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Call To Dialogue -The Zimbabwe We Want: Towards A National Vision For Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference
Extracted from The Herald (Zimbabwe)
November 27, 2006

We have so far noted some recurring misconceptions and concerns as the debate on the Churches document, The Zimbabwe We Want, progresses. Some are misunderstanding the subtitle ‘Towards a National Vision’ (TNV) for the ‘National Vision’ (NV) itself, hence the calls for prior broader consultations. These consultations are only starting on a wide scale now. The current document is only meant to be a discussion document in proposing the National Vision for The Zimbabwe We Want. We must not allow the TNV to be interpreted as the NV otherwise we voluntarily stifle our own voices and in fact accept that an entire National Vision can be arrived at by a group of Christian individuals alone, in whom some of us apparently do not even have confidence! This misconception is pretty short-sighted about our national capacity.

Concerns have been raised about the ownership of the TNV. Questions have been asked: "Who wrote this document? Who owns it?" Good questions but apparently some of us are not accustomed to being asked for our opinions, even being asked to disagree, so we tend to be suspicious of everything. It would indeed be disturbing if the State felt it could dictate the Churches’ agenda. The discussion document is a Church initiative. There were eight drafts together (some leaked), which vary in some respects but maintain the same ethos as the final launch document. Thus, the discussion document has not been compromised. We ask those who question the process followed by the Church, to propose alternative means of sparking off a National Vision discussion and explain why that alternative would be better.

National Vision typically involves bringing together a representative cross-section of a community of stakeholders (national, district or sectoral) in a collaborative process of specifying a normative future. It most often comes into play when a community finds itself at crossroads and realizes that choices have to be made about the future. The viability of a country’s vision increases in direct proportion to the participation and commitment of all its social and political stakeholders. Undiscerning praise of the TNV can be just as negative as refusing to engage with the document.

Please accept this call to dialogue by the churches. Where there is talk there is hope. The complete dissemination strategy will be made available to you soon after a Planning Workshop being organized by the Churches. More copies of the TNV are being printed and should soon be available in English, Ndebele and Shona. The Church remains grateful that the route it has followed so far puts the legitimacy of the exercise beyond question. However, the Church understands that the dissemination process still has to earn credibility through broad consultations and participation.

Inserted by The Ecumenical Media Committee

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