Zimbabwean police stopped a retreat of 80 clergy over claims that their prayer gathering was not given police clearance under sweeping security laws, the country’s mainstream Anglican church said Tuesday.
Zimbabwe’s Anglican church has been split by a breakaway group led by a bishop close to the president, who has seized church properties without police intervention. The bishop has been excommunicated by world Anglicans.
I was saddened but not surprised to hear this. A recent email from Zimbabwe told me that with one exception the Kunonga-controlled churches had derisory attendances over Christmas. Their congregations were mostly just the relatives of the ‘priests’. The CPCA (Church of the Province of Central Africa – the real Anglican Church) churches on the other hand had large attendances. The exception, sad to say, was the cathedral of St Mary the Virgin in Harare, which is also popular for weddings. It probably appeals to the many people on the government payroll.
Thanks for that update, Fr. Tee.
I note that the headline to the article is somewhat misleading. The police didn’t actually stop the gathering, they just attempted to do so. As the report makes clear, the 80 clerics (and two bishops) refused to comply with the police demands. Very courageous. We’ll see how this stalemate ends.
+Kunonga is a total jerk, completely comtemptible. It takes a lot to get yourself excommunicated in modern day Anglicanism, but the pseudo-bishop of Harare has managed the feat.
If 2011 was the year of the “Arab Spring,” then perhaps 2012 will be the year when the long-oppressed people of Zimbabwe rise up and demand the resignation of that brutal tyrant, Mugabe.
During this Christmastide, I’m reminded of the familiar words of the Magnificat:
“[i]He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly[/i].”
Alas, as has so often been the case, when a political revolution takes places and the mighty are cast down, it eventually turns out the the lowly who take their place becomes tyrants in turn and must later be cast down themselves. Such are the bitter ironies of history. Mugabe overthrew the horrendous regime of white supremacist Ian Smith in what was then called Rhodesia, but later became a terrible dictator himself. Likewise, Lenin overthrowing the czar in 1917, oir Castro coming to power in Cuba in the late 1950s, etc., etc.
May Christ come speedily, and end all injustice forever!
David Handy+