The Anglican Church has started building new structures around Zimbabwe. The church that was evicted from its premises by ex-communicated bishop Nolbert Kunonga awaits a Supreme Court decision next month that could change its fate once again.

In order to deal with the vagaries of the weather, the Anglican Church said some of its members have already completed building new church structures. However, the church alleges that it is still under siege from Kunonga who continues to abuse church properties.

According to Shumba, the renegade bishop is forcing bona-fide Anglican Church members to bankroll his operations. “Kunonga recently circulated a letter to all Anglican schools in the diocese demanding that the school authorities release their pupils and contribute money for him. This included crèches,” stressed Shumba.

See related material

Evicted teachers allowed by High Court to return to two Anglican schools

DOSSIER OF ABUSES COMMITTED AGAINST THE ANGLICAN DIOCESES OF ZIMBABWE CHURCH OF THE PROVINCE OF CENTRAL AFRICA

 by Jacob Shamuyarira

Place: St Peter’s Kubatana in Harare
Date: May 25

Event includes the following activities:

Music exachange: Hymn 117 (Dombo rakatsemurwa), Hymn 118 (Jesu mudisi), Ndebele hymn (234)
Sports Exchange Gala: soccer, volleyball, netball, basketball and chess

Contact: AYAH Facebook page

See related article:  On Catholics’ solidarity with Zimbabwe’s Anglican community

Click here to view the embedded video.

 Robert Mercer, the fourth Anglican bishop of Matabeleland, was ordained a priest for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the UK end of last month. 

Robert Mercer, centre, with Mgr Keith Newton, left, and Bishop Alan Hopes. (photo courtesy of catholicherald.co.uk)

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is a personal ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church immediately subject to the Holy See within the territory of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, of which its ordinary is a member, and encompassing Scotland also. It was established on 15 January 2011 for groups of former Anglicans in England and Wales in accordance with the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus of Pope Benedict XVI.

 Mercer, 77, grew up in Zimbabwe and later worked across the Limpopo. In 1970, Mercer was deported from South Africa for his stand against apartheid, along with several other Anglican priests. He was then chaplain of St Augustine’s School Penhalonga in Manicaland and then rector of Borrowdale in Harare.

In 1977, he went on to become Bishop of Matabeleland in the Anglican Province of Central Africa, in the midst of liberation struggle. He was bishop for 11 years before leaving the Anglican Communion to join the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, part of the worldwide Traditional Anglican Communion. He served as metropolitan bishop from 1988 to 2005, when he retired to England.

Ordained as an Anglican priest in 1960, Robert Mercer's first post was as a curate at Hillside, Bulawayo (pictured).

Mercer became a Catholic in January 2012. According to him, Pope Benedict XVI’s offer of an ordinariate to Anglicans in 2009 was “an answer to our prayers, to our dreams”. He said he had been longing for Christian unity since the early 1980s, when Pope John Paul II and Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury, issued a joint declaration thanking God for “the progress that has been made in the work of reconciliation”. 

Mercer added that, while, in a sense, the Pope’s offer of an ordinariate in Anglicanorum coetibus was “wonderful and sudden and too good to be true”, it was also the “fulfilment of 400 years of prayer and aspiration and hope and idealism”. “One day,” he said, “I hope the Anglican Communion will be reconciled with the Bishop of Rome.”

by Pamela Mwachumo

Passengers hustle to take their seats on a bus that is ready to depart from the Road Port bus terminal in Harare for Johannesburg, South Africa. Vendors are also not to be outdone as they push their way out of the luxury coach that is already in motion for the journey of over a thousand kilometers.

Amid all this jostling, suddenly a loud voice cries out, “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! This morning I am going to read from Proverbs 10:4 which says, ‘lazy hands make a man poor but diligent hands bring wealth’.” 

There is a sudden silence among the passengers who seem to have been taken by surprise. The preacher, Pastor Perseverance Hara of the Pentecostal Association of Zimbabwe, then continues with his sermon before the attentive audience. “I bring the gospel of diligent hardworking to the cross-border traders,” he says.

Pastor Hara quotes another verse, Proverbs 19:14: “Houses and wealth are inherited from parents…” — He then elaborates the teaching, ”Most people just work not knowing that they have to work for their children and to leave them wealth after they are gone. I teach people to work hard for the sake of their children.”

This powerful speaker mesmerises the passengers with the way he addresses topical societal issues. After delivering the sermon, the pastor pulls another surprise as he transforms from a preacher into a trader offering Bibles for USD10 each and other books with topical titles such as Families Under Stress for USD2.  Children’s literature is also available for USD1.

He continues with this routine throughout the day and knocks off around 4 pm just in time to catch the City-Marimba freedom train. There, he continues with his business/service.

Pastor Hara is one of the many men and women of God who have taken to open-air services to preach the Word and sell Scriptures. The Scriptures used to be distributed for free but they are now being sold, and Pastor Hara explains why. ”We used to get these Scriptures free of charge from donors, but they have since stopped that so we have to buy them for resale.”

Open-air services in Harare’s city centre are a common scene every lunch hour. Interestingly, two or even three pastors can be seen ministering near each other at the same time.

Pastor Ticharehwa Warenga of FEPAZI Good God Church is a regular preacher in the Africa Unity Square. While he conducts his sermons, a colleague will be distributing pamphlets inviting potential worshippers to join their church.

In the same square, Apostle Brezhnev Gwenzi of Royal Family of God International Ministries is just winding up his message. He then invites people to buy some DVDs for USD1 each for a follow-up of his teachings. 

2013 WYD Fund website.

But the event that took place in the Jubilee Hall of the Archdiocese of Harare today provides valuable insights into how Zimbabwean Catholics can learn from challenges of the past. Even more so, the official launch of the 2013 World Youth Day savings fund could prove a source of inspiration to the organizers’ non-Catholic compatriots.

World Youth Day is a youth-oriented Catholic Church event initiated by Blessed John Paul II in 1985. While the event itself celebrates the Catholic faith, the invitation to attend extends to all youth, regardless of religious convictions so that they can get an insight into Catholic beliefs and practices.

Every two years young people from all over the world converge for two weeks of cultural exchanges, lessons on Catholic faith and meeting cardinals and the Pope. Last year’s WYD took place in Madrid, Spain. A group of 217 pilgrims from Zimbabwe attended this event, with representatives coming from all 8 Catholic dioceses in the country. The number could be much bigger, however. Due to financial constraints, lack of information, late onset of preparations and failure to meet deadlines many young Zimbabweans were left behind. 

Realizing an urgent need to start preparing for the 2013 WYD (held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) as well as share with all youth throughout the country what was learnt at Madrid edition, people like Jacob Shamuyarira decided to act now.

Mr Shamuyarira told RelZim that already in September of 2011 (a month after the end of the previous WYD) TN Asset Management, local financial advisory company, undertook a research to evaluate the possibility of creating a fund that would help the families of young Zimbabweans to go on the next WYD pilgrimage. In the meantime, it was decided in various consultations between young Catholics and the clergy responsible for the youth that a local website will be put up to serve as the primary source of information for both the pilgrims and their parents. Sure, there is also a Facebook page.

Present at the joint launch of the fund and the website were the following representatives of the Archdiocese of Harare: Fr J Chabuka (Spiritual Director, Youth and Vocations), Sr I Katsukunya (Youth Coordinator, Youth and Vocations), Tendai Karombo (Youth Chairperson, Youth and Vocations), Simba Rusere (Chief Organising Secretary, Youth and Vocations). TN Asset Management Non-executive Chairman Antony Eastwood made a short (if a bit quite) speech about the philosophy behind the fund. He was addressing representatives of various dioceses and Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference bodies like Sr Matimati (education executive for Zimbabwe). 

Speaking on behalf of the parents whose children visited Madrid last year, Mrs Sakonda shared her concerns about the logistical challenges and complained about the lack of fast information exchange during the preparation to the last year’s WYD trip, which led to a lot of anxiety among the pilgrims as well as increase in costs. Despite all this, she underscored how much her two children grew in their faith during the pilgrimage. She said that her daughter started taking joy in singing during the mass after she returned from Spain. Mrs Sakonda encouraged Zimbabwean catechists to work harder in fostering faith explorations of youth.

Mrs Sakonda is sharing her family's experience of preparations for last year's World Youth Day in Spain.

The overall individual budget of participating in the 2013 WYD will amount to US$1,800 (estimation as of December 1, 2011):

US$1 290 – air fare

US$70 –promotional material, flags and swop items 

US$180 –registration 

US$260– pocket money (varies based on personal needs)

The TN Asset Management package presented today will enable pilgrims to save their funds and receive interest at the end of the year. Under the package, all youths will get promotional material to swop with other countries as well as cash passports to enable them to transact in Brazil. The Visa network in Brazil has already been predetermined, and back-up arrangements are in place should an individual lose his/her card. 

Moreover, based on possible numbers, Zimbabwean group could benefit from collective bargaining through dealing directly with airlines, financial institutions and promotional material companies who will produce quality material at a relatively low price.

Outside the Jubilee Hall of the Archdiocese of Harare.

Arrangements have been made to contact the master 2013 WYD website administrator in Brazil who will be providing Zimbabwean pilgrims with first-hand information on developments around the event.

The pilgrimage will run for two weeks from 14th to 28th July and will be organized as follows: 

July 14-22nd – days in the Different Dioceses for site and parish visits and cultural exchanges

July 23rd-28th – traditional catechesis, youth festivals and activities with Pope Benedict XVI

The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace retains that collapsed water and sanitation facilities will cause “more suffering and deaths” as annual rains begin.

Nearly 250 cases of the waterborne disease typhoid were treated in Harare last month. In 2009 a cholera outbreak killed more than 4,000 people.

The commission says emergency funds are needed in areas where people take contaminated water from drains and shallow, makeshift wells.

Some impoverished townships of Harare haven’t had access to piped water for months — or even years — amid the country’s economic meltdown.

The Nehanda tree knocked down by a truck (photo. F. Tichawangana).

hanged, was knocked down by a truck.

A construction worker resurfacing of the road backed into the tree by mistake, resulting in its trunk snapping about 60cm from its base and toppling over.  

Not realising the significance of the tree, one of the other workmen got a chain saw and started ripping away at the tree to clear the road so that traffic could flow. He had almost gone through the whole branch when someone frantically yelled that they had knocked down ‘Nehanda’s tree’.

They were advised to back off and call the National Parks & Wildlife Authority or the Ministry of Home Affairs as the tree was a ‘protected national monument’.

For hours, work stopped as the team of workmen stood there looking really worried. 

The Nehanda tree, pictured at the end of October 2011 (left) (photo F. Tichawangana).

The tree was conspicuous as it stood alone in the middle of the road, close to the intersection of Josiah Tongogara Avenue and Sam Nujoma (formerly Second) Street and was the cause of much curiosity over the years as people wondered why it had been spared when the roads were constructed.

In 1896 Rhodesian settlers hanged Mbuya Nehanda. The hanging is believed to have come after the imposition of a “hut tax” and other tax assessments in 1894, at which both the Ndebele and Shona people revolted in June 1896, in what became known as the First Chimurenga or Second Matabele War. The Mashonaland part of the rebellion was encouraged by traditional religious leaders, Nehanda being chief among them. Along with her spiritual husband Sekuru Kaguvi, Nehanda was charged with murder (Kaguvi for the death of an African policeman and Nehanda for the death of the Native Commissioner) and sentenced to death by hanging.

Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi in Custody ca 1896.

Two unsuccessful attempts were made to hang Nehanda. An African prisoner who was present at her hanging suggested that the hangman remove the tobacco pouch from her belt in order for her to die.

Nehanda’s dying words are said to have been, “My bones will rise again.”

This morning, a woman dressed in white robes could be seen praying at the stump of the Nehanda tree (photo. Zimbojam).

Just a few weeks ago a conversation sprouted on social media platforms with people asking if it was true that it was not allowed to take photos of the Nehanda tree.

This morning, as motorists drove to work they could notice a woman dressed mostly in white sitting close to the stump in a position that suggests she was praying.