The regional synod, which is officially known as the Church of the Province
of Central (CPCA), is the church’s supreme authority in the region and a
fortnight excommunicated former Bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga, who had
also tried to withdraw his diocese.
The dean of the CPCA, Albert Chama, in a letter to the Diocese of Manicaland
dated May 16 and delivered on Monday said Jakazi was no longer the bishop of
the diocese.
“His licence as clergyman in the Anglican Communion is automatically revoked
and he is no longer authorised or permitted to have any authority or control
whatsoever over the diocese, nor to represent it in anyway, nor to use the
funds and assets of the diocese,” read Chama’s letter. Chama said Jakazi had
committed schism.
The CPCA dean has since appointed retired Bishop Peter Hatendi as the vicar
general and bishop of Manicaland for a year.
Jakazi yesterday declined to comment on his excommunication from the church.
Kunonga and Jakazi last year wrote to the CPCA threatening to withdraw the
dioceses of Manicaland and Harare claiming that the church had failed to
address the issue of homosexuality in the church.
Kunonga went on to form his own Anglican Province of Zimbabwe.
Kunonga – a staunch supporter of President Robert Mugabe who tried to use
the pulpit to defend the Zimbabwean leader’s controversial policies – was
excommunicated together with several priests and other church leaders who
backed his revolt against the mother church.
Chama said the church had imposed on Kunonga “and all those who support him
the sentence of Greater Excommunication, thereby separating them from the
church of the Province of Central Africa and the Anglican Communion.”
The CPCA appointed retired Bishop Sebastian Bakare as caretaker head of the
Harare diocese, a move Kunonga has fiercely tried to resist. – ZimOnline.
Post published in: News