The Inclusive Government must deal decisively with this power-hungry man. Some people in high echelons of power continue to shield him by propping up his persecution of Anglicans.
The latest such crusade by Kunonga to draw attention to his sick and tired mischief agenda appeared in the Herald (Friday 17 June 2011) where he is ‘inviting members of the Church of the Province of Central Africato attend the sacred Bernard Mizeki Commemorations as ordinary worshippers’.
Oil and water do not mix. Anglicans enjoy the services in the open spaces in our communities and in the hired churches, and do not need Kunonga’s blessings.
The insinuation is that he is a legitimate Bishop of the Anglican Church, as the head of the Anglican Diocese of Harare. Kunonga voluntarily resigned from the Anglican Church in September 2007, and subsequently established his Province of Zimbabwe. He is yet to find an indigenous name to his ‘church’, and has held on to the name Anglican, showing his admiration of the Church of England which he
purports to despise. He cited homosexuality among other sinister excuses that he generated in frustration as justification for leaving the Anglican family.
What Kunonga has not told his ‘blind’ disciples and the gangs of hooligans masquerading as Bishops and priests is that while he was still the legitimate Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Harare, especially between 2006 and 2007, he participated in preliminary meetings at which the issue of having a fifth Anglican Diocese in Zimbabwe was being mooted. Once that had been achieved, the Anglican Bishops,
through the Anglican Council of Zimbabwe was going to follow the due Anglican process of Zimbabwe being given Provincial status, which implied that there would be need to choose an Archbishop among the Zimbabwean bishops.
Kunonga assumed that he was the only Bishop who could be elected as Archbishop. The Fifth Diocese Masvingo was established, and Bishop Godfrey Tawonezvi became the Diocesan Bishop, which increased Kunonga’s desperation to be the head of the Anglican community in Zimbabwe.
Subsequent events would show Kunonga’s obsession with absolute power, rendering several priests jobless, illegal transfers of others who questioned his credentials, church wardens were removed from their positions without consulting the respective parishes, removing public participation of laity in decision making, a hallmark of the Anglican Church worldwide. He committed several transgressions that are in the public domain.
Kunonga can go and enjoy the Bernard Mizeki shrine with his band of hooligans but as Anglicans we will never follow a fool to the grave. Let him keep his invitation to himself. Bishop Gandiya has no reason to want to associate with failure. He has better things to do within the Anglican Communion. – Precious Shumba, Harare
Post published in: Letters to the Editor