Published by the government of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe: Anglican Church Rival Groups Fight

29 December 2007

Harare — THERE was chaos at the Anglican St Andrew's parish church in Glen View 8 on Thursday evening when rival groups fought.

Two camps have emerged within the Anglican Church, one supporting Bishop Sebastian Bakare's leadership while the other is behind Bishop Nolbert Kunonga.

Bishop Bakare was appointed head of the Harare Diocese to replace Bishop Kunonga who led the church in withdrawing from the Province of Central Africa.

Police had to intervene to quell the disturbances which left some church members injured.

When The Herald visited the parish at Stand number 6955, adjacent to Tichagarika Shopping Centre, police had just left the scene after restoring peace.

However, parishioners were still grappling to come to terms with what they had experienced while residents living in the vicinity of the church expressed shock that worshippers could do such a thing.

In interviews, residents said a parish committee believed to be aligned to Bishop Bakare was having a meeting at the church when all hell broke loose.

"Two vehicles, one ferrying three priests in their robes and the other one a group suddenly arrived. We heard some noise and we rushed to the scene to investigate," said one witness.

"We found them beating parishioners who included women."

Some parishioners found wandering about the church in disbelief of what they had just witnessed, confirmed the assaults.

"We held a meeting on Tuesday at the church and agreed that we wanted the Old Diocese. We do not want Kunonga. We want our Bishop Bakare because he was the one appointed to temporarily lead the diocese," said one woman.

The woman said Thursday's meeting was a follow up to Tuesday's meeting.

"At Thursday's meeting we intended to summon our resident priest Martin Zifoti, who we know belongs to the Bishop Kunonga group, to discuss the matter. We wanted him to hand over to us car keys, house keys and other important things belonging to this parish," said the woman.

Midway through the meeting, three Anglican priests from other parishes in Harare allegedly arrived together with some people in two vehicles.

The woman identified all the pastors.

"They were three priests dressed in their robes and three thugs. They started assaulting us starting with a senior member of the church Mr Nyamupingidza. I used my umbrella to fight back," said another parishioner.

"The situation only normalised after armed police rushed here."

The member in charge of Glen View Police Station Chief Inspector Allen Nyazire confirmed the incident.

He said one person was injured in the skirmishes.

"The committee of the parish was holding a meeting. We were made to understand that they passed a vote of no confidence on Kunonga. One person was injured and we gave him a medical report. The suspect stays in Kuwadzana," Chief Insp Nyazire said.

He urged the church to solve its differences amicably instead of resorting to violence and warned that police would not hesitate to arrest the culprits.

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