{"id":18993,"date":"2022-05-05T15:16:04","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T15:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/new-law-causes-concern-in-churches-voa-report"},"modified":"2022-05-05T15:25:04","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T15:25:04","slug":"new-law-causes-concern-in-churches-voa-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/new-law-causes-concern-in-churches-voa-report","title":{"rendered":"New law causes concern in churches \u2013 VOA report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. <\/strong><\/span>The Christian Council of Mozambique professes surprise because discussion of the newly proposed law did not reach consensus on taxes<\/p>\n

Mozambique will soon have a new law mandating the registration and regulating the activity of religious denominations. The proposal establishes a minimum number of signatures for the registration of a church, but what worries Christians more is that churches will be obliged to pay tax.<\/p>\n

The government recently submitted to parliament a proposal to revise the law on religion, with the professed aim of \u201cbringing order to the sector\u201d.<\/p>\n

Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs, Helena Kida, said that an analysis of the sector revealed warning signs, and that the new law would bring order in a scenario of runaway proliferation of churches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law defines, exactly, what the procedures are for creating a religious confession, where they must operate and who can direct these confessions,\u201d Minister Kida summarised.<\/p>\n

In official terms, Mozambique has a total of 900 registered religious denominations, but the numbers can hide a lot.<\/p>\n

One of the novelties in the proposal is the mandatory registration, and the need for 2,000 signatures to legalise a church.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started the debate, we had a proposal for 60,000 signatures, but, taking into consideration the sensitivity of the denominations themselves, we reduced it until we found middle ground,\u201d Minister Kida explained.<\/p>\n

Separating the wheat from the chaff<\/b><\/p>\n

The Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM) approves most of the emphases of the future law, acknowledging that it is time to thin the ranks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the government wants is to bring order. We participated in the debates and, unfortunately, because they took place during Covid-19 restrictions, there may not have been the scope that was intended. But much of what is proposed, we consider opportune,\u201d president of the Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM), Felicidade Chirindza, says.<\/p>\n

However, one aspect of the new legislation worries the Christian community: that churches should be taxed, much to their dismay.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an aspect that was talked about, but we didn\u2019t reach any consensus. Nevertheless, the government has decided that it should go ahead with the tax,\u201d Chirindza complains, noting that churches have never been taxed since they started to operate.<\/p>\n

Mozambique taxing income-generating churches<\/p>\n

Some analysts look at the government\u2019s new direction with concern, observing that Mozambique is supposed to be a secular state.<\/p>\n

By<\/b><\/p>\n

William Mapote<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mozambique<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Christian Council of Mozambique professes surprise because discussion of the newly proposed law did not reach consensus on taxes Mozambique will soon have a new law mandating the registration and regulating the activity of religious denominations. The proposal establishes a minimum number of signatures for the registration of a church, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":18992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8,16],"tags":[233,281,283],"class_list":["post-18993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mozambique","tag-mozambique"],"yoast_head":"\nNew law causes concern in churches \u2013 VOA report - Mozambique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Christian Council of Mozambique professes surprise because discussion of the newly proposed law did not reach consen ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/new-law-causes-concern-in-churches-voa-report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New law causes concern in churches \u2013 VOA report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Christian Council of Mozambique professes surprise because discussion of the newly proposed law did not reach consen ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/new-law-causes-concern-in-churches-voa-report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mozambique\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-05T15:16:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-05T15:25:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2022\/05\/img-6273ec35b4ec5.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1023\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"575\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/new-law-causes-concern-in-churches-voa-report#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/new-law-causes-concern-in-churches-voa-report\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"New law causes concern in churches \u2013 VOA report\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-05T15:16:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-05T15:25:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/new-law-causes-concern-in-churches-voa-report\"},\"wordCount\":412,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/new-law-causes-concern-in-churches-voa-report#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2022\/05\/img-6273ec35b4ec5.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mozambique\",\"Mozambique\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/new-law-causes-concern-in-churches-voa-report#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/new-law-causes-concern-in-churches-voa-report\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/new-law-causes-concern-in-churches-voa-report\",\"name\":\"New law causes concern in churches \u2013 VOA report - 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