Zimbabwe police disrupt Anglican services, priests held

Zimbabwe police disrupt Anglican services, priests held

KUNONGA

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ZIMBABWEAN police disrupted several Anglican Church services in Harare on Sunday, arresting at least three priests and a number of parishioners opposed to a pro-government bishop, a church official claimed.

The priests were dragged out of church because they were conducting services without the authorisation of the police or that of Bishop Nolbert Kunonga, who is a staunch supporter of President Robert Mugabe and the ruling Zanu PF party, according to the church official.

Police have not confirmed the arrests. The Harare diocese of the Anglican Church has been torn apart since Kunonga pulled the church out of the regional mother body -- the Church Province of Central Africa (CPCA) -- ostensibly because he opposed the province's stance on homosexuality.

The CPCA replaced Kunonga with Bishop Sebastian Bakare and said Kunonga was no longer a member of the Anglican Church. But Kunonga and his followers have refused to recognise the new bishop's appointment.

Police paramilitaries in riot gear and carrying batons disrupted a service at St Elizabeth church in Harare's middle-income suburb of Belvedere, said church spokesman Christopher Tapera.

"They disrupted the service and asked everyone to leave. One woman who was taking a video was arrested," he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

Kunonga defiantly announced a week ago that he had formed a splinter group of the church, saying: “History has been made.”

"We have formed our own province. It has been painful and sorrowful but out of that came the joy of our province," Kunonga boisterously announced.

He said the new entity would be known as the Anglican Church of Zimbabwe, with five dioceses in and around Harare.

Kunonga, a vocal backer of Mugabe's controversial land reforms, attempted to pull his Harare diocese out of the Anglican Church's Province of Central Africa over its stance on homosexuality.

He fell out with the province, comprising Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, for failing to condemn the ordination of gay bishops.

"There is no bishop in the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe whom I can clearly say has sympathised, indulged or compromised in homosexuality and we follow the scriptures. We refuse to embrace homosexuality," Kunonga insisted last week.

Kunonga, who has officiated at various state functions and at Mugabe's swearing-in in 2002, has praised the much-maligned Zimbabwean leader as "a true son of God".

He is on the list of Mugabe allies banned from travelling to the United States under sanctions imposed after 2002 presidential elections widely denounced as rigged.

Mugabe, a Catholic, is also known for an anti-gay stance, having once referred to gays and lesbians as "worse than pigs and dogs." He has called Kunonga "my spiritual father".

When clashes intensified in the church in recent weeks, Zimbabwean police summoned both Kunonga and Bakare and advised them to reign in their supporters.

"As police we were concerned about the use of violence in the resolution of their dispute. We told them to resolve their dispute peacefully," police spokesperson James Sabau said.

"We told them in no uncertain terms that we do not support any faction," he added.
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