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Two recent news articles in the Malawi Nation newspaper:

Posted Wednesday 11^th April 2007

Anglican-Information reports on two articles in the Malawi Nation newspaper:

The first headed - Fire Vicar General, Malango Petition

- posted by journalist Bright Sonani, dated 8th April the article reports that a small petition from some parishioners in Nkhotakota has been sent to Archbishop Bernard Malango of the Province of Central Africa and Bishop of Upper Shire Diocese. Blanket copied to all Central African Province Bishops, the Provincial Chancellor, the Diocese of Lake Malawi Diocesan Chancellor and to the new Vicar General of the Diocese of Lake Malawi, Fr Bright Mkoko, it accuses the Vicar General of being “of being “arrogant, bossy, showy and biased towards those supporting the coming of The Rev’d Nicholas Henderson (as Bishop).” The petition is dated March 26th, 2007.

The 39 signatories (all parishioners in Nkhotakota) to the petition have reacted to the move by Vicar General Mkoko to suspend the Rev’d Dennis Kayamba (one time acting Dean of the Cathedral of All Saints, Nkhotakota) after accusations of misconduct. This is said to have included the deliberate release to the press of misinformation about a meeting of the Kasugu Archdeaconry when he falsely claimed that the meeting had voted for new elections for the Bishopric. As a result Dennis Kayamba has been ordered to move from his position at Nkhotakota but has refused to do so.

The Malawi Nation article goes on to report the petitioners as saying “We want (Mkoko) to know that he has failed and he is a total failure that he cannot be a peace broker and therefore, we strongly appeal to Your Grace (Archbishop Malango) to fire Father Mkoko from the position of Vicar General with immediate effect to save the situation in the diocese”.

Archbishop Malango appointed Mkoko as Vicar General only recently and he is the latest to fall foul of Dennis Kayamba who has a long history, going back to the time of the late Bishop Peter Nyanja, of suspension for misconduct and trouble with Church authorities.

In a further article dated 10th April by journalist Rebecca Theu the Malawi Nation reports the situation in Nkhotakota under the heading - Some KK Anglicans clash on Palm Sunday.

“Two factions of the Lake Malawi Diocese of the Anglican Church in Nkhotakota clashed in church on Palm Sunday following a delayed service by one of the groups, forcing police to intervene”.

A complicated story follows which describes how supporters of the Bishop – elect The Rev’d Nicholas Henderson and supporters of Dennis Kayamba had arranged to worship in the Cathedral at different times and that on Palm Sunday overruns of time caused tensions. The Nation goes on to say “the provocations started on Saturday when the anti-Henderson group, which is led by father Dennis Kayamba, held a mass in readiness for Easter Sunday”

The sorry end to the saga saw the police called to surround the Cathedral before order was restored. Those with access to the Internet can read the stories for themselves at: http://www.nationmalawi.com/

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ANGLICAN-INFORMATION observes that such reportage in the Malawi Press brings nothing but discredit to the Church. The flashpoint in the Diocese of Lake Malawi is almost always to be found in Nhkotakota and associated with the Rev’d Dennis Kayamba, who has a bad history of troublemaking, including regularly making misleading press statements to what has become a newspaper increasingly hostile to the Anglican Church. ANGLICAN-INFORMATION commends attempts by the new Vicar General to suspend and move Kayamba as a sensible means towards restoring calm.

ANGLICAN-INFORMATION further observes that the injustice seen in the failure to confirm the elected Bishop, the Rev’d Nicholas Henderson is the source of all the long running difficulties in the Diocese.

Rightly and courageously laity and clergy in the Diocese of Lake Malawi have stood up for what they see as natural justice, insisting that it be carried out, following the failure of the Court of Confirmation to endorse the overwhelming election of the Rev’d Nicholas Henderson as Bishop of Lake Malawi. They observe that the only real objection supposedly held against the Rev’d Nicholas Henderson and repeated frequently by the likes of Dennis Kayamba to an indiscriminate press is the deliberately character defamatory statement that he is gay or pro-gay, or both!

As previously reported, there is not a single piece of evidence, written or anecdotal, to support these allegations. Heroic attempts by hostile websites trawling the Internet to find anything to discredit the Bishop – elect have produced nothing – and the people of the Diocese of Lake Malawi are not to be fooled.

Significantly, during the Bishop-elect’s last visit to Malawi in February 2006 groups of clergy and laity questioned him on a number of occasions in public and at length. At large and well – organised meetings they asked searching questions about the supposed allegations and a wide selection of topics; theological, ecclesiastical and social. The clergy and laity emerged from these meetings completely satisfied with their choice, his orthodoxy, his views, his sexuality and mystified as to how the Court of Confirmation (without ever hearing the Bishop-elect speak for himself) managed to come to its negative conclusions.

As previously reported by ANGLICAN-INFORMATION subsequently, and after much pressure from the laity the ‘evidence’ was eventually produced by Archbishop Malango. It transpired that the so-called items against the Bishop-elect were a forged letter (now discovered to have been written by the Rev’d Dennis Kayamba himself) purporting to be from a complaining English parishioner, a twelve year old election manifesto for the Diocese of London which said nothing controversial, a vitriolic letter from the suffragan Bishop of Fulham (The Rt Revd John Broadhurst) -whose only concern seemed to be the English situation, women and their ordination - and a press release which had nothing to do with the Bishop-elect. Attempts to attribute the views of others to the Rev’d Nicholas Henderson by what was contrived association gleaned from the Internet, had to suffice in the febrile atmosphere of the Court, which was declared in public by one Bishop present to be ‘uncanonically conducted’ and with legal advice given to the Archbishop and ignored ‘you can never rule out someone until you hear from him’.

It is now widely agreed that unfortunately due processes have failed in this case and that a miscarriage of justice has taken place. Apart from opportunistic parts of the press (and the Rev’d Dennis Kayamba) most people are now fully aware that the accusations levelled against the Bishop - elect are not only untrue they are malicious lies.

ANGLICAN-INFORMATION considers that it is now time for the wider African Anglican Church to take this matter into hand, to help the Bishops out of the impasse and to allow the people and clergy of Lake Malawi to have the Bishop of their choice. Finally, it is essential to save the further ignominy of the Church of Christ in the Diocese of Lake Malawi and the Province of Central Africa, which is now, unfortunately, in a state of disrepute worldwide.

This action is urgently needed, that peace and normality may quickly be restored in the Malawi that rightly describes itself as ‘The Warm Heart of Africa’.