ZIMBABWE: Priest's arrest for alleged theft is 'baseless,' Harare bishop says
Episcopal News Service. September 7, 2011 [090711-05]
ENS staff
The Rev. Julius Zimbudzana, priest-in-charge at St. Mary's Anglican Church in the Diocese of Harare, was arrested Sept. 6 for allegedly taking over Anglican church property worth more than US$1.5 million "as police intensified their persecution of the Anglican church, hiding behind unjust court rulings," according to a press release posted on the diocesan website and carried by the Anglican Communion News Service.
Diocese of Harare Bishop Chad Gandiya dismissed the charge as "persecution of ... Anglicans ... by the police, acting on the instructions of former renegade bishop Nolbert Kunonga."
Zimbabwe's Anglicans have faced repeated harassment and violence from President Robert Mugabe's police force since Kunonga was excommunicated in May 2008 for attempting to remove the Diocese of Harare from the Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA). Gandiya was elected to lead the Harare diocese in May 2009.
An Aug. 4 judgment in Zimbabwe's High Court upheld Gandiya's appointment as Harare's bishop but also gave Kunonga custody of all church properties -- ones that actually belong to the CPCA, which includes dioceses throughout Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Malawi.
The charge against Zimbudzana "is unfounded, baseless and without foundation," Gandiya said in the Sept. 6 release. "This is very strange indeed as no parish in our diocese (perhaps [with] the exception of the cathedral parish) has properties worth that much. He has been refused bail. The police claim they have clear instructions not to release him."
The bishop says in the release that the "intense persecution of the Anglican clergy under the CPCA has clearly gotten out of hand and most clergymen are traumatized by these sad developments. What has become apparent in these attacks is that rogue elements within the police are listening to instructions coming from Kunonga to use the law to abuse innocent people, denying them of their right to worship."
Zimbudzana was arrested in the morning but Gandiya was not allowed to visit him until 6 p.m., "as the police spent the whole day moving the priest from his residence and the Highlands Anglican Church claiming they wanted to inspect the properties stolen," the release said.
"They then brought a desk, a refrigerator that they claimed belonged to the church, and a Mothers' Union (MU) banner," Gandiya said. "Vari kuedza kutsvagiridza nyaya (They are desperate for a conviction). It looks like they just want to keep him detained as part of the harassment showing the clear breakdown of the rule of law."
CPCA lawyers are trying to secure Zimbudzana's release and ensure that other Anglican clergy "are free from further persecution," the release said. "The right of worship as enshrined in the country's constitution has been violated and the CPCA calls on the national political leadership to immediately intervene and put a stop to Kunonga's abuse of the police services."
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and the Rev. Canon Petero Sabune, the Episcopal Church's Africa partnerships officer, visited Zimbabwe in late July to express solidarity with the country's persecuted Anglicans.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is planning to visit Zimbabwe in October as part of a wider trip to Africa and hopes to meet with Mugabe to discuss the intimidation and ongoing dispute concerning ownership of church property.