Anglican Church builds more than faith through schools, clinics

Samuel Kadungure
News Editor
JUST inside the main gate at St James The Great Zongoro High School, a fresh green roof catches the eye.
The building is new, solid and already full. Inside, 200 girls live and sleep for three months. Two years ago, the building did not exist.
This is how the Anglican Diocese of Manicaland prays.
For the church, the green roof is more than a building, but a physical expression of faith.
On October 3, the diocese will converge at St Bartholomew in Rusape to mark 45 years of existence. The celebration will be about more than age – but centre on a question the diocese has tried to answer in brick, mortar and medicine – what good is spirituality without tangible development?
For diocesan secretary, Dr Edmund Samutereko, the answer is blunt.
“Anglican is a life giving church with a thrust in education, health, spiritual growth, and also evangelism,” he said, emphasising that they pair preaching with visible work in health, education and social infrastructure.
Dr Samutereko said they do not preach a prosperity gospel, but practical gospel in which people should be happy, healthy and well educated on earth before heaven.
“We believe that people should be happy, healthy, well educated, and rich in terms of spirituality before going to heaven,” he said.
The latest engine of that approach is the mission fund.
Introduced during the Lord Bishop Eric Ruwona’s current tenure, the mission fund initially faced resistance and court challenge. The diocese eventually won. While school fees increases must be approved by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, the mission fund is church-related, guided by the acts of the diocese.
The fund is charged at US$500 for Form One and Six, and applies only to first-time learners, not returning ones. The levy, collected across the diocese’s schools, has become a revolving fund for construction.
The results are visible across Manicaland.
At St Werburgh’s High School, the diocese is upgrading a low-cost boarding into a proper facility, with about 19 boarders already there.

Plans for a 200-bed dormitory have been approved by both the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and local authority, with construction starting this term.
At St James Zongoro, the mission fund built the green-roofed building that now houses 200 female learners.
“We managed to construct a boarding facility, which is carrying 200 female learners. That was constructed using the mission fund that we collected two years ago, and now we are now realising a lot of profits from that project,” said Dr Samutereko.
At St David’s Bonda Girls’ High, overcrowding was the problem. Congested hostels could not cope with more than 1 000 learners, while the church used for worship could not accommodate them all.
A new hostel housing 80 learners has been completed using the fund. A very big church is now at roof stage and set for completion next year.
At St Mary’s Magdalene, the crisis was sanitation. Toilets were dilapidated. The diocese renovated and tiled them, and improved the water supply. At St Anne’s Goto, a 100-seat dormitory is already in use. Again, toilets were a major concern.
“When you are at a boarding school where students stay for four months…the facilities need to be improved,” he said.
At St Matthias Tsonzo, a semi-completed double-story dormitory had been left unfinished. The diocese it took over, and schoolgirls now occupy it. Small window frames that compromised ventilation were replaced.
At St Faith’s High, the diocese had problems with the School Development Committee for two years. Double enrolment of learners was controversial, but it forced a rethink.
A four classroom block was commissioned last year, and a 200-bed hostel is now at ring beam level. The school secured a US$450 000 bank loan, but it was not enough. The mission fund is being used to complete the building.
Dr Samutereko recalls a visit from former head, Mr Moses Mukoyi: “Bishop (Ruwona), I want to apologise, I did not know that you had such a vision.”
Work remains at St Faith’s, the head, bursar and deputy head’s offices are not commensurate with the status of the school. A state-of-the-art administration block is planned.
The expansion is moving into new areas.
In Honde Valley, a secondary school has started at St Francis Pimai, with classroom blocks under construction.
Last year, it started with 70 Form Ones, and enrolment is expected to double in 2027.
In the tea estates, another secondary school has started at St James Nyamhingura, also expecting enrolment to double next year.
In Dangamvura, a stand given to the Mothers’ Union, has been repurposed, to St Simon of Cyrene, with a four classroom block, administration block and toilets at slab level, courtesy of the mission fund. It is expected to open in 2027 to relieve hot-seating in high schools in the suburb.
In Rusape, St Catherine’s High School, with about 150 schoolgirls, is earmarked for another hostel using this year’s mission fund.

“We are doing justice to the girl child. In terms of its collection, the fund actually helped so much in terms of education development. Even the Government is satisfied because we are using it to improve our public schools to deliver quality education. These schools are not private entities, our teachers are being paid by the Government, even in terms of policy,” he said.
The work also speaks to Education 5.0, Vision 2030 and National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2). The diocese’s vision is to build state-of-the-art infrastructure so that by 2030 no parent will need to send a child to expensive elite private schools.
“In terms of Vision 2030, we are constructing the state-of-the-art infrastructure, where everyone, in the next five years will say there is no need to send my kid to Peterhouse because St David’s Bonda, St Faith’s or St Augustine’s High will be way better,” he said, adding that 90 percent of their schools, including primaries, are equipped with Starlink satellite internet connectivity and off-grid solar energy systems to eliminate load-shedding disruptions.
The mission fund has also crossed into health.
The diocese runs Mutongagore Clinic, St Peter’s Mandeya and Bonda Mission Hospital.
Last the weekend, the church together with a partner, donated a brand new ambulance at Bonda Mission Hospital, while five percent of the mission fund is set aside for health.
At Bonda, doctors used to stay for two months and leave, but the current establishment has stayed for more than three years due to incentives from the mission fund.
At Mandeya Clinic, a motorbike was bought for community outreach, while at Mutungagore Clinic, buckets, blankets and medications were donated during Covid-19 and cholera outbreaks.
“We do not want to tell congregants that they will be happy in heaven, yet we must be happy on earth before we go to heaven. We do not preach prosperity gospel, but preach practical gospel. We cannot encourage our people not to take medication because we have prayed for them. We encourage them to take medication, eat healthy food, and attend school, making our church holistic,” he said, adding that the holism is luring new converts.
The diocese commands around 15 000 learners across its schools, with about 8 000 in boarding, and about 35 000 congregants across Manicaland. It wants to double that by 2030.
“We have members who left the church years ago seeking prophetic ministries, but they are going to come back, because our prophecy is into practical theology,” he said.
The next front is higher education. St Augustine’s was historically a teacher’s college. The diocese plans to upgrade it into a university.
“Anglican churches in Zimbabwe want to have an Anglican University, but we want to have a university for our diocese, where our learners can learn. The doctors, lawyers, engineers – all come from our three schools – St Faith’s High, St David’s Bonda and St Augustine’s,” boasted Dr Samutereko, insisting that the ultimate picture is reverse migration.
“We do not want to continuously see rural-urban migration, but the reverse migration, where people want to live in the rural areas because there are life enhancing facilities there,” he said.