A strategy for discouraging traditional death ceremonies among urban Seventh-Day Adventists in Mozambique

Abstract

From the Church’s inception in Mozambique in 1911, the pioneers trained baptismal candidates for a minimum of 10 years. After the GC Harvesting 1990 Quinquennial Motto, this aspect was completely lost counting from the Global Mission Program to date. The Church leadership capitalized in quantitative rather than qualitative membership, the training aspect has been neglected. Thus challenges and threats hit hard the Church in Mozambique. One of them is death ceremonies (DCs). In Mozambique, ceremonies (Cs) to the dead have become the first “church” in the Country and are celebrated everyday especially on Saturdays and Sundays. Most of Urban SDA members frequently miss first hours of services on Saturdays due to such celebrations or come late to Church services attending them while the 26th fundamental church pillar is very clear about death and resurrection. One of the Cs (7th day) bears the name of the 7th day Adventist Church. These Cs emphasize the state of the dead and all this happens because of lacking trained Ministers and expulsion of the existing ones. The purpose of this study was to create a better understanding of DCs and how these affect, labour, society and worship as regards to God’s Holy Sabbath observance, death, and resurrection, two Fundamental Doctrines of the SDA Church. There is no contact between the dead and the living. The Church in Mozambique should come up with a clear twofold training framework program taking it way back to the roots of its origins whereby “discipling” was the major Church activity before baptizing anyone. Train the existing workers first at all church levels, recruit new, and invest in their education. The suggested strategies here should serve as a Model for strategic seminar training programs. Help members and students accept and value them. After the definition of death, Cs, and other terms surrounding the topic, a biblical survey was conducted in both Old and New Testaments literature and other pertinent authors to pave the way and establish a foundation for the forthcoming discussion. The researcher collected data for personal, group and class opinions, from 16 churches, various church records at Field /Mission, and Union levels, 75 students from grades 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, gatherings, mortuaries, and municipalities. Instrument applied was interview protocols and techniques were surveys, samplings, and checklist observations. Findings indicated that 92.7% attended DCs against 7.3% who did not for Sabbath School; 44.4% were affected while 55.6% were regular for the divine services. 93.3% are aware of DCs against 6.7% with no idea, overall of Church Leaders trained in Mozambique are 13.06% against 86.94% who need education, in Beira 150 people die weekly, in Maputo 149 people die weekly and while in Nampula 4.129 people die annually; Public transporters frequent lines where there are cemeteries according to availability and private ones have even created bus terminals in cemeteries. Finally, DCs are just heathen cultural practices of the historic origins related to Roman, Syrian, By zantinic martyrs’ honouring and Greek philosophy. If no correction is soon made the implications will likely be that a different SDA Church will be established and this one will soon disappear. Therefore, the researcher highly recommends the GC to correct the situation investing in education and training, to place technical personnel in the right places, to send all untrained church workers to schools, colleges, and universities and consider the didactic pedagogic strategies suggested in this project as of a pivotal importance. Suggestions are that local churches accept and participate more in training sessions.