Brighton Chiseva
MASVINGO – The Reformed Church in Zimbabwe (RCZ) last weekend elected new leadership known as the Moderamen that will run affairs of the church for the next two years at a conference held at Chibi Mission High School.
The church leaders gathered for a four day Synod Assembly which started on August 24-28, 2022 running under the theme Church on the Move: Preaching the Gospel in Season and out of Season (2 Timothy 4:2).
The executive is termed the Moderamen when it consists of only men and is referred to as the Moderature when it has both men and women.
Reverend Isaac Pandasvika retained his post as the moderator and is deputised by Reverend Silas Magwati.
The General Secretary (GS) is Reverend Tafadzwa Masimba and his vice is Reverend Lovemore Mashamba while Reverend Charles Juro was elected Actuary.
The Synod secretary is Dr Joyful Tatenda Rugare and his vice is Advocate Knowledge Mabvuure while Pikisai Mhizha retained his treasurer post and is deputised by Torerai Hungwe.
The Synod assembly had people drawn from RCZ’s 127 congregations with two representatives per congregation with voting powers.
Speaking to the media, new General Secretary Rev Masimba said the conference was meant to deliberate on a number of issues that deal with the church and said they would want to implement a number of new resolutions to suit the current situation.
He said they failed to hold the conference in 2020 due to Covid-19 so they want to invest in digital connectivity so that they can do meetings virtually.
“We have a number of issues we are discussing at this conference and those that we resolve become policy. We failed to hold the conference due to Covid-19 restrictions and that has taught us a lesson. We are now thinking of doing our meetings and other conferences virtually as that saves a lot of time and resources,” said Rev Masimba.
He said they wanted to implement best practises that include incorporating gender and current labour laws as well as looking at new ways of revenue generation saying they are considering going into real estate business.
“We want to implement best practices like aligning our policies with the current gender and labour laws as well as contributing to the country’s National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).
“We are also looking at other ways of revenue generation and we are currently considering going into real estate business,” said Masimba.
