Anglican bishops call on Mugabe to step down

(RNS) Leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion called on Zimbabwe’s embattled president, Robert Mugabe, to step down and bring an end to “the apparent breakdown of the rule of law in the country.” Top Anglican archbishops, or primates, said Mugabe “illegitimately holds on to power” after losing an election to rival Morgan Tsvangirailast year and […]

(RNS) Leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion called on Zimbabwe’s embattled president, Robert Mugabe, to step down and bring an end to “the apparent breakdown of the rule of law in the country.”

Top Anglican archbishops, or primates, said Mugabe “illegitimately holds on to power” after losing an election to rival Morgan Tsvangirailast year and then rejecting a power-sharing agreement brokered by African leaders.

“There appears to be a total disregard for life, consistently demonstrated by Mr. Mugabe through systematic kidnap, torture and the killing of the Zimbabwean people,” the primates said Tuesday (Feb. 3) during their meeting in Alexandria, Egypt.


The statement praised “the faithful witness of the Christians of Zimbabwe during this time of pain and suffering” and asked the world’s 77 million Anglicans to set aside Ash Wednesday (Feb. 25) as a day of solidarity and prayer for the people of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe has struggled with a cholera epidemic that has infected more than 60,000 people and has claimed the lives of more than 3,100, according to recent figures from the World Health Organization. Mugabe has largely denied the scope of the cholera epidemic.

The Anglican Communion, made up of 38 national churches with ties to the Church of England, has seen rapid growth across Africa in recent decades. The primates, however, say two Zimbabwe bishops are puppets for Mugabe’s regime, and accuse them of seizing control of church property.

Because the Anglicans do not currently have a primate in Zimbabwe, the primates asked their spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, to work with African church leaders to help deliver relief supplies to the region.

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