Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA) General Secretary Rev Lungile Mpetsheni laid out the focus for 2020 to the Presbyteries, congregations and fellowships earlier this year. He emphasised the need to develop into a formidable and “reconciled community able to address issues of concerns, thus boosting the profile of the UPCSA”, in his January letter. To work towards building a healthy community for effective mission, ministry and witness, he urged them to focus on “building relationships, healing memories, building a missional church and leadership capacity development”.
Finally, he encouraged them to pray for the process of expanding UPCSA to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as their brethren in the DRC have already registered themselves with the DRC authorities as the Uniting Presbyterian Church. Tasked in this endeavour of journeying with the church in the DRC is the Synod of Zambia.
UPCSA Moderator Rt Rev Peter Langerman underscored the different crises afflicting the three countries where UPCSA is present, also in his January letter to the churches. In the statement, he drew attention to “persistent power outages” plaguing all three countries, “the specters of poverty, corruption and abuse of power (which) loom over the people”, and noted how “crippling drought is wreaking havoc on communities in Zimbabwe and Zambia, many of which were hit hard by Hurricane Idai in 2019”.