The Rededication of St John The Baptist Cathedral in Zimbabwe

Report by the Revd Fr Abel Joseph Waziweyi, Rector of Mufudzi Wakanaka Parish in the city of Mutare. Fr. Waziweyi and Communication Officer of the diocese of Manicaland.

On the April 6, 2013, all roads in the Zimbabwean city of Mutare led to the cathedral of St John the Baptist in the center of the city, as over 3,000 Christians marched to witness the cleansing and rededication of the cathedral after years of defilement and abuse by the excommunicated bishop Mr Elson Madhodha Jakazi.

Anglicans from all over the diocese came to witness this memorable event. Some came from as far as Nyamaropa, a town which is over two hundred kilometers north of Mutare. Others came from churches dotted around the city. It was a marvel to watch the sea of blue, white and black which is the trademark Mothers’ Union uniform walking up Mutare’s main thoroughfare Herbert Chitepo street.

The rededication service started with an early morning procession at 6am, from the Meikles Park up Herbert Chitepo Street to the Cathedral of St John the Baptist. There was however a lighter moment to the procession as the police tried to stop the procession forgetting that they had granted the church permission to undertake the procession.

The procession was accompanied by lively singing from our diocesan choir made up of choristers from the different congregations in the diocese who had practiced for a month. It was an electric atmosphere as people celebrated the end of a long struggle that had drained the diocese of its resources and spirituality.

When the precession reached the cathedral, the Vicar General, Canon Kingston Nyazika, ably assisted by the two churchwardens, presented the Bishop’s Cathedra chair which had been kept in exile. After the bishop accepted the chair, it was time for a brief history of the Anglican Diocese of Manicaland. It was presented by the diocesan registrar Mr. Ashel Mutungura who touched on how the whole sad episode started with Mr. Jakazi withdrawal from the province of Central Africa in September 2007. Among many other areas, he also touched on the election of the Dr. Julius Makoni as the Bishop, his consecration as well and the challenges that he faced.

According to Mr. Mutungura, the people of the diocese of Manicaland had gone through a lot over the past five years with some becoming permanent guests of the police on a weekly basis as they were being arrested for refusing to vacate their churches. Mr. Jakazi went on the rampage with the assistance of the police in chasing bona fide Anglicans out of their churches. The lawyers of the diocese spent a lot of time in courts and police fighting for the release of those who would have been arrested.

The bishops who attended the rededication service also had an opportunity to offer solidarity messages to the diocese of Manicaland. There were also solidarity messages from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba.

The other bishops who offered solidarity messages where bishops Derrick Kamukwamba of Central Zambia, William Mchombo of Eastern Zambia, James Tengatenga of Southern Malawi, Ishmael Mukuwanda of Central Zimbabwe and Chad Gandiya of Harare.

Two retired bishops who had served the diocese of Manicaland in the past the Rt Rev. Dr. Sebastian Bakare and Dr Ralph Peter Hatendi also offered messages of solidarity. The bishops exhorted the faithful in the diocese to unite and focus on their main agenda of rebuilding the diocese after years of plunder.

After the solidarity messages, the bishops were led inside by the choir for the rededication of the church and its vestments for God’s use. The rededication was led by the Bishop of the Diocese of Manicaland and Dean of the Province of Central Africa, the Revd Dr Julius Makoni and the Archbishop of the Province, the Most Reverend Albert Chama.

In his sermon the Archbishop of the Church of the Province of Central Africa, The Most Reverend Albert Chama chronicled how he learnt the hard way in 2008 when he was arrested at the enthronement of the of the Right Reverend Dr Ralph Peter Hatendi and "for the first time discovered that it had become a criminal offence in Zimbabwe to be a Christian". This is after the excommunicated bishop had filed an urgent court application seeking to bar the caretaker bishop from being enthroned. His main message was on the need to work for reconciliation for the diocese of Manicaland.

The Archbishop challenged those who had been arrested and harangued by the excommunicated bishop and his followers to forgive those who had persecuted them for it is one of the Christian principles preached by Jesus Christ. He said that some of the people who persecuted the Christians did not know what was happening for they were fed with wrong information meant to mislead them. He used a quotation from church history which says that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

According to the Archbishop, the church had been blessed during its years in exile as people have been made stronger and new members added and there was need to maintain that momentum. He urged the faithful to continue to work for the good of the kingdom and thanked those who had persevered throughout the difficult years that the diocese has gone through. The service marked the climax of the victory that has been won by the Diocese of Manicaland in the courts in which Mr. Jakazi was trying to hold on to the property of the church. This means that the Diocese of Manicaland will from now on concentrate on its core business of running its institutions like schools, hospitals, clinics and orphanages.

The resources that have been wasted on fighting court cases will now be channeled to develop the church. The members of the church who have been chased out of their church buildings now have access to their church buildings and no longer need to rent buildings for worship or meet in the open under trees at the mercy of the vagaries of nature like rain, sun or the cold weather that is associated with the Manicaland province.

The Diocese of Manicaland now has control of its education institutions which have been plundered over the past years but left to deteriorate. The diocese will have to work hard so that these schools regain their former glory for they are well known for producing a lot of students who have succeeded in different aspects of their lives. Our schools have produced politicians, academics and business people who have excelled in their areas of expertise.

There is also need to work hard to change the attitudes of individuals especially after the five years in which there were a lot of accusation and lies being spread by Mr. Jakazi and his group, which lies where meant portray the Church in bad light so that they are able to forgive and move on with their lives.

ENDS

[See Pictures Gallery for more photos]