Since the start of Advent the ZRP and Kunonga loyalists have disrupted services and locked out congregations across the diocese loyal to Dr Gandiya and the Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA).
Dr Kunonga’s fresh campaign for control of the church in Harare is a “real test to the fragile government of National Unity,” the Rev Paul Gwese reported, “as it was at the intervention of the co-ministers of Home Affairs” that Anglicans were able to “use their churches without been disrupted by rogue police officers aligned to Kunonga.”
In an email sent to supporters dated Nov 29, Dr Gandiya recounted how the ZRP and Kunonga clergy broke up a service he was leading at St Clare’s Mission in Murewa.
Very strange. George Conger wrote the original article, but I cannot figure out what is going on here. I assume this is Anglican, but I cannot prove it. Is this a dispute within the church, or a political dispute, or a spillover from one to the other? I cannot tell with the meager information provided in the article.
Dr. Kunonga [i] was [/i] Bishop for the Diocese of Harare in Zimbabwe. He aligned with Mugabe. I haven’t been able to find how and when he got ousted from his bishopric, but he was. Now he’s formed and independent church and is opposing the Anglican Bishop who replaced him with police force. This story is a continuation of that conflict between Kunonga and the Anglican Diocese.
When I first read this headline I thought it said “Kanuga launches Christmas offensive against worshipers.” And the sad thing is that I didn’t assume it was a mistake.
This has been a highly reported story for several years now. Just as the Communion was about to eject the Bishop of Harare for his complicity in mass murder–he was one of the Anglican bishops NOT invited to Lambeth–Kunonga made the ludicrous claim that the Church in the Province of Central Africa (CPCA) was soft on homosexuality. (More than one commenter on this website seriously made the argument that his claim gave him the moral high ground.)
He then forestalled his deposition by leaving the CPCA and declaring that Zimbabwe was now an independent Anglican province with him as its Primate, a claim rejected by most of the Anglicans in the diocese, most of the other bishops in the country, and all the other bishops in the CPCA and Communion. The Province has appointed Bishop Gandiya to replace him.
That didn’t keep Kunonga from using his influence on Mugabe’s security thugs to have his opponents beaten when they arrived at their parishes to worship. The courts eventually issued preliminary injunctions requiring that the congregations loyal to the two bishops should share the buildings pending a final resolution (in most cases, the Kunonga congregations are miniscule). Kunonga and the security forces have ignored the court orders and have been literally whipping the CPSA worshipers out of the buildings and attacking them if they tried to assemble outside.
Kanuga was ousted by his province due to his many acts of gross abuse of power in his support of the thug, Mugabe.
Dale is absolutely right. We need add only two things. One, that Kunonga was rewarded by Mugabe with the gift of property (the corrupt president Mugabe buys loyalty). Two, Kunonga has been ordaining large numbers of men with little or no theological preparation, although these ‘clergy’ often have positions in ZANU/PF the ruling political party. To me the saddest thing is how South Africa for years has stood by and watched Zimbabwe plundered and destroyed. Sad but true: African leaders never criticize other African leaders. It is a corrupt and cosy coterie and it is destroying the future of their own people.
Chad Gandiya is a personal friend of mine; he and his wife Faith need our continuing prayers. They returned to Zimbabwe in the middle of this year fully knowing the consequences of accepting his election as Bp of Harare, Province of Central Africa. I quote: “Some people have said, “ I am inheriting a crown of thorns†and yet still others, “I am accepting a poisoned chaliceâ€. All I can say is that we are under no illusion as to what awaits us in Zimbabwe.”
Bob Stumbles the Chancellor of the Diocese tried to get the ex Bp (whose name I shall not cite …) tried for fraud before the courts. When the presiding judge saw the evidence on the first day, he went home that night and clearly had a rethink about presiding on the morrow. The trial was ‘suspended’. For his continuing either the trial or to render a verdict (of guilty, in face of the evidence) would have been almost certainly his own death sentence. It was this whole event that probably got K’s finally being excluded from Lambeth 2008. His own promotion to ‘archbishop’ and the new ‘ordinations’ are merely the icing on the cake.
Last but by no means least. This ex Bp’s own ‘election’ years ago was already a sign of things to come, since the ‘process’ was hijacked even back then, and Chad and the two other candidates denied any due redress. Leopards and spots and things come to mind … Kyrie eleison!