Police preemptive strike against Zimbabwe Anglicans: The Church of England Newspaper, January 13, 2012 p 6. January 16, 2012
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Central Africa, Zimbabwe.Tags: Chad Gandiya, Julius Makoni, Nolbert Kunonga
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First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Zimbabwe police broke up a clergy conference held by the Anglican Dioceses of Harare and Manicaland last week in order to prevent supporters of breakaway bishop Dr Nolbert Kunonga from breaking up the meeting.
A police spokesman said the raid on the Anglican clergy conference was a “proactive” measure, taken to prevent a breach of public order. Oliver Mandipaka told the DPA news agency the police were concerned that supporters of Dr Kunonga might seek to break up the Anglican meeting.
“Judging from past experiences, these meetings have turned violent. It was on that basis that we advised them to disperse,” Mr Mandipaka explained. “Weddings and churches do not need police clearances,” he added, “but in the past these groups have clashed after gathering at the same venue. That is what we wanted to avoid.”
On 3 January police raided the conference led by Dr Chad Gandiya and Dr Julius Makoni at Peterhouse School in Marondera and ordered the clergy to leave. The raid prompted protests from the bishops, and on 4 January, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town called on President Robert Mugabe to ensure the police allowed “the churches freedom of assembly and worship.”
The Southern African Archbishop also called for an end to the tyranny of the Mugabe regime. “The forthcoming season of Epiphany speaks of our hope that the incarnate Christ breaks all boundaries,” Archbishop Makgoba said, “and that he will ultimately break the power of President Mugabe and those of his supporters who carry out these deeds, and bring freedom to Zimbabwe.”
On the same day, approximately 100 miles to the east at St Augustine’s Mission School in Mutare, Dr Kunonga gathered approximately 200 of clergy for a retreat of their own.
At his gathering, the breakaway bishop pledged his undying support for President Mugabe and the ruling ZANU-PF party, and denounced the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) factions and the Anglican Church as being stooges of an international gay conspiracy that sought to destroy Zimbabwe.
Dr Kunonga said his support for the Zimbabwe strongman was founded upon moral principles. “We are not choosing man, but principles and values they embody.”
President Mugabe was the man “who is fighting against homosexuality, who is giving people land,” Dr Kunonga said, according to extracts of his speech published in the government-backed Harare Herald.
“Those politicians and churchmen who are calling for the imposition of sanctions, propagating for the inclusion of gay rights in the new constitution, and are refusing to see life, are an embodiment of evil. During elections we will reject them. We will reject death,” the former Anglican bishop said.
