lordwell explained that two of the pillars of the UCZ are
(1) to be self-propagating and
(2) self-supporting. Grants from overseas are used for social ministry like the hospitals, clinics and schools run by the church.
Another issue Bishop Lordwell spoke about was pastoral care of members. In Lusaka Presbytery there are 350,000 UCZ members and 52 ordained ministers. Pastoral care is a major work of the fellowships – Women’s Christian Fellowship, Men’s
Christian Fellowship and Youth Christian Fellowship. But the rule in the UCZ is that only ordained ministers can administer baptism; Lordwell told us of one visit he made to a congregation when he baptised 1,000 people; baptism preparation of families and individuals had been done by local lay leaders.
We hope that Bishop Lordwell’s visit begins the re-start of exchange visits between our District and the UCZ.
Please continue to pray for the UCZ, as they pray for us.
Cecil King
Visit of Rev Chipasha Musaba - June 2022
The District will be honoured in the coming weeks by the visit of Rev Chipasha Musaba, General Secretary of the United Church of Zambia (UCZ), together with his wife Barbara, to Southampton Methodist District.
Rev Musaba has been UCZ’s General Secretary for two years and is highly qualified and experienced. As well as his training at what is now the UCZ University, he has qualifications and degrees from St Paul’s Theological College in Kenya, the University of the Western Cape in South Africa and Uganda Christian University.
Rev Musaba has been an ordained minister since January 1995, working on the Copperbelt, including service as Copperbelt Presbytery Bishop.
He and Barbara are to attend the Methodist Conference in Telford and then to stay with our Southampton District Chair, Rev Andrew de Ville, enhancing the District’s link with the UCZ.
On Saturday, 2nd July, there will be a memorial service in Poole for Rev Peggy Hiscock who served in Zambia from 1958 to 1974 and was the first female ordained minister in the UCZ. Peggy died in Poole last year; it is great that the UCZ General Secretary will be at her service, because Peggy’s ministry made a huge difference in the life of the UCZ.
On Sunday, 3rd July, Rev Musaba and Rev de Ville will lead morning worship at Salisbury Methodist Church. Salisbury Methodist Church, together with Salisbury United Reformed and Bemerton Methodists, is linked with a UCZ congregation in Lusaka.
The visit of Rev and Mrs Musaba is the first personal visit since before the Covid lockdowns and will revive the exchanges which strengthen the link between our churches. The prayer links between congregations have continued through the lockdowns, as well as sharing worship through streaming and Zoom. Worshipping together in person will be an added blessing.
Cecil King
Zambia Update - May 2022
The United Church of Zambia is much more led by lay people than the British Methodist Church is; for each ordained UCZ minister there are several thousand worshipping members. Yet the UCZ is a “sending church”. There are three UCZ ministers working in Methodist circuits in England; last month two UCZ ministers left to work for the church in Jamaica.
A serious concern for our partner congregation – St John’s, Mtendere – has been a cholera outbreak in Mtendere, the first case of cholera in Zambia for several years. We are asked to give thanks to God that this outbreak has been contained, with only 4 other cases reported. And we are also asked to pray for the UCZ’s nine Community Health Posts in Lusaka, originally set up to treat HIV/AIDS and now doing great public health work in poor neighbourhoods during the COVID-19 waves.
The negotiations continue between the Zambian government and the lenders who are being paid huge amounts of Zambia’s debt. Zambia’s debt payments are more than health, education and social spending combined, which is an appalling situation for one of the poorest countries.
One aspect of our link with the United Church of Zambia is the worship material they share with us.
There is new material recently added on the website worshipwords.co.uk/zambia-praise/, a website which includes prayers and songs for us to use from Zambian Christians.
Like us here, Zambians are experiencing a steep rise in the cost of living, and they have fewer financial resources to cope with that than most of us have. Please continue to pray for and with our partners in Zambia, as they continue to pray for us.
Cecil King
Zambia - April 2022
The United Church of Zambia (UCZ) has celebrated Easter in worship almost “normally”, still wearing masks but with full churches and choirs in full song.
Covid cases are falling in number, and reported deaths from Covid very few.
Still there is a desperate shortage of medicines and medical equipment, and our prayers are asked for the UCZ Health Secretary, Gina Siatwinda Olivier,
as she works to make sure there are sufficient staff, equipment and medicines in UCZ’s two hospitals and nine clinics.
The UCZ’s newest venture for outreach is fundraising to build new TV and Radio studios in Lusaka.
Each congregation is asked to give at least 2,000 kwacha. The present UCZ radio station opened in 2014; the premises were gutted by fire in September 2021 but got back on air a month later. Now the church wants new studios that will broadcast the Gospel to people in the eight official languages of the country, reaching the farthest village through the most up to date media.
Our Southampton District’s link with the Lusaka Presbytery should be revitalised by the planned visit of Rev Chipasha Musaba, UCZ General Secretary, to the District in July. After that we pray and trust that people exchange between our congregations will be resumed.
Cecil King
Zambia - March 2022
Life, including church life, is almost back to normal following the pandemic. There are still more than 100 coronavirus cases recorded each day, but deaths from COVID are very few. However, there is a critical shortage of medicines and basic medical equipment in Zambia’s hospitals and clinics. Our prayers are asked for the two hospitals and seven clinics run by the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) and for Gina Siatwinda-Oliver, UCZ health secretary, working to get supplies needed by those medical facilities.
Zambia is mourning the death of Rupiah Banda, fourth President of Zambia, in office from 2008 to 2011. Mr Banda was best known as an international diplomat, working for reconciliation in Namibia and Kenya and at the United Nations. As we give thanks for the good work he did, pray for the unity of Zambia and for reconciliation across Africa, especially in Ethiopia and in Cameroon.
During the Southampton Methodist District Synod at Salisbury Methodist Church on April 2nd, Bryan Coates will speak about Revd Peggy Hiscock, who died last year. It is my hope that the Synod will agree to give money to the Peggy Hiscock Scholarship, set up by the UCZ University, to support students training to be church ministers. Peggy served in Zambia from 1958 to 1974 and was the first woman minister ordained in the UCZ.
During April, the Zambian Government will be negotiating for the cancellation of the nation’s huge debt. Zambia spends more on debt repayment than on health, education and social services combined, which is an appalling situation for one of the poorest countries. You can sign the petition “Cancel Zambia’s Debt” on the website of the Jubilee Debt Campaign.
Please continue to pray for the Lusaka Presbytery of the UCZ, as they pray for us.
Cecil King
Zambia - February 2022
In late January and early February, parts of eastern and southern Zambia were devastated by tropical storm Ana. The storm hit Mozambique and then spread far inland causing flooding and destroying homes and crops. Pray for the people affected and for the work to help people in need and to restore damage.
On 25th January, a minibus run by the United Church of Zambia from Southern Province to Lusaka crashed into another vehicle and seventeen people were killed. Pray for the bereaved families and everyone ministering to them.
Good news is that the number of Covid cases and Covid deaths has fallen fast in recent weeks. In most ways life is back to normal, though “face – hands – space” is still the advice and, in church, many people are wearing masks and bumping elbows rather than shaking hands. Give thanks to God for vaccines and health workers, and pray that more testing kits will be provided.
The United Church of Zambia (UCZ) runs nine health facilities – from clinic to hospital – scattered over the country; they have been heavily overworked during the pandemic. The new UCZ Health Secretary is Mrs Gina Oliver, a Zambian nurse. Pray for her as she travels to the nine facilities and works to support them in their work. Gina’s husband is British Methodist minister: Rev Malcolm Oliver; pray for him as he joins the family in Zambia and takes up ministerial duties in Lusaka.
Our partners in the United Church of Zambia Lusaka Presbytery ask that we give thanks to God that the life and mission of the congregations have revived after the restrictions on church activities when Covid was at its worst.
Please continue your prayers for our partners in Zambia as they continue to pray for us.
Cecil King
Zambia - January 2022
The prayer requests which we receive from the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) each week have recently been about the fourth wave of COVID 19 infections. The number of new cases each day has gone up into the thousands again; some deaths from COVID are reported daily. Nearly all the COVID patients in hospital are people who have not been vaccinated because Zambia does not have enough doses of the vaccine. There is also a shortage of testing kits, and so there can be no practice of isolating people who are infected.
In church life and in schools, mask wearing is common, but otherwise normal activities have been resumed after the lockdowns of last year.
This is the rainy season in Zambia (November to March); the rains started late in parts of Zambia but are now falling. Until a year ago, Zambia suffered some years of drought, so bad that Victoria Falls dried up. Thank God that rains are falling this year.
In November, we heard of the appointment of the Revd Dr Jonathan Kangwa as Vice Chancellor of the UCZ University, where ministers and deaconesses of the church are trained. Dr Kangwa has recently told us that the UCZ University has set up the Peggy Hiscock Scholarship to support men and women who offer themselves for full time ministry as deaconesses or ordained ministers but are unable to sponsor themselves for training.
Rev Peggy Hiscock, who died last year in Poole, was a Methodist minister who worked in Zambia from 1958 to 1974. She is remembered in Zambia as a pioneer and champion of women’s ministry in church who inspired and trained many women. Peggy was the first woman ordained in the UCZ.
The news from UCZ congregations is that, in spite of the lockdowns and limitations placed on church activities during the pandemic, congregations continue to grow in number and in membership. Continue to pray for Lusaka Presbytery of the UCZ, as they pray for us.
Cecil King
Zambia - November 2021
The hot weather is now prevailing in Zambia, and the number of coronavirus cases is much reduced, with less than 15 new cases per day and less than 5 deaths each week.
As a result activities are getting back to normal, though with the hands-face-space precautions.
School pupils are preparing for the usual school leaving exams in December. Church worship and ministry in the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) is flourishing. And, praise God, the rainy season has begun well.
New senior appointments have been made by the church. The Revd Dr Jonathan Kangwa, who was in England three years ago as part of the District’s Zambia link, has been appointed Vice Chancellor of the United Church of Zambia University.
Jonathan is a theologian and church historian.
One of his major articles deals with the work of Peggy Hiscock in Zambia. Peggy, who died in Poole earlier this year, was the first woman ordained in the UCZ. She had gone to Northern Rhodesia a Methodist Deaconess and pioneered training of African deaconesses. She was ordained a minister before the British Methodist Church ordained woman ministers. On her return to work in England, Peggy was in our Southampton District and helped to forge the District’s Zambia link.
Another of Dr Kangwa’s major articles is about the ministry of Rev Dr Peggy Mulambya Kabonde, who served for years as General Secretary of the UCZ. When she stepped down from that work last year, she came to work with the British Methodist Church and lives in Melksham, working with congregations in West Wiltshire.
As we give thanks for the ministry of women ministers and the Women’s Christian Fellowship in the UCZ, we remember the Methodist women teachers who established the first secondary school for African girls – at Chipembi - educating girls who became leading professionals – in education, the law, diplomacy and medicine.
Pray also for the new Mission and Evangelism Secretary of the UCZ, Rev Andrew Chulu, and for renewed mission work of the church now that COVID cases are reduced.
Cecil King
Zambia - October 2021
On 24th October Zambia celebrates the 57th anniversary of the nation’s independence. It is an occasion for looking back with thanksgiving.
In 1964, on Independence Day, few people gave Zambia a chance of peace or prosperity or real political and economic independence. In five of the countries bordering Zambia there were wars. Landlocked Zambia, a thousand miles from the sea, had no good route to the coast to export the copper on which the economy depended - only a long dirt road to Dar-es-Salaam. There was no university, and there were very few secondary schools for Africans; nearly all skilled professional jobs were done by foreigners.
The borders of Zambia – formerly Northern Rhodesia – had been drawn by European politicians in Berlin in 1885, with no regard to or knowledge of the people who lived there. So Zambia was an artificial creation with more than 70 different languages spoken and people’s primary loyalty being to their extended family and home area.
Today, we give thanks that Zambia has been an independent democratic peaceful nation for nearly 60 years, despite the big problems it was born with.
There have been setbacks – times of economic hardship, the AIDs pandemic, devastating drought, leading to the failure of electricity generation from Kariba Dam, some corrupt government, crop failures, the COVID pandemic.
There has also been huge expansion in schools and universities, great improvements in road links especially to previous isolated areas and, for some people, higher living standards.
Christian churches have multiplied and the number of church worshippers has increased enormously. The government elected in August this year has renewed the declaration that Zambia is a Christian country.
Give thanks for Zambia and for the United Church of Zambia. There are three United Church of Zambia ministers serving as circuit ministers in British Methodism; Zambia sends ministers to us – a rapid change from 40 years ago, when Britain was sending ministers to Zambia.
Continue to pray for the United Church of Zambia, as they continue to pray for us.
Cecil King
Zambia update - October 2021
From October 2021 newsletter of Salisbury Methodist Church
Our Zambia link
The number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Zambia has fallen from the peak in June and July; two or three COVID deaths are recorded each day.
This fall is not because of a large vaccination programme; less than 10% of the population have received doses. The weather is warming up, and schools are back. People are still being urged to wear face masks, keep socially distant and wash hands frequently.
Church activities are not yet back to normal, but Sunday worship, including Holy Communion, is resumed, as well as local Bible Study meetings.
The newly elected government, led by President, Hakainde Hichilema, is pursuing very different policies from its predecessor – much more encouragement of private enterprise and looking to the West for assistance in Zambia’s economic recovery. Soon after the new government was inaugurated, the UK agreed to provide £9 million for small and medium enterprises and for girls’ education in Zambia.
We are asked to pray, giving thanks for the peaceful change of government and praying that the new government will deliver their promise to reduce poverty in Zambia.
In the United Church of Zambia, we are asked to pray that the mission and ministry of Christ will be maintained even with the anti-COVID restrictions.
At St John’s, Mtendere, we give thanks that the building of the Consistory (equivalent to our Circuit) offices has just begun and pray that the building work goes on well.
Our partner in the link to St John’s, Salisbury URC, will be using some of the worship music from Zambia composed and performed by Revd Cephas Ng’oma. You can enjoy it by clicking on:
Music from Revd Ng’oma | Salisbury United Reformed Revd Church (salisburyurc.co.uk)
Please continue to pray for our link congregation – St John’s United Church of Zambia, Mtendere, Lusaka, as they continue to pray for us.
Cecil King
Worship Music from Rev Cephas Ng’oma of the United Church of Zambia
https://salisburyurc.co.uk/prayer-music-from-revd-ngoma-zambia/
Prayers for Zambia - August 2021
16 August 2021
Zambia has a new President as a result of the elections on 12th August. He is Hakainde Hichilema, a millionaire businessman; the people of Zambia – 59% of the voters – have turned to him in the hope that he will improve the economy of the country.
Mr Hichilema, who has stood for President five times before and lost, is the first President of Zambia whose roots are in the Southern Province and in the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
We are asked to pray for peace and unity in the country following the election results. Both sides have accused each other of intimidation at the polls.
The pandemic continues to claim lives in Zambia, but the number of cases and deaths has declined since the spike in mid-July. Schools will fully re-open before the end of August.
The United Church of Zambia is still not allowing church fellowship and organisations to meet, except for section Bible Study. Holy Communion services are being held again, after nearly two months when they were not held. Sunday worship is supposed to be with masks and social distancing, but that is difficult to impose.
We are asked to pray for unity in the church, which has members of various political parties, and for maintaining fellowship and pastoral care in congregations amid the COVID restrictions.
And we are asked to pray for health workers and the vaccination programme; less than 10% of adults in Zambia have received one dose.
Cecil King
A letter of welcome to the new Bishop of Lusaka Presbytery - December 2020
Farewell to Bishop Rodwell Chomba
The Wessex Synod of the United Reformed Church sends its warmest greetings to Bishop Rodwell Chomba and to the Ministers, Elders and Members of the Lusaka Presbytery of he United Church of Zambia: Grace to you and Peace.
We would wish to join with others in testifying to the way in which our God has used Bishop Chomba in the service of the Presbytery and of the whole Church of Christ; and the blessings we ourselves have received through his Ministry. We are so thankful for the ways in which he has embraced the opportunities provided by the link between the Wessex Synod and the Lusaka Presbytery and given his support to the extension and development of the programme.
As he prepares for the next stage of Ministry we assure him of our prayers for him, and for Gertrude and the whole family, confident that the God who calls us to service will bless all his endeavours.
We shall pray too for every Minster and congregation, and especially for our friend Revd Dr Lordwell Siame, as the Presbytery moves to this time of transition.
Yours in the bonds of Christian fellowship: the Moderator, Ministers, Elders and Members of the Wessex Synod of the need Reformed Church.
