THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and Bishops of the Anglican Province of Central Africa on Monday submitted a dossier to President Robert Mugabe detailing the alleged abuse of Zimbabwe’s Anglicans over the past four years at the hands of the excommunicated former Bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga.

The bishops asked Mugabe to use his powers as head of state to guarantee the security of those who worship with the Anglican Church and put an end to all unacceptable and illegal behaviour. Kunonga has denied all the allegations labelled against him. Below is an edited version of the dossier presented to Mugabe….

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Zimbabwe’s Anglicans have won back control of a mission school previously taken over by a renegade bishop in a rare court victory, just days after the Archbishop of Canterbury visited to try to resolve the rift in his church.

A High Court judge sitting in Harare ruled that 14 members of staff, including the headmaster, house masters, a nurse and teachers, who were evicted last month should be allowed to return to their posts at Daramombe Mission School immediately.

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The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, said today that the dispute within the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe was “a result not of schism but of thuggery.”

In a statement issued after visiting Zimbabwe with Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury at the weekend, Archbishop Makgoba said members of a pro-Mugabe breakaway faction of the church under deposed bishop Nolbert Kunonga were being “helped to steal church property without recourse.”

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Kunonga spokesman Bishop Alfred Munyanyi dismissed the contents of Williams’s dossier saying the Gandiya faction was peddling lies. Munyanyi said he does not see Mr. Mugabe doing anything to alter the situation of Zimbabwe’s Anglican Church.

Bishop Gandiya, present at the meeting Monday with the president, told VOA that it was frank and that Mr. Mugabe seemed concerned when confronted with the dossier. He said he hopes Mr. Mugabe will ensure dialogue ends the dispute with Kunonga….

But David Moore, a professor of development studies at the University of Johannesburg told VOA’s Delia Robertson that he does not believe President Mugabe is likely to follow through to end the standoff, noting that he often says one thing then does another.

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Dr Williams admitted at a Press conference after meeting President Mugabe that homosexuality was indeed a problem within the church.

He said not everybody accepted it, but the homosexuals “deserved dignity and respect”.

“The church does not allow same sex relationships and that is common ground across the Anglicans,” he said.

“On the practice of homosexuality by bishops in the US and Canada, these are provinces, which do not represent the general line.”

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Statement by the Archbishops of Canterbury, Central Africa, and Southern Africa and the President of the All Africa Conference of Churches the Archbishop of Tanzania….

Since 2007 Anglican congregations in Zimbabwe have suffered serious persecution at the hands of the police. They have been intimidated. Their churches have been closed. Properties, including schools and clinics, have been seized.

As representatives of the Anglican Communion, and with the support of ecumenical friends worldwide, we strongly and unequivocally support the efforts of ordinary Anglicans to worship in peace and to minister to the spiritual and material needs of their communities.

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The Archbishop of Canterbury on Monday visited Anglicans booted from their Zimbabwe cathedral by a renegade bishop, before meeting President Robert Mugabe about the “godless” assault on his followers.

Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of Anglicans worldwide, had for weeks sought a meeting with the 87-year-old president about the politically charged Church split led by excommunicated bishop and vocal Mugabe ally, Nolbert Kunonga.
An audience was finally granted, and Mugabe received the archbishop on Monday afternoon, an Anglican spokesman said.

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The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams Sunday issued a strong criticism of the government of Robert Mugabe and told thousands of cheering Anglican members in Harare not to retaliate against attacks on the church in Zimbabwe.

Williams’ comments risk angering the Zimbabwean president who has not yet confirmed whether he would meet the Anglican archbishop, on a rare visit to Zimbabwe.

Williams, who travelled with police escort, was greeted by thousands of singing and cheering Anglican members at an indoor sports centre in Harare where he delivered a sermon attended by bishops from South Africa, Zambia, Bostwana and Tanzania.

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Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has delivered a sermon in Zimbabwe as part of an African tour to try to heal divisions within the Anglican Church.

Dr Williams urged those at a Eucharist in Harare’s National Sports Stadium to shun violence and intimidation.

Nolbert Kunonga, a renegade bishop who backs President Robert Mugabe, has been accused of inciting violence against Anglicans who do not support him.

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The message we want to send from this Eucharistic celebration is that we do not have to live like that ”“ in terror, in bloodshed. God has given us another way. He has opened a door of possibility that no-one can shut. He has announced that he will welcome all to the marriage feast of his Son ”“ and so we see that all, even our bitterest enemies, still have a place in his peace if they will only turn and be saved. Did you hear what St Paul said in today’s epistle? ‘Fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are noble, right, pure, lovely and honourable.’ We need to feed ourselves and most especially to feed our young people with such things, to hold before us that great new possibility opened up by God for our minds to be transformed, to be excited not by the false thrills of violence and bloody conflict, by the overheated language of party conflict, but by the hope of joy and reconciliation.

And this also lays upon us the duty to keep alive our own concern for those lest able to help themselves. The Church of God is ”“ or should be ”“ the great hope of the poor; not just as a source of material help, important as that is, but as a source of hope and a guarantee of human dignity. The Church could not exist with any integrity if it forgot that every person is of immeasurable value in God’s eyes and so immeasurably worthy of our attention and service. In this country in recent years, you, our Anglican brothers and sisters, have been more and more active and courageous in this practical service, and in reminding the whole society of the universal dignity that the gospel implies. You have also been faithful to those who suffer from the HIV pandemic, which has ravaged a whole generation; and, like Christians elsewhere in Africa, you have been at the forefront of challenging the stigma that can make the suffering so much more bitter and can prevent people from facing the problem honestly. You know that the truth will make you free. To tell the truth about the sufferings and fears people endure, but also to tell the truth about their value in the sight of God ”“ this is the most effective way of banishing stigma and prejudice and superstition.

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Archbishop Rowan Williams has accused Kunonga of using state resources to intimidate the loyal Anglican congregation, often with violence. Williams has requested a meeting with Mugabe on Monday to discuss the issue and is due to deliver a sermon in the capital Sunday.

But Kunonga said the archbishop is politicizing divisions within the church by wanting to meet with Mugabe.

It is not yet clear whether Williams will meet with Mugabe on Monday, as requested, said Williams’ press offer Marie Papworth on Saturday.

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The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, arrives in Zimbabwe on Sunday in a bid to heal a growing rift in the country’s church. Aislinn Laing visited an orphanage where 80 unhappy children are among its victims.

For decades it provided a secure if shabby home to up to 80 orphaned children, and the three Anglican sisters who helped to run it gave all the love and encouragement they could to their vulnerable young charges.

But last month the Shearly Cripps Home in Mashonaland East, 35 miles northeast of Harare, became the latest victim of the debilitating feud that has torn the church apart in Zimbabwe over the past four years.

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“It is reaffirmed that the CPCA position regarding homosexuality is crystal clear. In terms of Canon 22, marriage is between one man and one woman and in consequence, homosexuality is not acceptable in the CPCA which comprises Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe,” Reverend Clifford Dzavo, the secretary for the diocese of Harare said in a statement.

“We therefore reiterate that the CPCA does not condone homosexuality. Whatever happens in other Provinces worldwide does not affect us as we do not necessarily share the same views with them.”

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the Archbishop of Canterbury flew out to Africa on Wednesday evening to begin a week-long pastoral visit to the Church of the Province of Central Africa. He has requested a meeting with the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, on Monday, when he visits the country.

The 48 hours that Dr Williams spends in Zimbabwe will be the most sensitive. It is thought likely that, if the meeting with President Mugabe goes ahead, the deposed Bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga, will be in attendance. Dr Williams will wish to protest at the expul-sion of Anglican congregations from their churches by Kunonga

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Dr Rowan Williams will become the first senior British dignitary to visit Mr Mugabe in Zimbabwe since Baroness Amos travelled to the country in 2001 to check on his pledge to halt violent land reforms.

Dr Williams is expected to urge the 87-year-old leader to rein in his renegade bishop Nolbert Kunonga, who split with the Anglican Province of Central Africa in 2008 over the ordination of homosexuals and has since, with the backing of Mr Mugabe’s security forces, seized 40 per cent of church property.

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The Most Rev. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, plans to travel to Zimbabwe this weekend as part of a central African tour and will seek to persuade President Robert G. Mugabe to help end a bitter rift among the country’s Anglicans, according to the archbishop’s office here.

Archbishop Williams, the spiritual head of the world’s Anglicans, wrote to Mr. Mugabe earlier this year, urging him to stop “the continuing bullying, harassment and persecution” of Anglicans who support the global Anglican Communion rather than a breakaway group led by Nolbert Kunonga, an excommunicated bishop and close ally of the president.

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Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will visit Zimbabwe in a show of support for Anglicans who are under siege from a renegade ex-bishop who plans to snub the leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Anglicans in Zimbabwe are embroiled in a church property fight with former Bishop Nolbert Kunonga of the capital of Harare. Kunonga left the church in 2007 over what he said was its pro-gay stance.

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Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku has blasted the Bishop Chad Gandiya-led faction of the Anglican Church for seeking political intervention in the long-drawn property ownership wrangle still pending before the courts.

This, the Chief Justice said, was tantamount to interference with the independence of the judiciary.

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Evictions of Zimbabwean priests from properties owned by the Harare Diocese of the Anglican church continued following a High Court decision late last week refusing to stop the removals by a faction led by the former Harare Bishop Nolbert Kunonga.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku recently gave Kunonga control of all church properties until a final ruling is made on control of the church’s assets.

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Zengeza West MP Collen Gwiyo brought the matter to the House of Assembly this week.

“My question is directed to the Deputy Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture. I would like the minister to explain government policy with regard to church disputes that are now interfering with classes, in particular there is a faction led by Bishop Kunonga of the Anglican church which has actually affected the education system,” Gwiyo said.

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Zimbabwe Supreme Court Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku on Thursday was to hear further arguments in a long-running case pitting former Harare Bishop Nolbert Kunonga against a new Anglican administration appointed by the Church of the Province of Central Africa, headed by current Harare Bishop Chad Gandiya.

At stake in the case are Anglican church assets including churches and other properties, some well beyond the geographical bounds of the diocese.

Kunonga resigned from the Anglican church and was later excommunicated, so there are no religious issues at stake in the tangled legal battle.

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For Dr Williams, or more likely his successor, the unavoidable question has to be whether the received model of Anglican unity, based on an ecclesiology more Catholic than Protestant, is still realistic when many parts of the Anglican world are not prepared to play by its rules. There is no central Anglican authority, a situation that did not seem to matter when a general consensus existed as to what Anglicanism stood for. Its absence now makes the task of the Archbishop of Canterbury, titular head of the Communion and chief defender of its unity, uniquely burdensome. Other international Christian denominations, such as the Lutherans and the Methodists, have felt that the universal dimension of their faith was sufficiently expressed by a looser federal structure, without any attempt to impose uniformity of doctrine or church order. If that pattern is the one towards which Anglicanism is inexorably progressing, any attempt to head it off will be a wasted effort. With his experience, it would not be surprising if Dr Williams was beginning to think he has given it his best shot, but that the task may be beyond even human capability.

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Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku has summoned lawyers representing the feuding Anglican Church factions to a meeting scheduled for Wednesday.

Chidyausiku on Tuesday ordered lawyers representing the Bishop Chad Gandiya-led Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA) and those aligned to ex-communicated Anglican Bishop Nolbert Kunonga to report to his chambers at 12:00 on Wednesday.

Although the agenda of the meeting was not clear, informed sources indicated that Chidyausiku wanted to engage the lawyers over the church feud which escalated following a ruling which he delivered last month in favour of Kunonga and giving him custody and entitlement to some Anglican church property.

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The fight over control of Anglican Church properties reached frightening proportions yesterday when the Nolbert Kunonga-led faction evicted caregivers at an orphanage in Murehwa, leaving over 100 children in a quandary.

Three caregivers at Shearly Cripps Children’s Home were reportedly forced out of the institution for aligning themselves with the Chad Gandiya diocese, which lost the court battle for the control of the church’s property last year.

According to one evictee, Dorothy Makwarimba, a messenger of court arrived at the orphanage yesterday morning, brandishing a court order for them to vacate.

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The Archbishop’s visit, even though the Church insists it is purely pastoral, could carry more weight than an official visit by a senior politician because the Church is so strong in southern and central Africa. More than 85 per cent of Zimbabweans are Christian.

Given that many no longer recognise Mugabe as their leader, the Anglicans, at least, certainly regard Dr Williams as being in possession of comparable if not greater authority, secular as well as moral and spiritual….

Dr Williams is walking into a den as bad as Daniel’s, where he has no guarantee of achieving anything. But speaking to Anglicans in Zimbabwe yesterday, their hope for what the visit might bring was palpable. For that alone, for bringing the gift of hope to those traumatised Christians, the visit is a risk worth taking.

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The Archbishop of Canterbury will travel to Harare in October and will seek a meeting with Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe to plead the case for the country’s persecuted Anglicans.

Dr Williams will also visit Malawi and Zambia during his tour of the Church of the Province of Central Africa, and is expected to offer moral encouragement to the Church. President Mugabe’s office has not decided whether the country’s leader since independence will meet with Dr Williams ”” who has been a harsh critic of the regime.

A spokesman for Lambeth Palace confirmed “the Archbishop is visiting Zimbabwe as part of a wider trip, which will also see him visit Malawi and Zambia,” but noted the itinerary had yet to be finalised.

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Beatings and evictions of Anglican priests in Zimbabwe have caused the Church there to appeal a legal decision to give custody of its property to excommunicated bishop Dr Nolbert Kunonga.

The Church’s decision to instruct its lawyer to file a Constitutional appeal against the August 4 ruling by Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku comes after a string of successful and attempted evictions left one priest homeless and another hospitalised with a head wound.

A press release from the Diocese said: “Clergy and members of the laity belonging to the Anglican Diocese of Harare (CPCA*) across Harare, Mashonaland West, East and Central have been receiving threats, constant harassment and lately severe beatings from Kunonga’s hooligans, masquerading as clergy, accompanied by ”˜certainly hired thugs’.

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Clergy and pilgrims hoping to visit the Arthur Shearly Cripps Shrine last week were once again frustrated by excommunicated bishop Dr Norbert Kunonga who now claims to be in charge of the shrine and 78 Anglican churches in Masvingo Diocese.

The Anglican Diocese of Masvingo said its leaders advised Anglican worshippers against taking part in this year’s Shearly Cripps celebrations, scheduled for 29 to 31 July, after a court ruled that Dr Kunonga could not be prevented from attending the shrine.

A diocesan spokesperson told ACNS, “Kunonga got wind of the Diocesan preparations for commemoration of Arthur Shearly Cripps by pilgrims at the Arthur Shearly Cripps Shrine this month end, and he began to counter these efforts.

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For the second year running, Anglicans in Zimbabwe have been forced to find another place to mark the memorial of African martyr Bernard Mizeki after being denied access to their official shrine.

Last year worshippers, who had travelled from all over the country, were driven away by the Zimbabwe Republic Police despite assurances from the government that they would not be disturbed or harassed.

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