Should the church be held accountable to young people?

YOUTH FOR INNOVATION TRUST in partnership with Umahlekisa Comedy Club brought together Reverend Cele and the award winning poet Rachel Voko Ncube to converse about the role of churches and artists in sharing accountability for community development. Voko said that she understands accountability as being about taking responsibility for your actions, performance and decisions and shared accountability is about working together to achieve certain outcomes and goals.

Reverend Cele spoke of accountability from a religious perspective and responsibilities of the church leaders. He said that when we speak of accountability we speak of being responsible to yourself and to others, the services you render to others and do you allow those who bring checks and balances to test how uncomfortable you are and in terms of sharing the resources you get in the church, and if they go to the intended recipients and at what scheme.

Rev Cele revealed that as a church leader he is bound by decisions made by a board and he always ensures that he goes back to the community that he represents to give feedback of what they have assigned him to do. Voko the Poet revealed that she makes sure that she writes her poems based on the issues that youths and every citizen faces on a daily basis to raise awareness and be a voice to the voiceless. She addresses issues like alcohol and substance abuse through her poems, she makes sure she does her poems in line with the dangers and effects that come with alcohol and substance abuse. She said as an artist she is accountable to warning, accountable to advising and bringing to light certain issues. 

The conversation revealed an urgent need for leaders in all sectors of life to work hand in hand with artists to achieve common goals. Voko went on to elaborate that churches must give consider the work of artists to spread the word within their churches in their financial returns emphasizing on the need to bridge a gap between artists and leaders.