CENTRAL AFRICA: Provincial synod overcomes disruptions
Episcopal News Service. September 13, 2007 [091307-05]
The recent synod of the Church of the Province of Central Africa went very well, contrary to some reports from the secular press in Harare, according to the Rev. Emmanuel Sserwadda, the Episcopal Church's Partnership Officer for Africa.
Sserwadda attended the synod at the invitation of Central Africa Archbishop Bernard Amos Malango.
"There was a very good feeling," Sserwadda said of the meeting.
Bishop of Northern Zambia Albert Chama, former provincial secretary, was elected dean of the province, he said. The election to replace Botswana Bishop Trevor Mwamba in the position came during the episcopal synod which customarily meets prior to the synod.
Press reports that Mwamba had been fired by Malango are untrue, Sserwadda said. Mwamba preached at the synod's closing Eucharist. Sserwadda and Bishop Michael Doe, general secretary of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, (USPG), vested and participated in the service.
During the meeting, Harare Bishop Nolbert Kunonga asked that "Dissolution of the Province" be put on the synod's agenda, according to Sserwadda. Participants on the synod assumed that this item referred to an ongoing effort to create three new provinces from the dioceses of Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Zambia respectively. However, Kunonga used the time to raise the homosexuality issue and make various accusations, including claims that some member bishops had not done enough to enforce the province's opposition to homosexuality.
Other provincial leaders recaptured the agenda, saying that the province had made its position clear in the Anglican Communion, and there was no need for further discussion, Sserwadda said.
"They said, ‘If Harare wants to go, it can go,'" he added. "Others told him, ‘You can't talk on behalf of all of Zimbabwe.'"
The provincial secretary for Central Africa, the Rev. Eston Dickson Pembamoyo, emphasized that the Diocese of Harare "officially has not quit" the province, as had been reported in some secular media. "Above all it is wrong to say Zimbabwe has quit the province," he said.
Overall, he said, "synod ended very well. Harare had its motion discussed and closed by reaffirming the position of the Province: 'No' to homosexuality." Later he added that the province "encourages the process of listening."
Among the resolutions passed at the synod (and, according to procedure, read again at the closing Eucharist, affirmed aloud and signed), was one changing the term limit for archbishop to five years, renewable only once for a maximum of 10 years. The province is due to elect a successor to Malango, who plans to retire. However, the constitution stipulates that such an election may be held only when every diocese has a bishop. There is a vacancy in the Diocese of Lake Malawi. An election must also be held in the Malango's diocese, Upper Shire, in southern Malawi.
The synod also confirmed replacing Bishop Theolphilus Naledi of Botswana with Mwamba, Bishop Eslon Madoda Jakazi of Manicaland for Bishop Sebastian Bakare and Bishop David Njovu to replace Bishop Leonard Jameson Mwenda.
The synod also passed, in addition to courtesy and procedural resolutions, ones to add the Dioceses of Masvingo, Luapula and Upper Shire and change the name of Mashonaland to Harare and Lundi to Central Zimbabwe, and take into account the consequent new boundaries; form a four-bishop committee to work on a response to the proposed Anglican covenant, and give the Diocese of Lusaka three years to prepare a proposal showing the viability for the creation of the new Diocese of Southern Zambia.
"The province is still together, and the bishops are preparing to go to Lambeth," Sserwadda said. "And, the processes toward creation of the new provinces are continuing, in accordance with Anglican Consultative Council guidelines."