ANGLICAN-INFORMATION
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Straws in the wind?
Some good news from the Diocese of Manicaland, Zimbabwe. Fundraising in Lake Malawi and a new election in Northern Malawi.

Reported in the Zimbabwean online: www.thezimbabwean.co.uk renegade Bishop Elson Jakazi has lost control of the Diocese of Manicaland. Jakazi has been a companion breakaway bishop with the notorious Nolbert Kunonga of Harare.

‘In a ruling handed down last Wednesday High Court Judge Chinembiri Bhunu said that Jakazi lost his claim to authority over diocesan property when he resigned from the Manicaland Diocese in September 2007.

“Once the first applicant’s resignation letter was received by the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of the Central Africa the first applicant automatically ceased to be an employee or member of that church organisation without any further formalities”.’

ANGLICAN-INFORMATION: Comments that this ruling will have a bearing on self-styled ‘Archbishop’ Nolbert Kunonga’s attempts to cling to millions of dollars worth of property belonging to the Harare Diocese. We have tried to contact former Archbishop Bernard Malango, the one time enthusiastic defender and sponsor of Nolbert Kunonga, for his views on this development but he was ‘unavailable for comment’.

Summing up the judgment Judge Bhuna continued, “Having ceased to be an employee of the church organization he automatically stripped himself of any rights and privileges arising from the contract of employment, membership or his status as a bishop of that church organization”. He also dismissed Jakazi’s application with costs.

Bhunu noted that Jakazi was not dismissed but voluntarily left the CPCA (Church of the Province of Central Africa). “That being the case, he can hardly be heard to complain or cry foul. Any appeal or review which he may launch means he is appealing or seeking a review of his own conduct. This is wholly untenable and illogical such that it must be incompetent at law,” the judge said.

The ruling, unless appealed, effectively puts to an end the dispute over control of the Manicaland Diocese, which Jakazi had continued to claim was under his charge despite quitting the CPCA.

Diocese of Lake Malawi: Meanwhile it is reported that the newly installed Bishop Francis Kaulanda is trying to raise six million Malawi Kwacha (£27,000 $40,000 €32,000) to make up the financial shortfall in the Diocese and help pay the clergy.

ANGLICAN-INFORMATION: Comments that a comparable sum was expended both flying and providing accommodation for acting Dean Albert Chama and his cohort, the Bishops of Eastern Zambia and Masvingo, Zimbabwe, when they attended the recent schismatic Global South Conference in Singapore, as reported by us 20th April. At the Conference Chama had the temerity to lecture on ‘The potential for economic empowerment’. His own economic empowerment for the exercise appears to have come from breakaway factions in the United States – it clearly wasn’t from the Diocese of Lake Malawi where priests have been unpaid.

Diocese of Northern Malawi: Another attempt will be made on 29th May to elect a bishop for Northern Malawi. It is not yet clear who the provincial bishops intend to be the successful candidate. Their previous choice Fr Leslie Mtekateka was dismissed for gross misconduct.

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ANGLICAN-INFORMATION
‘A voice for the voiceless in the Anglican Central African Province’

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