Zim's 'anti-gay' bishop appears
2007-10-18 08:13
Harare - The Anglican Church is due to go to court on Thursday to try to bar the controversial bishop of Harare from continuing to use church property and funds, a lawyer said.
Bishop Nolbert Kunonga pulled the Harare diocese out of the Anglican Church province of central Africa in September 21, claiming it had failed to censure bishops who were sympathetic to homosexuality.
Now the province wants to bar Kunonga, a staunch supporter of President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, from handling funds and investments belonging to the Anglican church and from using church property including offices, cars and houses.
The application was expected to be made in Harare High Court on Thursday afternoon, said lawyer Raymond Moyo who represented the church province.
The province consisted of 15 dioceses in Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
In affidavits seen by reporters, the province said its Harare diocese would suffer irreparable harm in the event that it should not be able to conduct its normal business from its offices.
De facto control
This status quo had also caused considerable confusion to the ordinary members of the church as to Kunonga's role in light of the fact that he remained in de facto control of the Diocese of Harare, part of the court papers said.
The case represented the latest chapter in the controversial reign of Kunonga, who became Bishop of Harare in 2001.
He had preached in support of Mugabe's seizure of white-owned land, and was allocated a prime commercial farm on the outskirts of Harare.
In 2005, Kunonga was dragged before an ecclesiastical court in Harare to answer more than 30 charges, including incitement to murder.
That case ended inconclusively after the Malawian judge refused to preside over it.
New church province?
State media had been reporting that the Harare diocese's dispute with the Central African province centred on Kunonga's stance against homosexuality.
But independent reports here said there was no dispute over homosexuality at a key synod meeting held by the Central African province in September in Malawi.
Kunonga said he had planned to create a new church province in Zimbabwe.
He said he had the support of three out of the five Anglican church districts in the country.
- SAPA