THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF HIV AND AIDS IN ZIMBABWE
2.7. The Roman Catholic, Anglican and United Methodist Churches
2.7.3. The United Methodist Church in Manicaland
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The earliest healthcare centre established by the Anglican Church in the colonial era was set up in Umtali (now Mutare). Early Western missionary-initiated healthcare services in colonial times served white settlers, local people and the missionaries too.
Knight-Bruce arranged with the British South Africa Company to provide a similar nursing service in Manicaland:
When the Anglican mission started there in 1891 it did so entirely as a medical station with three nursing sisters and a doctor. The medical man, Dr Granville, did not survive long but the nurses engaged by the Anglicans cared for the Umtali (now Mutare) area until 1898, when the little hospital was taken over by the nurses of the government.433
More than one hundred years later in 1999, the Anglican Church in Manicaland professed as having been called to be part of God‘s mission of liberating humankind and the whole of creation. Part of its mission statement read: ―The church is, therefore, called in every age and place to participate in the liberating mission of God in Jesus Christ. She is the sign of hope for the poor, the marginalized and thereby enables them to achieve wholeness and freedom.‖434 One of the five objectives drawn up by the diocese has a bearing on HIV and AIDS interventions as noted: ―To run HIV/AIDS home based and orphan care programmes in line with prevailing preventions and interventions of diseases.‖435 The Anglican Church in Manicaland understands itself as one of the main providers of educational and healthcare services to the nation. Orphanages were also identified as a critical area given the fact that HIV and AIDS claimed the lives of 2,000 people every week in Zimbabwe leaving behind a trail of many orphaned children.436
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conference.437 The American Methodist Church evangelised the eastern parts of Zimbabwe while the central and western parts of the country fell under the influence of British Wesleyan Methodist missionaries.438 With the first session in November 1901 under the East Central African Annual Conference, this later became the Rhodesia mission conference in 1915, the Rhodesia Annual Conference in 1931, the Methodist Church Conference in 1939, the United Methodist Conference in 1968, and was finally renamed the Zimbabwe Annual Conference in 1980.439 At the end of 2000 the church‘s single annual conference evolved and gave birth to two annual conferences known as Zimbabwe East Annual Conference (ZEAC) and Zimbabwe West Annual Conference.440 The church‘s districts of Mutasa-Nyanga, Makoni- Buhera, Mutare, Marange and Chimanimani in Manicaland constitute the ZEAC. An elected bishop presides over proceedings of each annual conference session. Lay and ordained delegates at the church‘s annual conference debate matters crucial to the life of the church. The decisions that are passed are known as resolutions and have a binding effect on all the church‘s members and activities.
In 1985, Bishop Abel T. Muzorewa (now deceased) was the leader of the United Methodist Church and upon his retirement in 1992, Christopher Jokomo (now deceased) was elected as successor.441 Eben Nhiwatiwa who is serving as the current bishop and president of the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area was elected into office in 2004.
In 1984 the church had a total of five ecclesiastical districts throughout Zimbabwe of which two were from Manicaland namely Mutare South and Mutasa-Makoni.442 In
437 R. Peaden, ―The Methodists in Zimbabwe,‖ in Weller and Linden, Mainstream Christianity to 1980, 81. Within the United Methodist Church polity an annual conference refers to an ecclesiastical unit similar to the diocesan synod in the Anglican Church. The annual conference is the top body responsible for receiving reports, debating issues and come up with resolutions. Of course the annual conference meets almost every year and the meeting is called a session. In this case annual conference refers to the leadership body.
438 Peaden, ―The Methodists in Zimbabwe,‖ 85.
439 A. Mhondoro, private archives, Rusape, (AM), Official Journal of the Zimbabwe Annual Conference of the UMC third session, 2 January 1983, 106-8. See also S. Muzengeza, private archives, Rusape, (SM), Bishop‘s opening statement, Official Journal of the Zimbabwe Annual Conference of the UMC fourteenth session, 8-12 December 1993, 18.
440 This was the last conference that gave birth to two conferences. See also Hilltop UMC Centre archives, Mutare, (HCM), District superintendents‘ composite report to the Zimbabwe annual conference of the United Methodist Church twenty-first session, 13-17 December 2000, 6. Information also supplied to M. Mbona by Simon Muzengeza, Rusape, 16 August 2011.
441 AM, Official Journal of the Zimbabwe Annual Conference of the UMC thirteenth session, 9-13 December 1992.
442 AM, Official Journal of the Zimbabwe Annual Conference of the UMC third session, 2 January 1983, 1.
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1996, the church had ten districts in Zimbabwe and one district in South Africa. By then Manicaland had the following church districts: Makoni-Buhera, Mutare, Mutare South, and Mutasa-Nyanga.443 According to United Methodist Church‘s polity, an annual conference is an autonomous body of the church under the leadership of a bishop as president. This is almost similar to a diocesan synod in the Anglican Church. It is the highest decision-making body constituted by delegates comprising of all ministers of the church including the bishop and clergy as well as lay representatives. The proceedings of each annual conference session are ratified by the bishop as president of conference and jointly signed by the annual conference secretary and thereafter circulated. This study will analyse reports and resolutions that emerged at sessions of the church‘s annual conference in Zimbabwe as well as reports generated at district and circuit levels between 1985 and 2007.
Similar to the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches in Manicaland, the provision of educational and healthcare services were trademarks of the United Methodist Church from the days of its inception. The foundation of the church‘s work was laid down after the Shona and Ndebele rebellion of the late 1890s. Bishop Hartzell who was in charge of the church‘s mission work throughout Africa and resided at Funchal on Madeira Island visited the colony (now Zimbabwe) in 1897. Hartzell was offered facilities by the British South Africa Company to establish the church as stated: ―The Methodist Episcopal Church was offered the site of the existing township, now to be known as Old Umtali, complete with company [British South Africa Company]
buildings and 13, 000 acres of land.‖444 Apparently, a close working relationship existed between the first Methodist missionaries and the earliest white pioneer settlers and the same obtained with the Roman Catholic and Anglican missionaries. However, the early years of the mission were difficult. The Americans were in competition with the Anglican mission at St. Augustine‘s, only a few miles away. The Anglican missionaries had been at work in the area since 1891.445 Medicine was also important as noted in the church‘s appointment of Dr. Gurney to Old Umtali in 1903 where he practised for some time before going to Murewa in 1909. Subsequently, hospitals and
443 SM, Official Journal of the Zimbabwe Annual Conference of the UMC seventeenth session, 12-15 December 1996.
444 Peaden, ―The Methodists in Zimbabwe,‖ 85.
445 Peaden, ―The Methodists in Zimbabwe,‖ 85.
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clinics were established at some of church‘s mission stations.446 Thus, the United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe has a long history in public healthcare.
In 1984 the church owned and administered three hospitals namely, Mutambara, Old Mutare (both in Manicaland) and Nyadire. Other small healthcare centres in Manicaland then were Gatsi, Chinyadza, Nyangombe, and Anoldine.447 In 2004 the church‘s membership stood at approximately 100, 000 nationally and ―the United Methodist Church of Zimbabwe is the third largest Christian tradition, behind the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches.‖448 The church‘s response to HIV and AIDS is the product of initiatives or lack of thereof spearheaded by the episcopacy, clergy and laity. The present research study will note that the connection between the United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe and its sister annual conferences mainly in the US became a channel for the local church to receive support towards HIV and AIDS interventions.449 In the period between 2000 and 2007 the church‘s authorities established alternative channels for accessing aid in the name of intentions to launch and sustain HIV and AIDS interventions in parts of Manicaland.