The need for leadership in gender justice: Advancing a missiological agenda for the church in Swaziland

Chammah J Kaunda

doi:10.4102/ve.v35i3.1346

Abstract

Underpinned by missiological thinking, the article argues that, in a context searching for gender justice, the mission of God should begin with making sensitive the consciousness of Swazi church leaders who, in turn, would act as agents for transforming social consciousness.In this process, the leaders become critically aware that they are called to act as prophetic example by adopting a gender-sensibility posture and calling the local church to account forits reluctance and slothfulness in teaching and practicing gender-justice values and ideals as one of the key social organs of the country. In addition, the leaders should become conscious of the fact that they have a wider prophetic missiological task to subversively challenge and wisely remind the State about its social responsibility to advance the socially shared agenda of radically promoting the rights, humanity and dignity of women in its domain.

Highlights

I begin with a question: What sort of leadership does the church in Swaziland need in the 21st century? This question is critical, given the fact that church leaders have played an ambivalent role in the history of human progress
It is important to highlight that the Constitution cannot implement itself, and it is in this locus that the leaders in gender justice can call the church to account as a social instrument that can spearhead the implementation of the Constitution and international human-rights agreements
The article argued that leaders in gender justice are desperately needed in the context of Swaziland to spearhead the call to reduce gender injustice and inequality

Summary

Introduction

I begin with a question: What sort of leadership does the church in Swaziland need in the 21st century? This question is critical, given the fact that church leaders have played an ambivalent role in the history of human progress. The following questions can be raised: What kind of moral consciousness should shape church leaders in the context that demands gender justice in Swaziland? This article appraises from a missiological perspective the implications for church leadership of the body of writings emerging from the Swaziland context, calling for gender justice.

Results

Conclusion