In the Diocese of Lake Malawi the people insist on correct procedures and say ‘no’ to forced new elections.

ANGLICAN-INFORMATION reports that: Acting Vicar General of the Anglican Central African Province, the Rev’d Fr Bright Mkoko called a meeting of all Churchwardens and parish priests of the Diocese of Lake Malawi which was held on Thursday 29th November at the Diocesan Centre, St Thomas’s Church, Lilongwe.

It appears that under pressure from former Archbishop Bernard Malango and acting Dean the Rt Rev’d Albert Chama of Northern Zambia an attempt was to be made to ‘bounce’ the Diocese of Lake Malawi into new elections for a bishop.

Readers will recall that the Diocese of Lake Malawi still has a legitimate Bishop-elect in the person of the Rev’d Nicholas Henderson.

Readers will also recall ANGLICAN-INFORMATION reports that at a meeting of the Diocesan Synod held on 12th August and presided over by the then Provincial Dean the Rt Rev’d Trevor Mwamba, Bishop of Botswana, all sides agreed that the matter of the disputed Court of Confirmation held in November 2005 (which failed in dubious circumstances to endorse the election of the Rev’d Nicholas Henderson as bishop) should be referred to an independent Provincial Court for investigation and resolution.

Subsequently, at the now infamous Provincial Synod held in Nhkota-kota, Malawi in early September the then Archbishop Bernard Malango contrived to have the Diocesan Synod resolution kept off the agenda and at the same time effectively to sack Bishop Trevor Mwamba.

Having got rid of Mwamba, Malango persuaded (with two formal objections) the remnant of his bishops to a non-synodical process in order to force new elections on the Diocese of Lake Malawi. This has, understandably, caused great resentment and has now been formally rejected by the overwhelming majority of Lake Malawi diocesan representatives gathered by the Vicar General Bright Mkoko.

According to Jean Msosa a senior member of the laity present at the meeting “He (the Vicar General) started by calling for all parishioners to fast and pray for the problems in Lake Malawi diocese. People did pray” she said “but as usual God is God not Man…………..To the Vicar General’s surprise things did not go as he thought, the participants who were invited to the meeting on Thursday 29th November maintained the stand of the Diocesan Synod that there be ‘No Fresh Elections but the issue should go to the Provincial Court’ ”.

Jean Msosa continues by pointing out in a letter copied to all the remaining Provincial bishops that the meeting comprised a very large representative group of the diocese from all four Archdeaconaries “agreed unanimously that there was no issue to discuss other than taking the issue to a Provincial Court.”

“Basically”, she said, “the meeting ended up with the resolution that the Vicar should take the LMD case to the Provincial Court and that there was no room for negotiations. In all there was no one who went against the resolution.”

In addition, delegates expressed their annoyance at the way in which the bishops were “disregarding Canon law”.

The root of this ongoing problem can be found with bishops who are reluctant to have the November 2005 Court of Confirmation looked at independently for fear of what might be revealed and how it was conducted – it did after all include amongst its number luminaries such as Bishop Nolbert Kunonga, lately of Harare.

Thus far the only bishop to have commanded universal respect is the Bishop of Botswana, the Rt Rev’d Trevor Mwamba whose attempts at steering a synodically agreed process of resolution came close to success.

ANGLICAN-INFORMATION observes that the Province of Central Africa continues to be an interesting bellwether as to the current state of the Anglican Communion in general and Africa in particular. With a clergy and people by and large intensely loyal to Canterbury it has been led by an Archbishop in thrall to American schismatic conservatives, and who was, and still is, given to rushing around the world (all expenses paid) to proclaim schism and a virtue of righteousness about matters far removed from the real needs of his Province.

At the same time, this former Archbishop has condoned and supported the most brutal of Zimbabwean bishops, Nolbert Kunonga, as well as habitually trampling on any semblance of synodical structure. The current infighting in the Province is the direct result, as the remaining bishops struggle to come to terms with the consequences. Latest information coming through indicates that all is not well in the Episcopal House with bishops in confused disagreement.

Meanwhile, former Archbishop Bernard Malango is reported as conducting an ordination service for the diaconate last week, in Area 25, Kanengo, St Martin’s Parish (named after Bishop-elect Nicholas Henderson’s West London parish), Lilongwe when a number of priests walked out of the service.

ANGLICAN-INFORMATION says: Surely it is time for new styles of consultative leadership from the Central African bishops rather than dictatorial attempts to ‘impose’ solutions. For our many readers there are salutary lessons to be learned from this part of the Anglican Church. The old culture of deference still carries weight in parts of Africa but is coming under increasing pressure as modern access to telephony and the Internet liberates the people and allows them to see what is being done, supposedly in their name.

Until and unless the bishops return to due synodical processes the impasse is likely to continue and make elections in the other three dioceses now vacant in the Province extremely problematic.

This is an area of the world where outside interference and North American cultural wars have diverted attention from the real priorities, hunger, poverty, HIV Aids, education and above all the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

…………………………………….

Still more shenanigans, are reported in the Zimbabwe Independent (Harare) www. thezimbabweindependent .com which unlike the Herald is not a government mouthpiece.

From an Editorial dated
30th November 2007 titled: Zimbabwe - Birds of a Feather Flock Together

‘BISHOP Nolbert Kunonga was in Kampala, Uganda last week to defend President Mugabe's policies at the start of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
He made two startling claims for any bishop. First, he said the West should stop demonising Mugabe as he was democratically-elected. This is an extraordinary claim given that Mugabe's election in the 2002 presidential polls is still the subject of court challenge amid claims by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change that he rigged his way back to State House.

The other claim was even more scandalous. "There are no human rights abuses in Zimbabwe at all," declared Kunonga. "There are problems which every African country faces, but these problems are being exaggerated by the West led by Britain," he said.’
The Zimbabawe Independent asks (as many might): ‘Is it the considered position of the Anglican Church that there are no human rights abuses at all in Zimbabwe? Are those the views of his congregants who dare support opposition parties against Zanu PF's hegemony?
We must indeed get worried when churchmen use their positions of authority to mislead the world about what happens under their nose. We also must ask questions about who paid for Kunonga's trip and what his real mission was. Is the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe prepared to prostitute its religious integrity in the service of dubious political ends?’

ANGLICAN – INFORMATION considers that these are good questions to ask of the Anglican Province of Central Africa. Ironically, it has fallen to one of the retired bishops – Sebastian Bakare formerly Bishop of Manicaland, to stop the rot. Bakare is now the appointed interim bishop struggling to regain the Diocese of Harare for the Province from the grip of Nolbert Kunonga. Bakare’s front line struggle in Zimbabwe is against intimidation (much directed against him personally) and corruption on a major scale and he knows what the situation is really like. The good news is that he is meeting with great success as people and clergy rally to him. Nevertheless, he and they remain in a potentially dangerous situation given Kunonga’s close working relationship with President Robert Mugabe, a relationship endorsed and fostered by former Archbishop Bernard Malango.

ANGLICAN-INFORMATION often ends by calling on its readers to pray and this release is no exception.

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