Nineteen parishioners banned for disrupting Kunonga wedding party

By Lance Guma
11 September 2006

Nineteen Anglican Church wardens and members of the choir have been banned by a Harare court from attending services at the cathedral in the city. This follows an application by Harare Bishop Nolbert Kunonga who accused them of trying to disrupt his wedding anniversary at the weekend. Kunonga shot himself in the foot by ordering the closure of over 45 Anglican churches in Harare. The directive, which also saw the closure of St Mary’s cathedral in the city-centre, was meant to facilitate the celebration of his 33rd wedding anniversary at the city sports centre.

The decision however proved ill advised as hordes of parishioners boycotted the prayer meeting that had been lined up as an alternative to normal services in church. Some of those who attended made attempts to disrupt the celebrations as a show of disapproval for the Bishop whom they feel is trying to develop a cult status in the church. Harare based journalist Gift Phiri told Newsreel that Kunonga asserted in court papers that the group did not follow the laid out sermon and procession and that those in the choir refused to provide choral music. The court order states that those banned cannot attend services at the cathedral with effect from next Sunday. But the banned parishioners have said they will challenge the order.

Despite strong resistance from councillors at the cathedral, doors to the main church were closed for the first time ever on a Sunday since independence as Kunonga tried to draw the crowds to his wedding anniversary. Dubbed as a prayer meeting that would also raise money for a training college for clerics in the city, only school children and choirboys made up the numbers in the half empty arena. Although the Bishop tried to entice fellow church leaders by saying he would donate any presents to charity, most of them still stayed away. Kunonga and his wife Agatha have been together for 33 years but even that failed to sway members of the church to join him in celebration.

Media reports say individual parishes were asked to contribute Z$2,000 while members of the congregation Z$20 each. An insider told Newsreel Kunonga put in a request to the Mothers Union for 150 kgs of beef, 50 kgs of chickens plus a golden dress with matching shoes for wife Agatha, but the women’s leadership turned this down. The Archbishop of Central Africa Bernard Malango, long accused of siding with Kunonga in his trial, once again backed his colleague by saying he gave his blessing to the celebrations. In a Herald article this week Malango accused the head of the Anglican Church Archbishop Rowan Williams of trying to interfere in his Central African province and that the Kunonga crisis was part of that plot.

Security at the weekend event was tight, given recent demonstrations against the unpopular Bishop. Phiri told us plain-clothes policemen and state security details in dark classes patrolled the perimeter of the sports centre, showing the support Kunonga enjoyed from the Mugabe regime. The Bishop rose to infamy after coming out in support of Mugabe’s violent land grab policy. He also got a farm from the regime as a thank you gesture. In August last year he faced an ecclesiastical trial for charges ranging from incitement to murder, victimising critics within the church and also misusing church funds, but legal technicalities forced the abandonment of the case. Malawi Judge James Kalaile withdrew from hearing the case citing constant bickering between the prosecution and defence. The complainants are still fighting for a retrial which the church leader in central Africa, Archbishop Malango, seems unwilling to grant.