The Catholic Church in Zambia will be clocking 125 years in a year-long celebration that is set to commence in August 2016 and will continue till August 2017.
According to Rev. Fr. Justine Matepa, the Pastoral Coordinator of Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC), these celebrations will go hand in hand with the Jubilee year of Mercy.
“Zambia this year will be celebrating 125 years since the coming of the first missionaries who brought the catholic faith in the country. The conference has therefore tried to blend the two occasions, the celebration of 125 of catholic faith in the country and the Jubilee Year of Mercy,” Fr. Matepa explained adding that the theme of the celebrations will be 125 years of God’s Love and Mercy.
“The theme was chosen in such a way that we don’t lose out on either of the significant celebration that is equally important to us as a country,” he said.
The launch of the Jubilee Year of Mercy at Zambia Episcopal Conference was done at the individual Dioceses. However, the conference held a big preparatory meeting for all the dioceses. Usually the conference holds an Annual National Pastoral meeting, an annual event where all the diocesan pastoral coordinators and secretaries, the catechetical and biblical coordinators are invited to participate.
So in April 2015, the conference held a three-days meeting where it dedicated one full day to the preparations of the proceedings and how to embrace the year of mercy.
So we had a joint preparatory meeting for deliberations on our immediate actions plus our future endeavors which were approved by the Bishop upon presentation. Prominently was the suggestion to launch the Jubilee Year of Faith beginning at Diocesan level, going down to the deaneries and eventually to the parish levels; this according to Fr. Matepa has already happened.
Through the office of the Pontifical Mission Society, there is a wrapper (Chitenge) a cotton fabric with the logoThe Year of Mercy and an image of Pope Francis printed, which is being sold and so far is doing quite well. Fr. Matepa explained that it is a symbolic representation of what is going on in terms of visibility around the country and within the church for the Jubilee Year of Mercy.
“We also realized that we needed to do something for the children and for the youth in order to include them in the celebrations of the Jubilee Year of Mercyand so we have come up with catechetical retreat material as a national office on recommendation of the same committee and that material will now be will be circulated by the third week of Lent to all Dioceses,” he said. Additionally the material has already been tested on a group of youth animators for the Archdiocese of Lusaka who received the material for the children and the Holy Childhood animators.
By AMECEA Online News Reporter
