Lusaka, 25 August, 2025 / 3:31 pm (ACI Africa).
Church leaders in Zambia have urged the government to initiate “immediate and sincere” dialogue to resolve the impasse surrounding the burial of the country’s immediate former President, Edgar Chagwa Lungu, who passed on July 5.
In an August 23 statement, Zambia’s church leaders, who include representatives of the Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB), the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) and the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) say the discussions should be conducted “in a manner that respects the dignity of the high office he (late President Lungu) once held as well as the wishes of his family.”
The church leaders express the hope that the burial of former President Lungu will be held in “an atmosphere of peace, unity, and respect, befitting both his service to the nation and the values we hold as a people.”
“In this regard, we appeal to all Zambians, regardless of political or social affiliation, to refrain from issuing provocative or demeaning statements on this sensitive matter,” they say.
In the statement that the ZCCB Secretary General, Fr. Francis Mukosa, CCZ General Secretary Rev. Emmanuel Chikoya and EFZ Executive Secretary, Bishop Andrew Mwenda co-signed, they say demeaning statements go against both cultural values and Christian principles
