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Gandiya within that province, retired Bishop of Harare Jonathan Siyachitema, retired Bishop Sebastian Bakare and Manicaland Bishop Julias Makoni.
Prominent members of society who are members of the Anglican Communion and attended the mass include Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga, Clerk of Parliament Mr Austin Zvoma and Zanu-PF Politburo member Cde Victoria Chitepo.
Members of the independent Province of Zimbabwe led by Archbishop Nolbert Kunonga demonstrated outside the Anglican Cathedral in Harare against the presence of the worldwide leader of the Anglican Communion.
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They denounced Dr Williams’ stance on homosexuality.
Archbishop Kunonga later addressed a Press conference where he said: “This is a demonstration against homosexuality. I told people to come and demonstrate if they wanted. Rowan Williams erred by accepting
homosexuality and that has broken up the church all over.”
He criticised the Harare Diocese of the Church of the Province of Central Africa, which is in full communion with Canterbury and is led by Bishop Gandiya, for inviting Dr Williams and questioned the logic of inviting him if they did not condone homosexuality.
“It’s sad, they should repent, it needs Williams himself to repent. He is the one who has divided the church.”
Some of the placards that were being waved by the demonstrators were inscribed “Rowan Williams True Zimbabweans don’t invite Homosexuals”; “Homosexuals must die”; “This is Africa, Not England, No to
Homosexuals” and “God created Adam and Eve and not Adam and Steven.”
Delivering his sermon at the City Sports Centre, Dr Williams made a veiled attack at the Church of the Province of Zimbabwe.
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“We know very well that you had doors locked in your faces by those who claim the name of Christians and Anglicans. You know, by their greed and violence, they have refused the grace of God and tried to silence your worship and frustrate your witnesses in church, schools and hospitals,” he said.
“But you know that the will of God to invite people to his feast is so strong that it can triumph over those mindless and Godless assaults.”
He said colonialism was wrong as it was characterised by oppression.
“As whites we are indebted to Africa because of greed, colonialism and imperialism,” he said.
“God has given so many gifts to this land. It has the capacity to feed all people and more. Its mineral wealth is great.
“But we have seen years in which the land has not been used to feed people and lies idle and we have begun to see how this mineral wealth can become a curse, as it so often has been in Africa as people are killed and communities destroyed in fights for diamonds that will be forever marked with the blood of the innocent.”
Dr Williams also spoke on violence and HIV and Aids.
He called for peace ahead of elections.
“You have also been supporting those who suffer from the HIV pandemic which has ravaged people and like Christians elsewhere in Africa you have been at the forefront challenging the stigma that can make suffering so much better,” he said.
Online Reporter