Kunonga closes church to mark wedding anniversary

Kunonga closes church to mark wedding anniversary

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By Jan Raath

ANGLICAN church services in Zimbabwe’s capital were banned Sunday on the orders of the Bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga.

Priests and parishioners were ordered instead to attend a lavish, all-day celebration of his 33rd wedding anniversary.

Notices advising of the move were stuck on the locked doors of most of the 40 churches in the Harare diocese.

Of those attending the event, individual parishes were asked to contribute Zim$500,000 (US$2 000) and each member of the congregation was to bring Zim$5,000 (about US$20).

The 5,000-seat sports arena, was less than half full, with some stands taken up by choirs and parties of school children.

The bishop dismissed requests by parishioners to be allowed to hold matins or evensong, which do not need a priest, in their parish churches.

A motorcade of luxury vehicles, adorned with ribbons and balloons was parked outside a sports stadium, where a couple of hundred people sang praises to the union of the bishop and his wife, Agnes.

The Anglican church in Zimbabwe has been in turmoil since Bishop Kunonga was elected in 2001 amid allegations of vote-rigging and proclaimed that his mission was to make the church a mouthpiece for President Mugabe.

Since his coronation he has dismissed most of the diocese’s lay and clerical hierarchy and replaced them with his cronies.

Last year, regional Anglican bishops dropped charges against Kunonga, a former African liberation theology professor in the United States, of alleged incitement to murder and besmirching the name of the church.

He appeared before a church court in August 2005 after being accused by parishioners of intimidating critics, ignoring church law, mishandling church funds and bringing militant ruling party politics to the pulpit.

In the key charge, Kunonga was accused of urging a priest to instruct ruling party militants to kill 10 of the bishop's opponents in the local Anglican hierarchy.

Kunonga also ordered the removal of cathedral memorials to black and white Zimbabweans killed in the two World Wars, as well as to pioneers of former white-ruled Rhodesia and victims of the 1972-80 war that led to the country's independence from Britain. (Times)
Additional reporting by Dan Bergin, Independent Catholic News
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