Bakare speaks his mind

Bishop Sebastian Bakare

Interview broadcast 02 April 2009 on SW Radio Africa - full transcript here.

I'd advise you to read the whole interview. Bishop Bakare gives his account of how the meeting with both government Home Affairs Ministers came about, he addresses the role of the police and the courts, and sets out how he sees the Kunonga 'church'.

From the interview:

Lance: Is the big problem Bishop Bakare, not the fact that he (Kunonga) is somebody who has pledged his support for Zanu PF and despite not having any followers is getting tacit support from the powers that be to continue doing what he is doing?

Bishop Bakare: Yah, I don’t think that we care about politics. This is church business. If people bring in politics into church life then we say no, because when people come to our churches on Sunday, to our services, we don’t ask for their political affiliation and we don’t want to promote any party politics in our church services. We have people who come to pray from different political parties but for any political person to try and hijack our mission, that is proclaim the gospel, we are not prepared to listen to that and even whether it’s the president of the state, or anybody we cannot abandon our mission. Our mission is to preach the gospel justice and peace.

...

Lance: Now for some of the Anglican parishioners listening to this programme. We had disturbances in Highfield, Glen View, Budiriro, Kambuzuma, Warren Park, Kuwadzana, Glen Norah and Mufakose and I’m sure a lot of the parishioners are wondering what’s in store this Sunday. What would you advise them to do?

Bishop Bakare: My advise to my people is that we don’t have to hesitate to go to our church services, unless somebody proves us wrong. But we are doing it because we are law abiding citizens following Makarau’s judgment and I would say we have reached this far and there is no time for us to withdraw. We have to go to our church bearing in mind that this coming week from Sunday, its Palm Sunday, it’s a very serious time for us, holy week up to Easter. I would advise our people to go and if it means to be arrested, let it be. But we cannot give in for something that we know is wrong.

All here