Anglican Bishop Chad Gandiya with Dean of Norwich Graham Smith (Photo courtesy of eveningnews24.co.uk).
The Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA) has forgiven renegade former Arch-Bishop Nolbert Kunonga and all those who followed him including school administrators.
CPCA spokesperson Precious Shumba said the church had retained all school administrators without any financial or status loss.
“The forgiveness extended to Kunonga spread across all his members. The church has been very pragmatic in its approach.
“The school heads were retain and none of them lost anything during the transition. These are people who were forced into a situation and had no option but to follow what Kunonga wanted,” Sumba said.
He said in moving forward the church had chosen the path of forgiveness and asked those that had rebelled to come back to the church with full benefits as members of the Anglican Church.
“If the teachers had decided to defy Kunonga they would have lost their jobs and that would have had a devastating effect on their families. We understood their situation,” he said.
Kunonga left the (CPCA) in 2007 to form his own Anglican Church of the Province of Zimbabwe over the issue of homosexuality saying he could not accept the CPCA Harare Diocese’s refusal to “exclude from our fold such people or elements that have embraced out of their own free will, support or sympathy for homosexuals”.
The Supreme Court last year then ruled in the CPCA’s favour leading to the fall of Kunonga who had wreaked havoc including leasing out properties and evicting people from orphanages across the country.
Prestigious schools such as Bonda Mission in Manicaland, St Albans in Mashonaland Central were left in dilapidated condition.
“St Albans was virtually collapsing and that will need a lot of money. The church will have to chip in but we are also looking for grants and loans to finance the reconstruction Zimbabweans but of course at a price that is reasonable.
“Our aim is to provide a service to provide Zimbabweans with a decent service including the corporate world but at a reasonable fee of-course,” Gandiya said.
Kunonga’s reign of terror also led to deaths including that of an 89 year-old woman.
Days following Kunonga’s fall from grace the Gandiya camp made sensational allegations of food poisoning against the disgraced and dethroned renegade clergyman.
Gandiya’s CPCA sent out a red alert to its members saying it had unearthed a case where Kunonga’s people, including his relatives had poisoned an orchard to fix CPCA members expected after they (Kunonga’s) people had been ordered to vacate rectories, schools and hospitals they grabbed for five years.
Briefing journalists yesterday Gandiya said the church had now embarked on a massive infrastructure rehabilitation programme as well as new projects.
“Most of our infrastructure was left in a state of disrepair during our days in exile. We have also incurred debts that we are now servicing.
“The CPCA has negotiated with creditors so that we pay what we can. It will take time but with time we should be able to service and recover every cent we are owed. The courts are handling that at the moment and we will wait for that,” said Gandiya.
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