PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe will engage the visiting Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams over homosexuality and the “illegal sanctions” imposed by the West, a spokesman of the Zimbabwean leader has said.
Willliams is expected to arrive in Harare on Sunday amid deep divisions in the church with reports of violent clashes between rival factions.
The Church in Zimbabwe has been bitterly divided since 2007, when the former Bishop of Harare Nolbert Kunonga separated from the Anglican Communion amid divisions over the ordination of gay priests.
Dr Williams expelled Kunonga – said to be a staunch supporter of President Mugabe - but local courts ruled the ousted bishop should retain control of church buildings in the capital. Officials claim that Kunonga has seized up to 40 per cent of the country's Anglican churches.
Dr Williams is expected to meet President Mugabe on Monday and says he is determined to challenge the Zimbabwean leader over the alleged “persecution” of the Church in the country.
However presidential spokesman, George Charamba said the Monday meeting remained uncertain and insisted Mugabe had nothing to do with the problems affecting Anglican Church in the country.
“Unlike in Britain, the Anglican Church here in Zimbabwe is not the church of the state. It may have that connotation between 1890 and 1979, but that’s colonial history. Consequently, unlike in Britain where the head of state, namely the Queen, is also the head of the Anglican Church, here the President and the State have nothing to do with the church except as individual believers,” Charamba told The Sunday Mail.
“In Zimbabwe the State does not worship. It’s a secular institution. The State in Zimbabwe does not privilege any one denomination. It stands beholden to many denominations including Anglicans, Catholics, Muslims, Pentecostals, Hindus and even traditional beliefs. Zimbabwe has freedom of worship.”
However, Mugabe was keen to challenge Dr Williams on the Church’s position regarding homosexuality and the “illegal sanctions” imposed by the West.
Said Charamba: “Fundamentally, he (President Mugabe) would want to know why the Anglican Church, has remained so loudly silent while the people of Zimbabwe and these people include Anglicans, are suffering from the illegal sanctions? Has the Church consorted with the British State to impose sanctions against us?
“The second issue that the President wants this man of God to clarify is why his Anglican Church thinks homosexuality is good for us and why it should be prescribed for us.
“He (President Mugabe) thinks the Archbishop will be polite enough to point to him what portion of the Great Book sanctions homosexuality and sanctions sanctions.”
Dr Williams is due to preside over an open-air Eucharist in the National Sports Stadium in Harare. The service was moved to the stadium after the city's Anglican cathedral was taken over Kunonga.