Police cancel Zimbabwe pilgrimage: The Church of England Newspaper, July 2, 2010 p 6.

Bishop Chad Gandiya of Harare

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) have broken up a pilgrimage to the shrine of Bernard Mizeki in Marondera by Bishop Chad Gandiya and members of the Diocese of Harare. On June 25, the ZRP blocked the road to the shrine, forcing Anglicans to worship in a field near the memorial to the Nineteenth century African catechist and martyr.

The police intervention comes after the government promised that Anglicans loyal to Bishop Gandiya would be permitted to worship at the shrine over the weekend of June 25-27, after supporters of former bishop Nolbert Kunonga used the shrine the previous weekend.

In a statement printed in the government-backed Harare Herald Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said “people have freedom of worship as enshrined in the Constitution and as a ministry what we can only do is to ensure that there is no violence.

“If anyone tries to disturb them we will intervene. The other group was allowed and they did it peacefully, so why should we not allow the other group to do the same?” the minister said.

However in an email to supporters in the West, Bishop Gandiya stated the ZRP had blocked access to the shrine “in spite of the assurances we were given by the government that we would not be disturbed or harassed by anyone.”

The Minister of Home Affairs was “on television” and assured “people that they would not be disturbed and that they would be protected,” Bishop Gandiya said.

But “all this is far from the reality on the ground in Marondera,” he noted, adding that he had been “given the rare opportunity to encourage pilgrims on television to come to the shrine and that they would be protected, but the assurances have not been honored.”

But on June 19, Dr. Kunonga said that he would ask the ZRP to block Bishop Gandiya and his supporters from visiting the shrine. “If you are not here today we will see you next year not on the 25th as scheduled by the [Church of the Province of Central Africa] because I will make sure that you will not be allowed on these premises. I will be there myself to see that they are not allowed in since they have refused to unite with us today,” Dr. Kunonga told local reporters.

Speaking to the Zimbabwe Sunday Standard, Bishop Gandiya said he hoped the government would explain the contradiction between its words and ZRP action.  “I don’t know whether we are going to get any explanation, but would really appreciate it.  It’s embarrassing to us.  It’s embarrassing to all the pilgrims and its embarrassing to our government,” he said.

The Mizeki shrine was not the private property of Dr. Kunonga he said. “The shrine is not only important for Zimbabwean Anglicans bur for the whole Anglican Communion and even beyond, non-Anglicans too,” he said.

“For us the shrine as a provincial one.  It does not belong to one diocese.  It does not belong to Zimbabwe alone; even international pilgrims are welcome,” the bishop said.