wfn.org | Malawian bishop calls for calm in resolving curriculum subject

[FRANK.IMHOFF@ecunet.org]

LILONGWE, Malawi/GENEVA, 5 June 2000 (LWI) - With consultations still
ongoing following President Bakili Muluzi's recent directive to suspend
the teaching of a multi-faith subject that had been proposed alongside
Bible teaching in the current school syllabus, the bishop of the
Lutheran church there has called for calm as the parties involved
discuss the pertinent issues in the controversy.

In an interview with LWI on 26 May 2000, Bishop Joseph Paul Bvumbwe of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi (ELCM) said the Malawi Council
of Churches (MCC)-comprising all mainline Protestant churches including
the Lutheran church-jointly with the (Roman Catholic) Episcopal
Conference of Malawi has expressed openly its unanimous support for the
government's suspension of Moral and Religious Education (MRE), a
multi-faith subject, and the recommendation that the teaching of "Bible
knowledge" be retained in schools until consultations are exhausted.

Bvumbwe urged both Christians and Muslims to be patient and adhere to a
spirit of dialogue in this matter for the good of the Malawian people.
He emphasized that the proposed MRE for primary schools was introduced
without any consultations, and the church representatives would need to
study it carefully before any new decision could be made on the school
curriculum.

About 85 percent of Malawi's 10 million people are Christians while
Muslims comprise about 12 percent. Muluzi, a Muslim, became president
following a democratic election in 1994 that saw the ouster of the
country's self-declared 'life-president' (deceased, 1997) Kamuzu Banda.
The government owns about 60 percent of the schools while the churches
own around 30 percent.

Bvumbwe said the churches are concerned about the proposed changes in
the curriculum because the MRE had an element of conversion into Islam,
whereas Bible teaching has always been conducted in a purely academic
manner.

"Malawi is a democratic country, Christians are the majority but each
one of us, including the Muslims has a contribution to make and we must
appreciate and accommodate the others' views. None of us should exploit
democracy to the disadvantage of the rest," Bvumbwe said while drawing a
parallel between Banda's one-party rule since independence in 1964 and
the present multi-party system of governance.

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) member church in Malawi has a
membership of 12,000. The church runs a girls' secondary school with
about 1,000 students. Another 6,000 pupils attend the ELCM's four
primary schools. Bvumbwe also serves as the vice-chairperson of the LWF
Department for Mission and Development (DMD) Project Committee.

(The LWF is a global communion of 128 member churches in 70 countries
representing 58 million of the world's 61.5 million Lutherans. Its
highest decision making body is the Assembly, held every six or seven
years. Between Assemblies, the LWF is governed by a 49-member Council
which meets annually, and its Executive Committee. The LWF secretariat
is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of the
Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted, material
presented does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its
various units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation
(LWI), the material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

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Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/