adminJeffrey Gogo Climate Story
The Church in Zimbabwe is beginning to play an active role in environmental protection and management, steps that may, if sustained, accelerate the restoration of the country’s decimated environs in the areas of land pollution and forest loss. In the past fortnight, Christ Embassy and Anglican parishes in Harare intensified work on restoring environmental sanity as well as building critical mass for its preservation.
Believers from the Anglican Church swept through the streets of Avondale, an upmarket residential and business area in Harare, picked up litter and emptied drainages, which usually clog with garbage from run off during the rainy season.
At Belvedere, Christ Embassy Church, led by the zonal pastor, Ruth Musarurwa, planted trees during the launch of its popular annual evangelical campaign called Reach Out Zimbabwe, where it distributes millions of free copies of its Rhapsody of Realties daily devotional.
The CEC has themed the 2013 Reach Out Campaign “Every Tree a Forest and Every City a Tree,” aiming to plant millions of trees across Zimbabwe.
The tree planting project is expected to be expansive, leaving a long-lasting legacy on the importance of trees, as it is a month-long countrywide campaign capable of reaching even the remotest communities.
Such initiatives are important to replenishing Zimbabwe’s forests, which are being lost at an unsustainable rate of 333 000 hectares or 50 million trees per year, according to the Forestry Commission. Tobacco production, veld fires, firewood needs and clearing land for agriculture and other developmental projects are blamed for the loss.
“A tree symbolises true worship,” said Pastor Musarurwa during the launch. “(Through tree planting) we are giving back to the community the nature of God. The Bible says in Acts 10:38: ‘How God anointed Jesus Christ of Nazereth with the Holy Ghost and power, who went about doing good and healing all those who were oppressed of the devil.’
“So our laws and principles is to do good, all the time, all our life. Out of one tree we are going to make a forest, in every city. The people are going to see that Zimbabwe is a beautiful woodland.”
Pastor Musarurwa spoke against the rampant cutting down of trees, encouraging all to carry on the work that God started by preserving and beautifying nature.
Christ Embassy has managed to remain consistent and committed to environmental work. During the 2012 Reach Out Zimbabwe campaign, the Church removed litter from the streets of Harare and donated refuse bins to the city council, a gesture that was performed in all CEC community assemblies across the country.
Illegal dumping and environmental crimes are a huge burden to Zimbabwe, both operationally and financially. Not only do these contraventions mean that resources that could be better spent are used on clean-up operations, but it is an extremely dangerous activity that puts communities, especially children, at great risk.
Across many cities and townships, mountains of uncollected garbage are a common eyesore. Landfills are seldom cleared, if at all. Four weeks ago, the Pomona dumpsite in Harare caught fire, releasing huge plumes of smoke into the atmosphere that lasted for days and causing severe air pollution.
Landfills are an environmental nuisance, emitting vast amounts of methane gas, the second most potent global warming-causing greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide.
They also house disease-carrying vectors such as rats and mosquitoes in their millions, posing significant health risks to communities.
However, the involvement of the Church will be very important to addressing some of these challenges and numerous others in Zimbabwe, particularly in the context of the green economy, a new concept in development that prioritises social, economic and environmental equity.
The Church is a powerful institution that commands tremendous respect, dedication and loyalty from its followers. With more than 80 percent of Zimbabweans or 10,4 million people declared Christians here, the Church wields vast influence over a significant constituency of the country’s population, which can yield several benefits for the environment.
When gathered together in one accord, Christians have an immense ability to bring about widespread positive change, which is anchored on their firm beliefs of preserving and protecting the Earth, according to Biblical teachings.
Christians, therefore, have an inherent obligation to themselves and to God for advancing the environmental cause.
When co-ordinated responses to environmental degradation are galvanised with long-held convictions or beliefs, and developed into a long-term strategy, the benefits to Zimbabwe may be huge.
Working with other groups such as the Environmental Management Agency, Government ministries and the civic society, the Church in Zimbabwe has managed to strike important partnerships that can help reverse environmental damage.
There is nothing very new in one-day clean-up campaigns, however. Many corporates have been undertaking similar programmes. The garbage only clears for a day or two.
The most important aspect, which is regrettably lacking at present, is that such campaigns evolve to become much more than a single day’s event. With environmental pollution an everyday experience, one- day clean-ups easily disappear from everyone’s memories, even those of the cleaned up zones.
Continuity is needed. A sustained strategy should be put in place for improving environmental management and governance beyond the day of campaign. One-day campaigns are great at raising awareness but are at great fault where long-term sustainability is concerned.
We understand that these projects are financially demanding. But if an institution is dedicated to the concept of social responsibility, then its actions must grow beyond piecemeal resolutions, to those that have long-lasting benefits to the targeted communities.
In the area of climate change, causes and risks, the Church here has, however, shown little resolve.
Worldwide, there are fundamental beliefs among Christians that climate change and its devastating effects are much more than the work of humankind’s carelessness with the Earth’s resources.
Christian leaders are convinced the current increases in frequency and extremity of natural disasters coupled with disease and wars are signs of the end times. Most of the occurrences in the world today are consistent with biblical prophecies contained in many books of the Bible including Matthew, Daniel and Revelations.
On its own, the human species will achieve very limited results, if at all, to addressing the dangers of climate change and global warming unless they turn to God, Christians say.
We expect the local Church to become more vocal and increase visibility on the specific subject of climate change, now one of the biggest challenges faced by humankind.
God is faithful
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