Churches in Zimbabwe have asked for forgiveness for their role in the country's current political and economic crisis and their failure to prevent the degeneration of Christian morals like peace, justice and forgiveness.
The churches made the appeal to the population Sunday in a church report in which they asked for forgiveness for failing the nation as it slid into what they called "a sense of national despair and loss of hope", reports ZWNews.
Church leaders said that principles of peace, justice, forgiveness and honesty had degenerated and even some church leaders "have been accomplices in some of the evils that have brought our nation to this condition".
"Clearly we did not do enough as churches to defend these values and raise an alarm at the appropriate time," they said.
"We confess we have failed because we have not been able to speak with one voice."
The report also called for a new "national vision" while the churches confessed that they were only now beginning to wake up to their role in healing six years of social political and economic turmoil.
"In the short term, this involves engaging the government with the purpose of helping to end the present crisis and quickly return the nation to some normalcy," the report said.
The churches also appealed to the country, which is 80 per cent Christian, to reflect on the "dire national situation and the toll it is having ... on our families, the future of our children and of our nation".
They also called for a free debate on other related issues including the need to reform heavy-handed security measures, media laws and freedom of expression.
The church leaders also urged constitutional reforms to protect human rights and to put into place new checks on the power of the government and Robert Mugabe.
"Political intolerance has unfortunately become a culture in Zimbabwe. The trading of insults, violence with impunity, lawlessness and hate speech" had become characteristic of the country's political life, they said.
They also sharply criticised the violent seizure of land from white farmers which had led to "an unrelenting downward spiral and economic meltdown".
"The whole land issue regrettably has resulted in the emergence of a culture of racial hatred and the alienation of people along racial lines," the report said.
The churches recommended the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in partnership with the churches to address the alleged abuses of democratic and human rights since 2000 and speed reconciliation.
