EFZ code to govern church leaders

26 Apr, 2015 - 00:04 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

The Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe will this Wednesday launch a code of ethics and conduct to benchmark behaviour expected of church leaders.

EFZ represents 565 church bodies representing an individual membership of 4,5 million Zimbabweans.General secretary of EFZ Reverend Lindani Dube said the code of ethics and conduct came in the wake of increased immoral behaviour by some church leaders.

“We believe that self-regulation is very critical. So to add impetus to that, we have come up with a code of conduct which every member was involved in drafting and also in making sure that it comes into being,” said Rev Dube.

The code covers personal ethics, relationships and associations, politics, public ethics, accountability, aggression, power abuse and organisational and corporate ethics.

It also encompasses domestic ethics, marriage, ministerial ethics and respect for the Word of God.

Rev Dube said the code formalised already laid out processes in the organisation.

“The Bible is an advocate of justice. We would expect people of conscience to be able to exhaust all channels within the Christian framework before they spill over to the court.

“But given the structures we have in the church as long as there is a will it becomes incomprehensible for people to consider the circular justice system in all cases where there is conflict.

“So the code is giving provisions to a situation where there are structures in the EFZ with various levels where there could be appeals. If people think they cannot solve it, maybe then spill it over the courts,” added Rev Dube.

EFZ heads of denominations from across the country, representatives from the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations which is a conglomeration of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, and the Zimbabwe Catholics Bishops Conference, among others, are expected to attend the launch.

See Religion section

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