CHITUNGWIZA - They came just before twilight on Easter Saturday in their blue uniforms to remember Christ Jesus at the open church service for the first time in their lives.
Members of the Anglican Church, who have been chased away from their churches by rebel bishop Norbert Kunonga, congregated around makeshift churches scattered around the country.
We used to have a church but now we are just praying outside. We hope that we will eventually be able to build a new church where we will worship and without involving politics, said a member of the church that is recognised world over as the real Anglican Church.
Even though a High Court order last year had instructed the feuding camps to share facilities while the matter was resolved Kunonga, with the help of the police, has shut out members of the official church, forcing them sometimes to meet under trees and in open spaces in the city. He is a staunch supporter of President Robert Mugabe.
Its really heartbreaking to remember the fact that we once had a church of our own and now that it has been taken by Zanu (PF) supporters. But we will not despair, we will leave everything in the hands of the Lord, said a worshiper at an open ground in Seke where the church held a vigil commemorating the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
While they used to pray just outside their churches that has ceased altogether, as Kunongas goons aided by the police have descended heavily on the peaceful worshippers driving them away. Now they no longer have walls – but they believe they still have the church.
The church is not the building but the people, we are happy where we are today and believe that eventually we will be able to have the walls that will serve us from the weather, said an elderly woman who has been active in the Anglican Church since the 70s.
Now riven along political lines, things will never be the same for one of the largest churches in the region as politics has taken precedence. Mugabes recent utterances at the National Heroes Acre that every person should be involved in politics is not the best of news for free worshipers who are now weary of the result of the actions of the renegade Kunonga, who is now guarded around the clock by members of the Central Intelligence Organisation.
“They used force to eject us from our rightful churches. Judgment will fall on them when the time comes for they are denying the children of God their rights,” said another worshiper.
Post published in: News