Zambia
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News
Providing quality education to our neighbors in Zambia by Frank Dimmock
In Zambia 60% live below the poverty line, 42 percent in extreme poverty. One out of every 13 kids dies before their fifth birthday. Only 28 percent have access to electricity, and fewer than half have access to improved sanitation or the “luxury” of living in a home without a dirt or sand floor. As challenging as life can be under these conditions, it is especially difficult when many are deprived access to a quality education. In rural Zambia adult men have an average of six years of schooling and women only have three years. Read more.
READ ABOUT how education is working to alleviate poverty and help communities in Zambia. Nancy Collins and CCAP Zambia are part of the effort to provide quality education for 1 million children by 2020.
READ ABOUT how mission co-workers Luta Garbat-Welch and Charles and Melissa Johnson are working with our church partners to share the Good News and transform communities in Zambia.
Background
The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, Synod of Zambia (CCAP/Zambia) traces its origin from the Livingstonia Mission of the Free Church of Scotland. The Livingstonia Mission was formed in 1874 in memory of Dr. David Livingstone, who died in 1873 at Chitambo, Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia), after his three missionary and exploratory journeys.
The first Livingstonia Mission party left Scotland for Lake Nyasa (Malawi) on May 12, 1875. Between 1881 and 1912 the Livingstonia Mission carried out extensive evangelistic work in Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia). As a result, the following Zambia mission stations were opened: Mwenzo (1882), Chitheba (1882), Uyombe (1889), Tamanda (1894), Kamoto (1896), Kazembe (1897), Lubwa (1904), and Chitambo (1907). In 1922 Rev. Dr. Donald Fraser founded Chasefu Mission Station in eastern Zambia, a few kilometers from the Malawi border and 47 kilometers north of Lundazi.
Lundazi Mission Station was established after the Chasefu Mission Station—as well as multiple schools and medical clinics—were taken over by the British Government on June 2, 1952. By 1956 the Government approved land at Lundazi for use by the Livingstonia Mission. The mission station was built by the Livingstonia Mission, through the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, in 1962. From that time Lundazi became a focal point of the development of CCAP in Zambia.
In the context of the independence movements, churches throughout Zambia—from multiple Reformed mission backgrounds—merged in 1965 to form the United Church of Zambia. Only the CCAP congregations in eastern Zambia, related to the Livingstonia Mission, remained independent and served as the nucleus for the present-day CCAP Synod of Zambia.
When the Synod of Zambia was constituted in 1984, CCAP/Zambia had 4 ordained ministers, 16 congregations, 2 presbyteries (Chasefu and Midlands/Copperbelt) and fewer than 10,000 communicants. As of August 2010, the Synod has 67 congregations in 11 presbyteries, 58 ordained ministers and 9 evangelists, with a membership of more than 65,000.
Zambia Partner Churches
Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP), Synod of Zambia
Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA), Presbytery of Zambia
United Church of Zambia
Zambia Partner Organizations/Institutions
Christian Hospital Association of Zambia
Justo Mwale Theological University College
Theological Education by Extension Zambia
UCZ Mwandi and MbreshiHospitals
Presbytery Partership
Presbytery of Philadelphia with CCAP Zambia and UPCSA Zambia
Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique Mission Network (ZZM Network)
- For more information contact David Barker or Andrew Smothers.
The ZZM Network is among more than 40 networks that connect Presbyterians who share a common mission interest. Most participants are involved in mission partnerships through congregations, presbyteries or synods. Network members come together to coordinate efforts, share best practices and develop strategies.
Learn more about Zambia
Visit the BBC country profile.
