ACADEMIA Letters THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH IN PREPARING CONGREGATIONS TO FACE COVID-19 AND LIFE AFTER THE PANDEMIC IN ZIMBABWE Rudo Mukurazhizha, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe Francis Maushe, Bindura University of Science Education Abstract The role of the church in responding to pandemics has become a mainstay of the health care system globally. Five faith leaders from three Evangelical churches, one Pentecostal and one Apostolic Church participated in this qualitative study and ffteen other members of the churches in the sample. Using telephone interviews as a method of elicitation, participants ex- perience with life during COVID-19 pandemic informed this exploration. Results suggested that the church provided a framework for interpretation and mitigation from COVID-19 pan- demic and has a key role in responding to disaster situations. The paper underscores the urgent need for a holistic approach between disasters support systems and faith leaders to increase disaster preparedness within faith communities which fosters community wide disaster risk reduction. Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, Church, disaster preparedness and response Introduction COVID-19 has become a shock to society, governments, economies among other systems worldwide (Ahmed and Memish , 2020). Experience of life-threatening diseases causes suf- Academia Letters, November 2021 Corresponding Author: Rudo Mukurazhizha, mukurazhizharudo@gmail.com Citation: Mukurazhizha, R., Maushe, F. (2021). THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH IN PREPARING CONGREGATIONS TO FACE COVID-19 AND LIFE AFTER THE PANDEMIC IN ZIMBABWE. Academia Letters, Article 4027. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4027. 1 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0