Zimbabwe Anglicans suffer under political crisis

Anglicans in Zimbabwe are feeling the full force of the ruling party’s fury over anything that stands in its way. Parishioners in St Francis’ Anglican church in the diocese of Harare, the country’s capital, were lining up for Communion on May 11 when riot police stormed in, beating their batons against pews. One police, swinging his baton in arcs, struck several women. While many fled the church in terror, others held back, raising their voices in hymns of praise.

The previous week at St Paul’s Anglican church in Harare, helmeted police arrived to close the church. When parishioners refused to leave – instead standing to sing Gloria in Excelsis Deo -- 50 backup police arrived and beat their batons on the pews. After several communicants took out their cellphones to photograph the scene, officers charged the crowd, batons swinging.

As the country gears up for a presidential run-off election June 27, the ruling party, headed by President Mugabe, has intensified its attempts to control through intimidation. Among the groups that have resisted them are trade unions, teachers, political opposition, charities -- and certain factions of the Anglican Church of Zimbabwe.

Anglican leaders there say the struggle is not just about the church’s valuable properties, but also over who controls the church in a country divided by political tensions, particularly following the disputed elections of March 29.

Although a High Court order requires Anglican churches to be shared among worshipers, only those churches whose priests are aligned with former bishop Nolbert Kunonga are allowed to hold services and worship in peace. Over the past month, priests, lay leaders and parishioners who are not loyal to Kunonga have been arrested, interrogated, beaten and locked out of their churches.

Late last year, Kunonga broke with the church hierarchy, proclaiming Mr Mugabe a “prophet of God,” and citing dissatisfaction with the church’s sympathy toward homosexuals. But even conservative bishops, opposed to the ordination of practicing homosexuals, had long kept their distance.

Kunonga’s support of violence to take over white-owned commercial enterprises – and his handsome profits from those actions – caused other Zimbabwe Anglicans to view him as little more than one of Mugabe’s henchmen.

Adding fuel to the fire is the worldwide Anglican communion’s January statement expressing concern over Kunonga’s ties with Mugabe, compounded by the April 21st call on Anglicans to pray for Zimbabwe’s rescue from “violence, the concealing and juggling of election results, deceit, oppression and corruption.”

Bishop Bakare, who took over Kunonga’s position when it was vacated last year, leads a flock sanctioned by the worldwide Anglican Communion. But they are persecuted in their own country, accused of being politically aligned with the opposition.