Christian Citizenship Committee of the Baptist Union of Southern Africa

28/06/2021

2 Days left for the general public to object to the PEPUDA Bill. Let us use this opportunity.
Objections letters are on the BU website

The role of the Christian Citizen Committee is to give leadership in matters of personal and social ethics; to help our churches with information on current issues, and to make representation on social issues.

13/06/2021

Happy birthday Mr President / Interim National Leader. God’s choicest blessings on your life and ministry for the new year ahead.
Thank you for the leading and guiding our BU family.

09/06/2021

INVITATION: VIRTUAL WORKSHOP ON THE PROPOSED MARRIAGE LAWS FOR SA

The South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) and the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) recently published documents for public comment on proposed new marriage laws and a new marriage policy.

The Baptist Union of Southern Africa Christian Citizenship Committee (CCC) provided comment to the proposed marriage laws on 30 March 2021 and 17 May 2021. Our submissions are available on the BU website under the CCC link.

Comment to the DHA proposed Marriage Policy is due on 30 June 2021 and we therefore invite you to attend a virtual workshop wherein we wish to provide an overview of the proposed changes, the possible impact to religious marriage officers, to the church and to the greater Christian community. I am convinced that we will extract valuable insight during our Q&A session which will strengthen our comment to government.

Program:
1. The proposed changes to the Marriage Laws and the Journey leading up to the changes - Yolanda Ford,
2. The BU Position Paper on Marriage - Professor Godfrey Harold,
3. Polygamy and Polyandry in our Traditional African Communities - Pastor George Ngamlana,
Polygamy (one husband with two or more wives) and Polyandry (one wife with two or more husbands).
4. Q&A session

Q&A panel:
Dr Godfrey Harold, CTBS Principal & Lecturer and BUCCC member
Dr Kennith Malunga, CTBS Lecturer,
Professor Piff Pereira, BTC Principal and Lecturer,
Dr Terrel Manikam, BTC Lecturer,
Pastor George Ngamlana, BUCCC member
Mrs Yolanda Ford, BUCCC Chairperson and Compliance Practitioner

The Zoom link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84227218960?pwd=eWlQNElwZEhUYjJIT1MxR1VxMGltdz09
Meeting ID: 842 2721 8960
Pascode: 989416

Livestream available via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Christian-Citizenship-Committee-of-the-Baptist-Union-of-Southern-Africa-107347710717437

We look forward to your attendance and a fruitful workshop.

01/03/2021

BU family, join me in congratulating our BUCCC member, Prof Dr Godfrey Harold on his appointment as CTB Seminary Principal.
He took office a while ago but due to COVID restrictions the Seminary only had their Commencement and Induction Service yesterday, 28 Feb 2021.
Every blessing to you Sir 👏👏👏

19/02/2021

Laws pertaining to South African marriages has been making headlines over the past three years. BU Marriage Officers, are particularly concerned as to whether or not they will be forced to solemnize same-sex marriages.

Currently, our South African Marriage laws are found in various pieces of legislation and the South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) aims to introduce a single Marriage Statute (Act) for South Africa.

As part of this process, SALRC published a discussion paper for public comment. The discussion paper proposes two alternative draft Bills:
• Option 1: The Protected Relationships Bill; and
• Option 2: The Recognition and Registration of Marriages and Life Partnerships Bill.

These bills seek to unify requirements for all protected relationships, marriages and life partnerships. It further seek to provide for the recognition of protected relationships or of marriages and life partnerships, entered into by parties regardless of the religious, cultural or any other beliefs of parties, or the manner in which the relationship was entered into.

Other issues covered by the draft bills include:
• The capacity and age of the parties;
• The role of marriage officers;
• Regulation for polygynous marriages; and
• Instances where a relationship is not officially solemnized.

The Christian Citizenship Committee of the BUSA aim to give leadership in matters of personal and social ethics; to help our churches with information on current issues, and to make representation on social issues. With this in mind, the BUCCC is currently studying the Discussion Paper and will make comment on behalf of the BUSA.

The BUSA Office sent all Pastors and Leaders the executive summary of the Single Marriage Statute and they were invited to send their comments on these proposals, to The Chairperson of the BUCCC, [email protected] by Friday, 12 March 2021.

The complete statute with proposals can be found on the following link:https://www.justice.gov.za/salrc/dpapers/dp152-prj144-SingleMarriageStatute-Jan2021.pdf

The BUCCC will forward final comment to the SALRC by 31 March 2021.

Kind regards and blessings,
Yolanda Ford
Chairperson of the BUCCC
[email protected]
0833006182

08/02/2021

From The Desk of The President - Monday, 8 February 2021 - https://bit.ly/2LsE4PO As a country that has become far too used to hearing stories about corruption, little could have prepared us for seeing, in detail, the lengths to which some among our people have gone to steal at a time when our nation is facing the worst health emergency in modern times.