The Rev. Gift Kudakwashe Machinga, a pastor in Zimbabwe, has been elected as a United Methodist bishop by the Africa Central Conference at the 12th ballot procession held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
He was the third bishop elected on March 15 by the central conference, which is scheduled to split into the new East Africa and Southern Africa conferences. He received 41 votes out of 60 valid votes cast; he needed 40 to be elected.
“I extend appreciation to my siblings in ministry: the Rev. Forbes Matonga, the Rev. Lloyd Nyarota, and my sister the Rev. Vienna Mutezo. I respect you and I embrace you,” Machinga said
Upon his election, in reference to his fellow candidates from Zimbabwe.
“I invite the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area, both clergy and laity, to journey with me as we take The United Methodist Church to another level.”
Machinga was the third bishop elected in the central conference. The Rev. Emmanuel Sinzohagera of Burundi was elected on the first ballot, and the Rev. Moisés Bernardo Jungo of Angola was elected on the ninth ballot. Last year’s General Conference elected Machinga as a member of the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters.
Machinga has 42 years of experience in pastoral ministry. He currently serves as pastor in charge of the Zimre Park United Methodist Church in the Zimbabwe East Conference. Last year, the General Conference—the denomination’s top legislative assembly—elected him as a member of the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters, a permanent General Conference committee that deals with issues affecting United Methodists in Africa, Europe, and the Philippines.
He has previously served as a pastor of United Methodist churches across Zimbabwe and as a district superintendent, helping the bishop in making pastoral appointments. He has also served as a conference secretary, chair of the board of ordained ministry, chair of the board of discipleship, and chair of the Bishop Ralph Dodge Scholarship Fund. At the general-church level, he has also been a board member of Africa Upper Room Ministries.
On March 16, the Africa Central Conference split into the East Africa and Southern Africa central conferences. Each central conference consists of multiple annual conferences, associations of United Methodist congregations, and other ministries. The East Africa Central Conference will consist of the United Methodist presence in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Uganda. The new central conference will also include Burundi, which, after more than a decade of internal divisions, fully reunited with The United Methodist Church in 2018. The Southern Africa Central Conference will consist of the United Methodist presence in Angola, Botswana, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
UMC communication department.
