From the Revd Melusi Sibanda
Sir, - Just over a year ago, the Archbishop of Canterbury
paid a week-long visit to the Church of the Province of Central
Africa (CPCA), which included not only a visit to Zimbabwe, but
also a meeting with President Robert Mugabe. During the meeting, Dr
Williams gave the President a dossier concerning the predicament of
genuine CPCA Anglicans under the former Bishop of Harare, Nolbert
Kunonga.
Asserting that homosexuality was a foreign issue and, therefore,
anathema to African culture, Kunonga decided to leave the CPCA in
2007, when he formed his so-called Anglican Church of the Province
of Zimbabwe (ACPZ). For five years, Kunonga held on to the
properties belonging to the CPCA until very recently, when the
situation was remedied through a judgment of the Supreme Court.
All along, Kunonga unleashed fear on genuine Anglicans in the
country and, often being backed by uniformed state security, seemed
to enjoy the support of President Mugabe's ZANU (PF) party. Kunonga
openly supported the party's political culture of indigenisation,
which he actively manipulated in his project for
self-aggrandisement, turning CPCA churches, rectories, and mission
stations into money-making schemes.
Dr Williams's meeting with President Mugabe was a crucial point
in the Anglican saga in contemporary Zimbabwe, as it strengthened
the position and credibility of the CPCA and weakened Kunonga's
claim to legitimacy. Dr Williams may have taken a risk in being the
highest-ranking British official to meet President Mugabe in a
decade, but his visit led many to start questioning Kunonga's
venture.
Together with the positive turn of events in recent weeks, that
visit can be seen as one of Dr Williams's successful engagements
with temporal authority and support for global Anglicanism. It is a
cause for celebration as he comes towards the end of his tenure,
and also underlines the fundamental nature of the office of the
Archbishop of Canterbury as one of the Instruments of
Communion.
MELUSI SIBANDA
St Stephen's Vicarage
Edgewood Road, Rednal
Birmingham B45 8SG