ANGLICAN-INFORMATION
‘A voice for the voiceless’

Clergy and laity continue in their struggle against the Anglican Central African Provincial Bishops.

In Malawi, Diocese of Upper Shire, elections to vacant bishopric – update. Friday, 13th June. A Judge in Chambers has temporarily lifted, on a technicality (due to undated papers of affidavit by the plaintiffs’ Commissioner for Oaths) the injunction against the House of Bishops, brought by members of the clergy to stop the Bishops imposing their own candidate on the diocese.

At the Upper Shire episcopal elections held in February to find a replacement for former Archbishop Bernard Malango, the clerical and lay representatives had voted unanimously against acting Dean Albert Chama’s preferred choice of the Rev’d Alinafe Kalemba, Dean of Leonard Kamunga Theological College, Zomba. Despite intimidation against them by the bishops, clergy of the diocese had brought an injunction to prevent the House of Bishops forcing Kalemba on the diocese.

However, in a nod towards the need to resolve this properly the Judge has given leave for a Supreme Court appeal in Blantyre by the diocesan clergy, that they might continue to press their case that the Bishops are in breach of the canons.

Despite this, it now appears that a brief window of opportunity has emerged in the interim for Bishop Albert Chama to force Alinafe Kalemba on the diocese. Of course, this would be an unwise move as the courts may well later declare the ‘election’ invalid with Chama himself in contempt and in any case Kalemba will find it hard to impose himself on a reluctant diocese. Unfortunately, Albert Chama’s track record of scant regard for procedural niceties does however point in the direction of likely autocratic action on his part. We will update you further as we receive news – in the meantime the people and clergy of the diocese have asked that we issue a call for prayer for a resolution.

Meanwhile in the Diocese of Lake Malawi in a similar case, as reported by us many times in the past, the injunction granted to the House of Laity against the House of Bishops holds good and a Court Hearing is still awaited. This will determine that a Provincial Court should be convened to investigate the way in which the Court of Confirmation (presided over by former Archbishop Bernard Malango) was conducted when it failed to endorse the overwhelming vote for a new bishop almost three years ago. Readers will recall that all parties in any case had synodically agreed to a Provincial Court when Bishop Trevor Mwamba was Dean of the Province, but the Malango/Chama faction later reneged on the decision fearing it would expose them.

The difference remains in Lake Malawi that the diocese still does have a legitimately elected bishop to whom the people have remained loyal despite intense pressure and intimidation from former Bishop Malango and now his successor acting Dean Chama. It is unlikely that they will give up their demands that proper constitutional procedures be followed in order to resolve the matter.


And in Zimbabwe: Renegade ‘Archbishop’ Nolbert Kunonga continues in his attempts to destroy the legitimate Provincial Anglican Diocese of Harare, using all the might of the Mugabe regime. At the same time Anglican bishops such as Sebastian Bakare and the (formerly retired) newly appointed Bishop Peter Hatendi are in the front line of the struggle as they seek to rescue the dioceses of Harare and Manicaland from the hands of Nolbert Kunonga and his cohort Elson Jakazi, both of whom were recently excommunicated.

The future of the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe remains closely tied to the Mugabe regime and the outcome of the forthcoming presidential elections. We are still daily receiving terrible reports of beatings, burnings and murder, including atrocities against women and children, enacted on the orders of Mugabe’s generals who are now in effective control of the old dictator.

The recent Provincial Pastoral Statement (3rd June) belatedly issued, after considerable pressure from organisations such as ours, by the Anglican Provincial Bishops, has on close examination proved to be a compromise paper tiger, especially as it fails to name Robert Mugabe and thereby allows an interpretation that Mugabe likes to make ‘that it is the opposition MDC causing the trouble’. The Provincial Bishops appear to be hedging their bets ready for the almost inevitable Mugabe victory on 27th June in elections, which by now cannot be considered ‘free and fair’ by anyone.

There is a hesitancy and a confusion of voices on the part of the Central African Provincial Bishops. They appear to be moving in two opposing directions at once. This reflects growing divisions within the Provincial House whose members are now torn between the old pro Malango/Chama faction who were close to Bishop Nolbert Kunonga and Robert Mugabe and the other bishops who view with growing alarm developments both in Zimbabwe and Malawi. As Pauline Makoni the daughter of Bishop Peter Hatendi, the new Bishop of Manicaland, Zimbabwe, tellingly wrote to acting Dean Chama (quoted this week in the UK Church Times) warning the hierarchy of the Province to support her father:
“I recall the anguish he suffered on his retirement when those who asked him to continue left him to bear the brunt of false accusations while privately assuring him of their intention openly to process their position”. This is an oblique reference to a lack of support from former Archbishop Bernard Malango and his supporters, and to the potential for the same kind of mischief that still exists to this day amongst some of the bishops who owe their positions to Malango.


ANGLICAN -INFORMATION says it is time for a change in the Central African Province, which is now one of the most troubled in the Anglican Communion. It is important that the Provincial bishops free themselves entirely from the lingering taint of Robert Mugabe that still yet clings to some of them and that they reverse the contempt with which they are viewed in Malawi.

The only way out of the mess would be to re-instate the highly respected and popular Bishop Trevor Mwamba of Botswana (previously sacked by Bernard Malango) as Dean. He is noted as a bishop of integrity who understands and follows the Provincial canons and especially, is one who listens to the voice of the people.

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ANGLICAN-INFORMATION
‘A voice for the voiceless’
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