  Mugabe holds private meeting with WCC leaders Calls for strengthening church-state partnership  By Parker T. Williamson The Presbyterian Layman Tuesday, December 8, 1998 HARARE, ZIMBABWE - At a private reception hosted last evening at the State House in Harare for approximately one-tenth of the delegates to the World Council of Churches Assembly, President Robert Mugabe dismissed allegations of mismanagement, blamed his country's problems on a drought and unfavorable international prices for exports, and called for better church-state relations in order to build "a morally upright society." Mugabe recognized the church as a mainstay of Zimbabwean society. He pointed to the fact that the country's school system was largely the product of Christian missionary endeavors and that several of his top government officials had experienced missionary education. The President also recognized the church's role in health care, acknowledging the fact that most hospitals in the rural areas belong to churches. Mugabe thanked the WCC for holding its Assembly in Zimbabwe, remarking that this conference was unique because it has a "spiritual dimension." Most conferences held here, he said, have dealt with socio-economic issues. In a formal reply to Mugabe, WCC Moderator, His Holiness Aram I said that he was happy to learn that the church in Zimbabwe was working together with the government. Countering the President's reference to the church's role in spiritual matters, Aram said that the church was part of society and therefore it insisted on expressing its positions in the realm of politics.
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