Two churchgoers were assaulted when thugs aligned to a dissident bishop attempted to prevent his successor from being installed in Zimbabwe's Anglican cathedral.
Bishop Nolbert Kunonga (pictured) was dethroned when he split from Anglicanism over the row involving gay clergy and set up his own dissident church seizing the Cathedral of St Mary and All Saints and its contents. Last week Zimbabwe's highest court ruled that the church synod was within its rights to remove Kunonga and that the property belonged to the Anglican Church not the former bishop and his followers.
The court said that Kunonga could not block the installation of the new bishop. Sebastian Bakare.
But Kunonga and his followers barricaded themselves in the cathedral. When two representatives of Bakare went to the building and tried to gain access they were badly beaten.
Kunonga is a staunch supporter of Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe, widely considered the world's most homophobic leader. Last December Kunonga announced from the pulpit he splitting from the Anglican synod, claiming that senior bishops supported homosexuality. In his announcement he echoed longstanding Mugabe quotes that gays are "worse than dogs and pigs."
After the synod removed Kunonga as bishop and elected Bakare Kunonga burst into a service led by the bishop-designate and jumped on the alter denouncing Bakare and ripped a Bible from his hand.
Bishop Nolbert Kunonga (pictured) was dethroned when he split from Anglicanism over the row involving gay clergy and set up his own dissident church seizing the Cathedral of St Mary and All Saints and its contents. Last week Zimbabwe's highest court ruled that the church synod was within its rights to remove Kunonga and that the property belonged to the Anglican Church not the former bishop and his followers.
The court said that Kunonga could not block the installation of the new bishop. Sebastian Bakare.
But Kunonga and his followers barricaded themselves in the cathedral. When two representatives of Bakare went to the building and tried to gain access they were badly beaten.
Kunonga is a staunch supporter of Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe, widely considered the world's most homophobic leader. Last December Kunonga announced from the pulpit he splitting from the Anglican synod, claiming that senior bishops supported homosexuality. In his announcement he echoed longstanding Mugabe quotes that gays are "worse than dogs and pigs."
After the synod removed Kunonga as bishop and elected Bakare Kunonga burst into a service led by the bishop-designate and jumped on the alter denouncing Bakare and ripped a Bible from his hand.
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