According to the source, the problem started with Kunonga playing the race card against Tim Neil, during his election. He reportedly then proceeded to victimize a number of priests as well as appoint un-ordained and untrained people to posts which required ordainment and training.
| The world media regularly refers to Kunonga as 'Mugabe Bishop'. |
Kunonga was then charged with maladministration by the church, and summoned for ecclesiastical trial. According to the source that is when Kunonga played the political card and made overtures to Zanu-PF.
According to the source it this point it was inevitable that the church was going to split. He claims the real catalyst for the split was that the regional archbishop, Archbishop Malango who had been protecting Kunonga since 2001 retired and was replaced by Archbishop Chama.
Unfortunately, that is not the story as it has been told, not just in the Zimbabwe state media, but in the international media and in general.
The information above shows that Kunonga's problem had nothing to do with politics but abuse of power. It also makes it clear that political associations only came in when Kunonga was looking for backers.
The source claims that Kunonga's ecclesiastical trial was 'frustrated into abortion by [the Herald]'. That is a very myopic view. The Herald were not even party to the trial so I fail to understand exactly how they did that.
The Herald is not the Anglican church's public relations department. It cannot be expected to paint an accurate picture on behalf of the church. If the judges or whoever was at the trial ended up fighting among themselves, blame it on their own confusion.
| Public relations does not work on auto-pilot |
If one searches Google for the word Kunonga most of the news articles you come up with will refer to him as 'Mugabe bishop'. The Wikipedia page on him states that his main problem with Anglicans was 'his ardent support of Robert Mugabe'.
This is clear evidence that there is a wide perception out there that Kunonga's problems are as a result of his political views. Surely the Anglican church only have themselves to blame, not the Herald, for allowing that perception to dominate the truth.
If indeed Kunonga was being persecuted for his political views, then I would have absolutely no hesitation in condemning the Anglican church for trying to impose its political views on its congregation.
However if it was about the incidents which are now being cited of victimization of priests and general maladministration then the church was absolutely right.
What I fault the church with is allowing the issue to be incorrectly characterised in the general media for long. It should have been made very clear long ago that Kunonga's problems had nothing to do with politics but his own maladministration of the Church.
| Trying Kunonga for maladministration is proper; for his political views is human rights abuse |
I am sure if that had been made clear, even Zanu-PF wouldn't have offered him protection. Much of the world out there believes Kunonga was targeted for supporting Robert Mugabe.
As we speak some some are trying to characterize his current travails as a humiliation of Zanu-PF. Yet judging by Herald reports Zanu-PF have clearly washed their hands of him.
By simply correctly and accurately communicating the real facts behind the Kunonga saga, the Anglican church could have saved their congregation a lot of gnashing of the teeth.
It is the job of the church to make sure its position is clearly communicated. Public relations does not work on auto-pilot.
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