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Statement
on Supreme Court victory
Anglican
Bishop of the Diocese of Harare in the Church of the Province of
Central Africa (CPCA)
November 21,
2012
Members of the Press, I want to warmly greet you all in the Name
of our Lord Jesus Christ and welcome you to our temporary home here
in Avondale. We gather here to share with you our Supreme
Court victory on Monday 19 November 2012 following a five year
legal battle with those who left the Church on 21 September 2007
but refused to relinquish our properties, and have continued to
occupy our Church buildings. While we acknowledge the untold suffering
of our clergymen and their families, parishioners and many others
went through, we are grateful that God was with us throughout. Evidently,
if God is on our side who can be against us? We prayed, we waited
and finally we have been vindicated.
Since September
2007, congregations in the Diocese of Harare have not had access
to our Church buildings. We have had to rent space for all our activities
even worshipping under trees and in open grounds. This eviction
from our Church buildings and other properties marked the beginning
of our exile, just as the children of Israel were forced into Babylonia,
led at the beginning by Retired Anglican Bishop Sebastian Bakare.
This has been a serious challenge to the Anglican clergymen and
their wives, parishioners, and authorities in our various institutions
who had to adapt to new circumstances of living in constant fear
of being harassed, being persecuted by your brothers who had decided
on their own to leave the Church. When we started on this exilic
journey, we knew that our salvation lay in the hands of our God
and we encouraged each and every one of us to hold on to true and
pure faith. So we had hope. We are prisoners of hope! This is why
we say, "Mukristu Usanete, Namata Urinde!" (Christian
seek not yet repose, watch and pray!) whenever we gather together.
Today we declare
to you that the exile is over. But in the words reminiscent to Nehemiah,
we say to you: You see the trouble we are in. Harare Diocese lies
in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us
rebuild the walls of Harare Diocese, and we will no longer be in
disgrace. Now that we have won this battle in the Supreme Court,
we have to rebuild the Diocese of Harare. This marks the beginning
of another very complicated and painful process of consolidating
our work as a Church providing health services, education, food
security, ministering to those afflicted with HIV/Aids, the widows
and orphans; and to enrich our members in continuing theological
education among the ordinary Anglicans, spiritual growth through
worship and faithfully preaching the Gospel of the risen Christ.
As a Diocese,
we remain humbled by the dedication shown by Anglicans who persevered
under very difficult circumstances. We want to thank our Ecumenical
Partners, the various denominations in Harare that have assisted
us, all Anglicans and non-Anglicans local and worldwide who continued
to believe and pray with us. Our hearts pour out also for those
who were too traumatised with being Anglicans and sought spiritual
homes in other churches.
Across the Diocese,
since our victory in the Supreme Court, we have met the Church leadership,
the Church wardens and the Clergy to discuss various issues that
now confront us as we begin to restore Harare. To officially start
using our Church buildings for services, the Church has planned
to have a Thanksgiving Service in the Africa Unity Square on Sunday
16 December 2012 from 9am where Anglicans from across the Diocese
and our friends will come and witness the return of the Bishop's
Chair from Exile, and is restored in the Anglican Cathedral. There
will be cleansing and rededication of the Cathedral and all parish
buildings to what they should be, holy places, buildings set apart
for the worship and glorification of our true living God - which
were desecrated when we were forced into exile. As part of the rebuilding
and restoration process, the Anglican Diocese of Harare CPCA is
instituting legal proceedings to ensure that our scattered priests
and their families are restored to the Church rectories, and our
congregations are restored to their places of worship, and those
who have occupied our properties have to be evicted without further
delay.
Church leadership
at parish levels have been taking stock of everything at the Church
buildings, consolidating the inventories to ensure that every item
that has ever belonged to the Church is properly accounted for and
documented. Items that are found missing will be also recorded and
police reports would be made to ensure that there is accountability
and transparency in all these processes of restoration and rebuilding.
While the prospects of recovering the looted items might be remote,
efforts would be made to ensure that those who illegally occupied
our Church buildings, and caused Anglicans significant suffering
are properly rehabilitated following an admission of their transgressions,
and restoration of our assets.
Utility bills
have not been paid so as we repossess our assets, we shall be engaging
with the local authorities to ensure that debt at these institutions
is properly assigned to those responsible. The Church cannot be
asked to settle outstanding debts owed by illegal occupants, whose
illegality has now been confirmed by the courts. Efforts are being
made to consolidate our assets' inventories, and we shall
be quantifying the monetary value.
For the record,
we are all humans prone to making mistakes in our lives. Those who
wronged us are not our enemies because we all share in the Grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are all sinners saved by the grace
of God. We have a gospel mandate to forgive and I am appealing to
all our members to dig deep in their hearts and find the will to
forgive. Remember we are also forgiven sinners. All those who want
to worship with us are most welcome to come. We will follow our
own church rules regarding coming back and restoration of those
who backslide and want to come back.
God has been
gracious to us and we also must be gracious to others. We are Christians
and they will know we are Christians by our love.
+Chad, Harare
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