Central African Province puts the record straight

Further to previous releases ANGLICAN-INFORMATION reports and copies below an official response to the recent accusations and statements made by and on behalf of the Rt Rev’d Nolbert Kunonga, Bishop of Harare in the Zimbabwean Mugabe government mouthpiece, the ‘Harare Herald’.

The response issued by The Provincial Secretary of the Anglican Province of Central Africa, the Rev’d Eston Dickson Pembamoyo is dated Thursday 4th October 2007 and appears on the official Anglican Communion website.

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ANGLICAN-INFORMATION applauds this sensible response to the highly provocative and untrue charges levelled by the Bishop of Harare in recent times against a list of people associated with the Central African Province, accusing them variously of gay or pro gay or gay-funding activities. These charges have been reported enthusiastically by schismatic American websites that gleefully predict the break-up of the Province and the Anglican Communion.

ANGLICAN-INFORMATION observes that this Central African response can be seen as part of a bigger picture now emerging in which the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has managed, against the odds, to obtain a positive and conciliatory response from the Bishops of the American Episcopal Church at their recent meeting in New Orleans. As a result of this meeting the Episcopal Church has met demands from the Anglican Communion to pledge not to consecrate another gay bishop and not to approve blessings in church for same-sex couples. Schismatics, including the Bishop of Harare, have subsequently gone into intellectual contortions to prove that the Episcopal Church has not responded positively and have been quick to brand practically anyone (such as the Bishop of Botswana, the Rt Rev’d Trevor Mwamba) taking a measured view, as being gay or pro gay!

There has been a whiff of desperation about these accusations as the Anglican Communion now begins to rediscover its collective wisdom and unity after the past few terrible years. For example, at the meeting of CAPA (Council for Anglican Provinces in Africa) currently being held in Mauritus, the chairman the Most Rev’d Dr Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Nigeria and scourge of gays said outwitting attempts by American ultra conservatives to make him say something silly about the issue of sexuality.

“I'm trying to avoid dragging us into unnecessary controversy when there are more profitable things to talk about, this is Africa, and we would rather focus on those important things that affect us Africans."



CAPA went on to say in a public statement that it was distressed by drought and floods, Zimbabwe's political oppression, the Darfur conflict, and HIV/AIDS.
 These are precisely the kind of priorities of which the Bishop of Botswana very recently tried to 
remind his colleagues in the Central African Province
, losing his position as Dean of the Province as a result.

In addition, the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council (effectively the official standing committee of the Anglican Communion) said the Episcopal Church had met demands from the Anglican Communion to pledge not to consecrate another gay bishop and not to approve blessings in church for same-sex couples.

 It also added that the Episcopal Church had to do more to accommodate conservatives who are increasingly breaking away and pledging loyalty to bishops outside of the United States.

Nevertheless, thanks to Dr Rowan Williams patient and holy oversight, at last the Anglican Communion has some hope of recovery. This is despite opportunist factions, intent on schism, in the United States and elsewhere in the Anglican Communion, seeking to exploit the current situation for their own political ends, of which Nolbert Kunonga’s recent outburst is a prime example. It is becoming clear that a watershed has been reached and over hasty reactions to difficult questions about sexuality are not helpful, as the Anglican Communion now enters into a period of reflection and renewal. The Bishop of Harare is hardly a model of virtue and would now do well himself to enter into a period of reflective and unaccustomed, prayerful silence.

The statement below originated in Southern Malawi, Bishop James Tengatenga’s diocese but it has been given the imprimatur of the remaining bishops in the Province of Central Africa and an official status on the Anglican Communion website. It is not thought, however, that the former Archbishop Bernard Malango consented, as his support of and friendship with the Bishop of Harare over the past few years would make any such assent completely disingenuous.

At last, it seem seems now that Malango has stood down that the Central African Provincial bishops are in turn standing up to intimidatory pressures from Nolbert Kunonga that have had them cowering in the past.

Watch and pray for this bellwether Province and the wider Anglican Communion.

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Published on the Anglican Communion Official Website
– Thursday 4th October
http://www.anglicancommunion.org

(1031) 04-October-2007 - Official response to September 10 article in The Zimbabwe Herald - Central Africa

As the Provincial Secretary of the Church of the Province of Central Africa I would like to set the record straight in regard to the article that appeared in The Herald newspaper of September 10th 2007 entitled "Homosexuality breaks up Anglican Province":
I should first of all state that the Bishops of the Church of the Province of Central Africa at their recent Episcopal and Provincial Synod Meetings resolved to make it known to all and sundry that the Province stands by its previous statements, Lambeth Conference 1998 Resolution 1.10, which commends to the Church the subsection report on human sexuality which whilst rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture, calls on our people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation and to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals, violence within marriage and any trivialization and commercialization of sex; the Lambeth Resolution further states that it does not advise the legitimizing or blessing of same sex union nor ordaining those in same gender union; the Resolution also commits the Church to listen to the experience of homosexual persons to assure them that they are loved by God and that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation are full members of the Body of Christ.
The Bishops also in the same vain reaffirmed the Church of the Province of Central Africa's commitment to the "Windsor Process" and in this regard stated categorically that it did not want to be pulled into any one side of the divide and is committed to the listening process, dialogue and reconciliation.
Now turning specifically to The Herald's article I set the record straight as follows:
1.. Contrary to The Herald's report that the Anglican Province of Central Africa broke up on the 9th September 2007, the fact is the Church of the Province of Central Africa remains strongly intact.
2.. Contrary to The Herald's report that the Diocese of Manicaland along with one other Zimbabwean diocese expressed its intention to quit the Province no such intention was expressed at the Synod.
3.. Contrary to The Herald's report that according to the standing orders of the Province of Central Africa once one diocese withdraws the Province becomes null and void and would have to be reconstituted under a new name and structure, no such standing order exists. However should there be any intention of the Province being dissolved such an act according to the Constitution and Canons of the Church of the Province of Central Africa, would require the due legal process and procedures being followed which among other things would involve a proposed amendment which would have to be provisionally approved by the Provincial Synod having been approved by the Synod of each Diocese in the Province, and confirmed by the Provincial Synod by a two-thirds majority of those present.
4.. Contrary to The Herald's report of the existence of a homosexual lobby led by the Bishop of Botswana, Trevor Musonda Mwamba, the Rt. Rev. Dr. James Tengatenga of Southern Malawi and two Zimbabwean Bishops, the fact of the matter is that there is no known homosexual lobby in the Church of the Province of Central Africa and any insinuations of there being such a lobby is highly regrettable and libellous.
5.. Contrary to The Herald's report of the existence of an anti-gay lobby led by Bishop Norbert Kunonga of Harare, the fact of the matter is that there is no known anti-gay lobby in the Church of the Province of Central Africa.
6.. Contrary to The Herald's report that in their addresses, The Rev. Emmanuel Sserwadda of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America and the Rt. Rev. Michael Doe, General Secretary of United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG), had implored the Synod to drop the issue of homosexuals from the agenda in exchange for funding of Church projects, and that a day earlier the Rev. Chad Gandiya of the USPG Africa Desk had expressed similar sentiments; this is totally false. The fact of the matter is the three invited speakers to the Provincial Synod talked about the ways and means of improving and strengthening existing partnership links.
7.. It is highly regrettable that The Herald could publish such a misleading, false and pernicious article. The article falls gravely short of basic professional journalistic demands of balance, fairness and honesty.
The Revd Fr Eston Dickson Pembamoyo
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