THE head of the Anglican Church Rowan Williams will meet President Robert Mugabe on a visit to Zimbabwe in October, Lamberth Palace confirmed on Wednesday.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the 77 million strong worldwide Anglican Communion, will become the first high profile British figure to visit Harare in almost a decade.

High on his agenda will be the alleged persecution of the church’s members by renegade bishop Nolbert Kunonga, who has also seized Anglican properties.

In January, Williams wrote an open letter to President Mugabe urging him to "put an end to these abuses forthwith", adding: "We are convinced that the unmerited, unjust, and unlawful persecution of the members of the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe damages further the good name and reputation of the Republic of Zimbabwe and results in untold and unnecessary additional suffering for many thousands of people."

He will also make stops in Malawi and Zambia as part of "a pastoral visit to show support for the Anglican Church there," said Marie Papworth, media director at Lambeth Palace in London.

The Anglican Church in Zimbabwe has been in turmoil since 2007 after Kunonga, criticising what he said were liberal attitudes toward homosexuality, tried to remove the Diocese of Harare from the Anglican Communion, the worldwide community of Anglican churches.

In 2008, Kunonga was excommunicated from the communion, but as an ally of Mugabe he and his supporters were able to seize churches and other properties.

A recent Supreme Court decision gave custody of Anglican properties to Kunonga, whose henchmen began harassing worshippers and evicting priests from rectories. One priest was severely beaten when he refused to leave his house, the diocese reported.

The current bishop, recognised by the Anglican Communion, is Chad Gandiya. He said on Wednesday that "there are parishioners being banned from church buildings by Kunonga with help of the police. They are worshipping in open spaces, under trees or booking other church buildings."

Reverend Julius Zimbudzana was detained by police at his home near St Mary’s Anglican Church in northern Harare on Tuesday accused of stealing church property worth US$1,5 million.

Bishop Gandiya said the accusations against Zimbudzana were "unfounded, baseless and very strange". He said the incident was the latest in a campaign of intimidation against Anglicans who have remained loyal to the central church.