Police and vigilante supporters of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe have increased their harassment of Anglicans in the impoverished African country.

During the past three weeks, police, according to The New York Times, have interrogated Anglican priests and lay leaders, arrested and beaten parishioners, and locked thousands of worshipers out of dozens of churches.

The timing of the intimidation seems to correspond with a statement from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams calling on all Christians to pray for Zimbabwe’s rescue “from violence, the concealing and juggling of election results, deceit, oppression and corruption.” The Anglican Church of Southern Africa also helped persuade the South African government to block delivery of arms and ammunition to Zimbabwe.

“As a theologian who has read a lot about the persecution of the early Christians, I’m really feeling connected to that history. We are being persecuted,” Bishop Sebastian Bakare, assisting Bishop of Harare, told the Times. Bishop Bakare accepted a call by the Anglican Church of Central Africa to serve after a provincial church court ruled last October that Nolbert Kunonga, the former Bishop of Harare and a staunch ally of President Mugabe, was no longer a bishop, having “severed” his relationship with the church.

Mr. Kunonga is said to have persuaded President Mugabe’s ruling party that Anglicans not loyal to him are politically aligned with the opposition. Despite an order by the Zimbabwe High Court requiring that Anglican churches be shared, church officials say only persons loyal to Mr. Kunonga have been allowed to worship free from the threat of violence and intimidation.

Despite his professed opposition to moves by the Anglican Communion to normalize same-sex blessings, Mr. Kunonga has found no support among Anglican traditionalists. Arne H. Fjeldstad, director of communications for the Global Anglican Future Conference, said in an e-mail message sent to the Times that Mr. Kunonga was “one of Mugabe’s henchmen” and had not been invited to the group’s Holy Land conference next month.

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