By Tafadzwa Muranganwa| A newly formed interdenominational organisation has vowed to unite people across Africa to spearhead development.

Speaking at the launch of Council for Churches in Africa ,Zimbabwe chapter, founding president Bishop Dr Rocky Moyo said the thrust of the organisation was to bring all and sundry in Africa together despite varying backgrounds.

“We founded this organisation with the purpose of uniting Christians and politicians in Africa. We can’t speak of uniting politicians when we are divided as a church,” said Bishop Dr Rocky Moyo.

This was also reiterated by Bishop Albert Chikuni who leads the Interreligious Association for Peace and Development Zimbabwe(IAPDZ) ,who was among the guest and has been on a whirlwind tour of the country preaching peace.

“What makes our message unique is that everyone loves peace and so we are a sanctuary to all peace-loving citizens,” Chikuni said.

Addressing the hundreds of congregants who gathered at the Bulawayo Large City Hall,Pan-Africanist Joshua Maponga called the churches to take advantages of its huge numbers to start to think of financial independence to empower themselves.

“It’s now high time churches start to think of setting up its own bank given the number of congregants they have.
“This is attainable and will go a long way in reducing poverty among its members,”Maponga urged .

A young gender activist Kuda Kunze advocated for churches to strongly condemn child marriages and gender-based violence.

“The churches should condone child marriage and gender abuse out rightly and not any form of doctrine that support such should be tolerated,” she said.

Meanwhile ,there was a graduation ceremony at the event which witnessed over 40 clerics being awarded with certificates, diplomas and degrees in Theology Studies from Immanuel University of Theology International.

Leading the graduation, Professor Edward Alfred Van den Berg said the South-African headquartered institution is in 15 African countries and has been influential in raising religious leaders.

“Established a few year ago ,we are now in 15 African countries with other branches in the world, we have so far trained 90 professors and 15 000 leaders ,”revealed Prof Edward Alfred Van den Berg.