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ZIMBABWE: Ousted Anglican bishop said to be flouting court order
High Court Judge Chinembiri Bhunu on March 5 dismissed an attempt by Kunonga to block an appeal by the Church of the Province of Central Africa against a ruling in 2009 that gave Kunonga, who has been excommunicated, control of church properties.
The man who took over as bishop of Harare after Kunonga was excommunicated, Sebastian Bakare, rued in an interview carried in the Church Times newspaper on March 12 that other denominations in Zimbabwe "have been silent on such ... injustice perpetrated against ordinary members of one church whose only 'crime' is to worship in their churches."
Bakare appealed to the churches to join in Christian solidarity, and urged the Zimbabwean political leadership to reinforce freedom of worship as guaranteed by the country's constitution.
The newspaper reported that Kunonga and his supporters have looted churches as well as locked out their congregations. It said the former bishop and some of his followers beat up the caretaker of St. Luke's Church in the Greendale suburb, before stripping the church of Bibles, hymn books, kneelers, and altar cloths.
Government officials had given numerous assurances that the persecution will be brought to an end, Bakare said. He believes that the Kunonga situation is regarded as "a welcome opportunity to vent political anger on the so-called colonial church."
Bakare noted, however, "It needs to be made very clear that the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe today is a member of the Church of the Province of Central Africa [a regional grouping], which is autonomous."
Kunonga is an avid supporter of President Robert Mugabe, and he uses the 86-year-old leader of the Zanu-PF party, who still heads the country after 30 years as president and controls its police force, to help him keep Anglicans from attending church services.
On the Sunday after the latest court order, Zimbabwe police did not enforce it, and parishioners said they had to attend services in a field because they had been locked out of their church.
Noting that an appeal issue is pending in the Supreme Court, Judge Bhunu said his court lacked jurisdiction in the matter. "It is accordingly ordered that the application be and is hereby dismissed with costs," he said.
The judge said sworn documents submitted by Kunonga to support his case were fraught with "inconsistencies and contradictions."
Kunonga fell out with the region's Anglican province in 2007, and formed his own self-styled Church of the Province of Zimbabwe, ostensibly in protest over what he termed the Central African province's pro-gay stance.
Still, observers say Kunonga used the homosexuality issue to hang on to his post because his term was coming to an end and his popularity was waning because of his political stance.
Since Kunonga's excommunication by the Anglican province, feuding over the control of church property has taken place, with a clique led by Kunonga barring the majority of Anglican parishioners access to church buildings with the aid of police. Those opposed to Kunonga have been forced to hold services in the open.
In February, more than 4,000 Anglicans held a prayer meeting in a public square in Harare to protest over their persecution by the police, who they said often barge into church services and arrest parishioners opposed to Kunonga.
Two weeks later in a Sunday sermon, Kunonga accused Western countries of seeking to impose homosexuality on Africa. He also praised his president's vehemence against homosexuality.
"The Westerners are at pains to impose homosexuality upon Africans," Kunonga said in an address in which he also congratulated Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, on his 86th birthday.
"We view homosexuality as an abomination, rottenness of culture and an alien form of life. We, therefore, are ready to fight against this evil. As Christians, we are ready to defend our faith and our country against this new form of Western imperialism," said Kunonga. "As Christians and as proud Africans, we will always respect and adore you for defending our country against Western decadence."
Mugabe is known for his stance against gays and lesbians, and is on record as calling them "worse than pigs and dogs."
Zimbabwe's first post-independence president, the late Canaan Banana, a former Methodist minister, spent a period in jail after being found guilty in 1999 of 11 counts of sodomy and abusing his power to sexually assault and carry out "unnatural acts" with men, most of whom were on his presidential staff.
Evidence in the trial showed Mugabe knew of Banana's sexual misconduct and did nothing to stop it.
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