On Nov 10, Dr Rowan Williams stated he wished to offer his support and congratulations to Bishop Sebastian Bakare in receiving this award. Bishop Bakare is a deeply respected and courageous leader, who has spoken out not only against injustices in his community but also against corruption within his own church.
The Harare bishop’s continued integrity, for which he has placed himself at considerable personal risk, has brought hope to countless people in Zimbabwe and internationally, the archbishop said.
Bishop Bakare said the situation in Zimbabwe was grim. “It is like a war, in the sense that there is total absence of peace.
The political situation was fraught with danger, he added. He was sanguine about the prospects for success of the coalition government formed by President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. “People need to have a strong government to put the economic situation in a better position, not this wishy-washy kind of argument,” he said.
“People are crying, no food, no water, no medication,” Dr. Bakare told Stockholm’s TV4. “Some are displaced, children are not going to school. I think every aspect of our society you look at is crying.”
The divisions within Zimbabwe are also playing out against the backdrop of the Diocese of Harare, as reports of continued violence by supporters of former bishop Dr Nolbert Kunonga against Anglicans loyal to Dr Bakare come in. Sources in Harare report that last month a deaconess loyal to Dr Bakare was assaulted by a Kunonga faction priest.
Deaconess Mbuya Kadenhe was assaulted by the Rev Simon Makove, a priest in the Kunonga faction last month when Fr Makove and a crowd of supporters entered St Paul’s Highfield, outside of Harare. The Harare High Court had ordered Dr Kunonga to share the church property with Dr Bakare’s supporters, but the orders have so far been ignored with impunity by the Kunonga faction. A magistrate later fined Fr Makove Z$20 for break of peace and assault.
On May 4, three members of St Paul’s Highfield were seriously injured by baton wielding riot police, who entered the church during Sunday services to drive out worshippers loyal to Dr Bakare. The congregation at first refused to leave the church, singing Gloria in Excelsis Deo.
Fifty more riot police entered the building and began to drum their batons on the backs of the pews to drown out the hymn. When parishioners began to take photos of the police with their cellphones, the police charged and drove the congregation from the building.
Located in one of Harare’s oldest black suburban townships, St Paul’s Highfield had at one time been a bastion of support for Dr Kunonga. During the 2001 election for bishop, the rector of Highfield, the Rev Godfrey Tawonezvi circulated a public letter accusing the leading candidate, the Archdeacon of Harare the Ven Tim Neill of perpetuating racial injustice in the diocese, and wanting to become bishop in order to continue dominating blacks.
Following his election as Bishop of Harare, Dr Kunonga appointed Fr Tawonezvi Dean of St Mary & All Saints Cathedral in Harare, and Neill’s successor as Archdeacon of Harare. In 2002 Dean Tawonezvi removed memorial plaques and other monuments to Rhodesia’s war dead from the Cathedral. The cathedral chapter responded by passing two votes of no confidence in the new Dean.
In 2003 Dr Kunonga appointed Fr Tawonezvi bishop of the newly vacant see of Masvingo in southeastern Zimbabwe, Episcopal News Service reported at the time. However, Bishop Tawonezvi broke with his patron and refused to follow Dr Kunonga out of the Province of Central Africa into the Anglican Church of Zimbabwe with Dr Kunonga as its Archbishop, causing the government backed Harare Herald last year to attack Bishop Tawonezvi for being part of the anti-Kunonga lobby which sought to restore British rule. – By: George Conger.