UCZ appoints first woman head

The United Church of Zambia has appointed its first woman general secretary, Rev Peggy Mulambya-Kabonde on 11 September, through its synod extraodinary meeting.

Ms Mulambya-Kabonde has been an ordained minister in the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) since 1987. She was ordained as minister of the Word and Sacraments at Mindolo UCZ in 1989. She has served as a congregation and consistory chairperson, Presbytery secretary in the Copperbelt Presbytery.

She also served as director of women's work at national level. She was a part-time lecturer at the United Church of Zambia Theological College and in charge of a congregation before moving to the Council of Churches in Zambia as chaplain at the University of Zambia, and theology and ecumenical engagement officer.

She has been a member of the Circle of African Women Theologians since it inception in 1989 and also helps with the coordination of gender justice issues with the Council for World Mission (CWM) Africa region.

She was an executive member of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches until June 2010.

Peggy Mulambya-Kabonde did her undergraduate Theological Studies at UCZ Theological College in Kitwe: She did her post graduate diploma in Ecumenical Church Ministries at Pan Africa Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation. She holds a Bachelor of Theology (Hons) and Masters in Gender and Theology from the University of Cape Town (UCT).

She is currently writing her dissertation for her doctoral degree on ordination of women: Partnership, Praxis and Experience of the United Church of Zambia in the School of Religion and Theology at the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa until this appointment where she has been recalled to come and serve as an interim general secretary of the United Church of Zambia..