Mugabe urged to end church row

Published on Tuesday 11 October 2011 13:22

The sofas looked cosy, but the conversation wasn’t: the Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday asked president Robert Mugabe to end the persecution of Anglicans in Zimbabwe, where a renegade bishop has locked thousands of congregants out of their churches and forced them to worship under trees.

Rowan Williams, who was on a two-day visit to the still bitterly-divided southern African country, said: “We have asked in the clearest possible terms that the president use his powers as head of state to put an end to all unacceptable and illegal behaviour.”

The top Anglican cleric had a two-hour meeting with the 87-year-old Zimbabwean leader at his State House residence in Harare. Afterwards, the archbishop said: “It was a very candid meeting; disagreements were expressed clearly, but I think in a peaceful manner.”

There had been speculation that Mr Mugabe would refuse to meet Dr Williams after he used a Eucharist sermon on Sunday to criticise “mindless and godless assaults” on Anglicans in a clear reference to attacks by breakaway bishop Nolbert Kunonga, a staunch Mugabe ally.

Mr Kunonga was excommunicated from the Anglican Church in 2007 for inciting violence. He then formed a breakaway faction claiming homosexual priests and congregants had gained influence in the Church. He makes no secret of his membership of Zanu-PF and has been rewarded with a farm formerly owned by whites.

Two months ago, the Supreme Court – which is packed with pro-Mugabe judges – granted Mr Kunonga and his followers ownership of 3,800 Anglican Church properties in Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries. In recent weeks, nuns, orphans and priests loyal to Harare Bishop Chad Gandiya, who is recognised by the Anglican authorities, have been violently evicted, sparking local and international outrage.

Mr Kunonga maintains he is merely “indigenising” the Church in line with Mr Mugabe’s racial policies. This weekend, he accused Dr Williams of leading a “propaganda mission to extend British interests in Zimbabwe” and said he was responsible for the split in the Church here.

“Rowan is a criminal,” Mr Kunonga said. “I was not excommunicated. Gandiya is silly, he is a silly man himself for inviting a homosexual to this country.”

Spokesman George Charamba hinted on Sunday that if Mr Mugabe agreed to meet Dr Williams, he would demand to know why the Anglican Church had not spoken out against western sanctions.

Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party uses sanctions imposed on the president and more than 160 of his closest allies as a convenient scapegoat for Zimbabwe’s devastating ten-year economic crisis.

The president appears to have raised the issue, but Dr Williams said he had “no proof” they were affecting ordinary Zimbabweans. Instead, he handed Mr Mugabe a ten-page dossier highlighting the grievances of Anglicans in Zimbabwe. Mr Mugabe reportedly professed ignorance of the attacks and said he would raise the issue with Mr Kunonga.

Earlier, Dr Williams had a taste of the hostility that daily greets Mugabe opponents here when he made a three-hour trip across the country to the eastern “diamond” city of Mutare. There, he was greeted by a firmly barred Anglican cathedral, guarded by a handful of riot police on bicycles. A lorryload of grim-faced blue-and-white uniformed Mothers’ Union members waited nearby: they were followers of Bishop Elson Jakazi, a Kunonga ally who controls Church property in Mutare.

“We are proud of our church and our people who have suffered so much but continued to serve with love and hope,” said a statement from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the All-Africa Conference of Churches last night.

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