'No urgency' to oust Zimbabwe bishop.Harare Zimbabwe's High Court has ruled that there is no urgency, in hearing a case in which the Anglican Province of Central Africa is seeking the expulsion of Bishop Nolbert Kunonga of the Harare diocese, after he sought to withdraw his diocese from the province. On Sept. 21, Bishop Kunonga wrote a letter to Archbishop Bernard Malango, who has since retired, withdrawing the diocese of Harare from the regional church province. This followed Bishop Kunonga's opposition to the granting of what he described as "Christian rights The term "Christian Right" is used by scholars and journalists, to refer to a spectrum of right-wing Christian political and social movements and organizations characterized by their strong support of conservative social and political values. " to homosexual Christians by some bishops at a provincial synod SYNOD. An ecclesiastical assembly. held in Malawi in September. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] (The bishop of Botswana, Musonda Trevor Selwyn Mwamba, said recently that Bishop Kunonga opposed the province's commitment "that all the bishops, clergy and laity LAITY. Those persons who do not make a part of the clergy. In the United States the division of the people into clergy and laity is not authorized by law, but is, merely conventional. in the province were of one mind on the issue of homosexuality, namely, that the province holds to the Lambeth Conference Lambeth Conference, convocation at Lambeth Palace, London, that brings together all the bishops in the Anglican Communion. It meets about every 10 years at the invitation of the archbishop of Canterbury and is the principal instrument of international Anglican life, resolution ... which calls for a listening process, dialogue and reconciliation.") The Anglican Province of Central Africa, which includes Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, then lodged a court application in Harare on Oct. 12, seeking Bishop Kunonga's expulsion from the church. The province sought a court order to compel the bishop to return all church property that he has been using, and for him to be barred from operating church bank accounts or investments. Judge Alfas Chitakunye on Oct. 21 ruled that the application, which had sought an urgent hearing, lacked merit and should be brought as an ordinary court application. Bishop Kunonga is seeking to have his diocese join the Anglican Province of Kenya. The controversial bishop is a staunch supporter of President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF ZANU PF Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) government, which allocated him a farm that, under a land reform program, was seized from its former white owner a few years ago. "The [church] province instituted legal proceedings All actions that are authorized or sanctioned by law and instituted in a court or a tribunal for the acquisition of rights or the enforcement of remedies. against Dr. Kunonga accusing him of creating a new ministry of his own, a move seen by many as a ploy to punish the bishop for his stance on the government's land policy," said an Oct. 18 report in Zimbabwe's state-owned Herald newspaper. Since 2000, the Zimbabwe government has seized land from virtually all of the country's 4,500 white commercial farmers--in some cases allocating it to landless land·less adj. Owning or having no land. land  less·ness n.Adj. 1. blacks--under a program often characterized by violence. Many of the beneficiaries lack agricultural skills, and the opposition says some farms have been given to senior ruling party officials. Privately owned newspapers in Zimbabwe have reported that the farm allocated to Bishop Kunonga now lies derelict derelict n. something or someone who is abandoned, such as a ship left to drift at sea or a homeless person ignored by family and society. (See: abandon, dereliction) DERELICT, common law. , as do thousands of others. ECUMENICAL NEWS INTERNATIONAL |
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