It is remarkably easy to obtain, but the offender must admit he is an offender and ask for forgiveness. If this is absent, then the words of the cynic become true: “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
I must admit that if any of our top villains were to knock on my door asking forgiveness or refuge from a vengeful mob, I would feel it was only wise to wait for some sign that he was sincere. After all we have seen and heard, I think that is only reasonable. Even Kunonga should have heard of the man who reminded us that “Anyone who lives by the sword, will die by the sword”. Jesus did not approve of revenge, but here he was only stating a fact of life.
We might wish that a lot of things had not happened, but we can’t pretend they didn’t when we see the “short sleeves”, the cripples, the eyeless and the spiritually maimed around us every day. Sweeping all the nastiness under the carpet isn’t only unfair to them; it is storing up more trouble for ourselves in the future. We saw that when the empty “reconciliation” of 1980 swept all the real issues under the carpet, where they festered and fermented until they burst out and engulfed us in 2000. We’re still trying to extract ourselves from that mess, and all because we tried to pretend that we could just forget the nastiness without doing anything positive or difficult to make restitution.
Bishop Chad Gandiya has offered reconciliation to the Kunonga rebels. He will accept them as members of the church, if they wish, but their actions over the past few years disqualify them from acceptance as bishops or priests. Some people might hope that those who show themselves truly repentant and want to be reinstated as clergy might be allowed to return to the ranks of the clergy.
That would probably require a period of probation to test their sincerity and some retraining. Many of them must have been very ignorant of what is expected of a pastor of the church if they behaved as they did. As the Supreme Court understood the Anglican Church’s position, those leaders had excommunicated themselves by leaving the church Province of Central Africa unconstitutionally. A breach like that takes time to heal, but at least one side is ready to help that healing.
The rebels need to learn that those who used them, hoping they would deliver the whole church into the hands of Zanu (PF), have abandoned them. Zanu must have been influenced by the way the Anglican faithful, almost unanimously, rejected firmly but peacefully the pretensions of the rebel clergy.
There is hope for all of us in this story. Not only has the Supreme Court been allowed to deliver a fair verdict, but the next obstacle has been successfully overcome. The police, in spite of all our fears that they would remain aligned with the rebels, have for the first time in many years, accepted that their job is to enforce a non-partisan decision of the courts. It is not only Kunonga’s rebellion that is over. Chipangano’s days must be numbered.
Others who have profited by the lawlessness of recent years must be rethinking their positions. That may not be easy for them. There is a saying among the Zanu leadership that “once you are on this train, it is dangerous to try to jump off”. We should watch carefully in the coming weeks. We need to be ready to offer a soft landing to anyone who does jump, though they will still need to prove their sincerity and make some reparations before we can put the past behind us.
Post published in: Opinions & Analysis