Clarification from Botswana

Received from Fr. Benjamin T.  Moleko, Diocesan Secretary:

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF BOTSWANA

The Diocese of Botswana has NOT passed a vote of no confidence on their Bishop

As the Diocesan Secretary, I would like to clarify recent media articles, especially the one that appeared in The Mmegi Monitor on Monday 12th November 2007.

Firstly, it is important to note that any policies or positions made outside the Anglican Church Diocesan Synod or Diocesan Standing Committee are not policies or positions of the Anglican Diocese of Botswana.

The Anglican Church, Diocese of Botswana, has procedures and structures about policy matters. The Diocese is governed by the Diocesan Synod, which is a meeting of representatives of all Church structures. The only organ that legitimately represents the Diocese between Synods is the Diocesan Standing Committee. Legitimate representative bodies are elected at Synod or appointed by the Diocesan Standing Committee.

Therefore, the claim that the “Diocese of Botswana has passed a vote of no confidence on Bishop Musonda Trevor Mwamba” is not at all true. The Mmegi Monitor article reports that the clergy and laity have passed a vote of no confidence on Bishop Musonda Mwamba over his “pro-homosexuality stand”. The Diocese of Botswana has not passed a vote of no confidence on their Bishop, Bishop Mwamba is still very much Bishop of Botswana.

Secondly, within the Anglican Communion the world over it is unheard of that a Bishop from another Diocese could enter the jurisdiction of another Bishop and hold a meeting without his invitation. The article reports that Bishop Kunonga, who was Bishop of Harare until September 2007, visited Botswana and held a meeting with the clergy and laity at St Stephen’s parish, outside Francistown. This was not a legitimate meeting of any of the structures of the Diocese of Botswana.  Whatever was decided in that meeting does not bind the Diocese of Botswana in anyway.

Thirdly, Bishop Mwamba is by no means pro-homosexual as the article purports. He has on a number of occasions stated that he stands by the Lambeth Conference Resolution 1.10, which states that it rejects homosexual practice as incompatible with scripture and calls on all our people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all, irrespective of sexual orientation.  This is the stand of the Province, Diocese and the Bishop.

Fourthly, please note that the source of the article is not local, it appeared in the Zimbabwe Sunday Mail on 4th November 2007. We are not aware what the Zimbabwean paper intended when they wrote about the Diocese of Botswana without our input.

Lastly, the Bishop still stands by his position that Africa has too many problems (poverty, HIV and AIDS, poor governance, unemployment, etc) to sort out than to spend a lot of time and energy on homosexuality issues, which do not impact on the day-to-day lives of many struggling African people.

Our office is concerned about the number of articles published without our input. Our input is important because the public has to get balanced and clear stories on any matters about the Anglican Diocese of Botswana church.

SIGNED:
Fr. Benjamin T.  Moleko
Diocesan Secretary

... and epiScope thanks Jim Naughton of the Diocese of Washington for sharing this.

Comments

[Ed Clarke]

Direct quote from the on-line article "Clarification of Botswana": "Within the Anglican Communion the world over it is unheard of that a bishop from another Diocese could enter the jurisdiction of another Bishop and hold a meeting without his invitation". Oh, yeah? Evidently this doesn't apply to African Anglican bishops arbitrarily invading the churches of the Episcopal Church USA and attempting to hold services or meetings without getting previous from us. Correct? This is just as bad as the example given above, probably more so. It's totally WRONG, no matter WHAT excuse the bishops give for doing it("gay" bishop, "violation" of scriptures,etc., ad nauseam).