Kunonga grabs two more churches: The Church of England Newspaper, Sept 24, 2010 p 8. September 29, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Zimbabwe.trackback
Dr. Nolbert Kunonga
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Zimbabwe’s church property battle heated up last week as police evicted Anglicans loyal to Bishop Chad Gandiya and the Church of the Province of Central Africa from their church.
However, the Zimbabwe Standard reports the latest eviction by police on behalf of breakaway Bishop Nolbert Kunonga was from a church built by a congregation in Chitungwiza after they had been evicted from their original church home.
In 2007, the Anglican congregation in Chitungwiza, a suburban township south of the capital near the city’s airport, was evicted from their church in the township’s Unit K ward after they refused to back a priest installed by Dr. Kunonga. The congregation began building a new church in the township’s Unit M ward, with construction completed earlier this month.
On Sept 18 The Standard reported that two weeks ago a police inspector came to the church and told the congregation and parish workers to leave. He had “orders from above” to turn the building over to Dr. Kunonga. A Kunonga priest soon took up physical residence in the church, with the vestry room turned into a bedroom.
Dr. Kunonga’s claim upon the church rests with his recognition by the security services as the Anglican bishop in Harare, sources in Zimbabwe tell CEN.
The seizure of the Unit M church follows the confiscation earlier this month of a second church in Chitungwiza by Dr. Kunonga. On Sept 1 The Zimbabwean reported the congregation of a church in the Zengeza 2 section of the township was evicted to make way for a fee paying pre-school.
Members of the congregation have denounced Dr. Kunonga for driving the congregation out of their building to worship in the open air during the Southern African winter, while he has enriched himself by turning their church into a for-profit school.
