APM hails missionaries, to attend Blantyre Synod celebrations
President Peter Mutharika says St. Michael and All Angels Church in Blantyre, which observes its 125th anniversary celebrations on Sunday, has been key in Malawi’s birth, through Scottish missionaries who resisted colonialism, and who help to spearhead national development.
He was speaking yesterday at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe when he received a delegation from the church, the Blantyre Presbytery and the mother body Blantyre Synod of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP).
The delegation went to the palace to invite the President, who is a member of St. Michael and All Angels Church, to be guest of honour at the celebrations this Sunday, the climax of various celebratory events which commence tomorrow.
“The Church of Scotland—now CCAP, of course—has played a very key role in the liberation and development of this country. I want you to continue to work with me and the government in the development of our country in the areas of health, education and other sectors of the economy,” he stated, accepting the invitation to grace the Blantyre functions on Sunday.
In comments earlier, Blantyre Synod general secretary, the Reverend Alex Maulana, thanked Mutharika for his strategic move to fight hunger and food insecurity by upgrading the Green Belt Irrigation initiative.
He also saluted the President for personally condemning and severely warning those who kill, maim, harass and abduct albinos and also for appointing a five-member government mediation team to amicably tackle and resolve pressing national issues with the quasi religious Public Affairs Committee (PAC) that lately attacked the government’s laxity and apparent arrogance over some issues.
After a closed-door meeting with Mutharika, chair of the commemoration committee Stain Singo was upbeat.
“Our delegation will be returning to Blantyre happily because the President has accepted our invitation for him to join us in these celebrations, whose budget is K13 million. We are urging well wishers to support us through donations or by buying our special commemoration cloth and a magazine,” he added.
