Zimbabwe parishoners locked out in Harare

The Parish of Avondale celebrated its centenary in a school because police stopped them using their church building, writes Bishop Michael Doe, General Secretary of USPG.

Avondale, now a mixed-race suburb, is where the new bishop of Harare, Chad Gandiya, began life as a gardener and later returned as curate. He told the large congregation that gathered on Saturday for the centenary not to let their disappointment grow into bitterness: 'We must be strong in the Lord.'

On Sunday I was due to preach in the former black township of Highfield, in the south of the city, but again the police prevented access to the church building. So I presided at the Eucharist on the road outside, with no shelter from the hot sun, and over three hundred people queued up along side the ditch to receive communion. Bishop Chad then took me to the Cathedral, in the centre of the city, where they too had to hold morning service in the car park.

I was in Harare to lead the Clergy Retreat, on the Five Marks of Mission, but always in the background was their question: why is our Church being persecuted in this way? In the city almost all the churches are locked against them despite a court decision in their favour. In the rural areas it is more sporadic but also more violent: one priest told me that members of his church had limbs cut off because they refused to give way. Another said that his people had by their own efforts built a church up to shoulder level, as yet with no roof or furnishings, but still they weren’t allowed in.

The man behind the police action is Nolbert Kunonga, former Bishop of Harare, whose corruption and closeness to the government of Robert Mugabe led to him leaving the Anglican Province in 2007, setting up his own Church and even consecrating his own bishops. Most church people refused to join him, and many of the priests who went with him are now returning. During this time the country has also experienced economic collapse: in 2008 USPG raised the money for funding stipends, and is now administering the appeal which the Archbishops of Canterbury and York launched last year to support church-sponsored projects throughout Zimbabwe.

But there is also good news. In Harare Diocese the parishes are now providing for clergy stipends, although health insurance and pensions still don’t exist. There are signs this week that some Government ministers are embarrassed by the police actions and are asking who is authorising them. And, as is often the case when the church is persecuted, its faith is being deepened. One lady said to me, 'We want to go to church, and I want to go to my church which I helped build and where I’ve worshipped every Sunday since I was a girl. But as we stand outside, in the rain or the sun, I feel that I’m witnessing for Christ like never before'.

Posted on 12.01.2010