Joyce Banda opens the new Balaka CCAP church
President Joyce Banda on Sunday opened the new Balaka Church of Central African Presbytery (CCAP) which originated from the Blantyre Mission.
In her speech, Joyce Banda commended Christians of the Blantyre synod especially members of the church from Balaka for their commitment during the construction of the new church building.
“This is a commendable job because it is not an easy thing to build such a big church. It also took us a long time to construct our church at Saint Columba in Blantyre,” said Banda.
She said the construction of the church was a clear indication of the church’s role in complimenting government’s development agenda.
In his speech Balaka CCAP church Moderator, Reverend Raphael Matola said the construction of the church which started in 2000 has partly been possible through contributions from previous moderators of the church among them Reverend Macdonald Kadawati and P.M. Kandulu.
He said records indicated that money amounting to K21,568,000 was used for the construction of the new church as a result of contributions from participating Christians, Paper Sundays collections and other fund raising activities.
Rev Matola said the catchment area of the church comprised Kabango, Magwati, Nkhwinimba and Kapalamula prayer houses with a membership of over 3500 Christians.
He however said the church still needed other developments such as a brick fence and floor tiles among others and President Joyce Banda donated K500.000 for procurement of bricks after pledging that she would assist in the construction of the fence.
Blantyre Synod Moderator, Mercy Chilapula thanked President Joyce Banda for accepting the invitation to come and officially open the church building.
Balaka CCAP church was established in 1943 by Loudon Kazembe who was working with Nyasaland Railways Company. By then there were around ten people and they used the Railways office building for praying.
