Bishop Abel Tendekai Muzorewa

 

BIOGRAPHY

 

A PRODUCT OF GOD’S GRACE

Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa was born on April 14,1925 at Old Mutare maternity building where the present Hartzell High school  now  stands and across the fields to where Africa University is located. His parents, Haadi Phelimon and Takaruda Hilda Muzorewa were people of humble means but quite rich spiritually. His birth came at a time when his father was training as a pastor-teacher at Old Mutare and Abel’s formative years were buffeted by several challenges. Abel was born a pre-mature baby and had his life was saved by a Swedish Methodist missionary nurse because the Shona culture despised premature babies and killed such babies and buried them in muddy places. While he was still an infant he was attacked by the deadly whooping cough disease which nearly took his life.  Rev. Horace Greeley, a veteran missionary from Kansas baptised Abel as an infant at Old Mutare’s little chapel. Incidentally, Rev. Greeley’s body is buried behind that little chapel where Bishop Abel Muzorewa has indicated would be his final resting place when God calls him home.

  CALL AND MINISTRY

Abel’s parents and his close relatives often spoke of how he “played church” countless times by imitating missionary preachers. He would gather his playmates of ages three to five and preach to them. Subsequently, Abel became a licensed local preacher at the age of 19.

Abel says, “I wanted very much to be a farmer as a career of choice. I refused to be a minister of the gospel for eight years until it became crystal clear that I was fighting God’s call.” Meanwhile, he taught in church schools at Chitimbe, Zanga, Rukariro and Nyadiri United Methodist Center in Uzumba from 1945 to 1949. During those years he became a lay preacher in the Mutoko area before going to Old Mutare Biblical Institute in the 1950s.

While in theological training at Old Mutare, Abel met his soul mate and vivacious wife Maggie Chigodora.  Abel and Maggie were the first couple to be married in the Ehnes Memorial Church after its dedication. The marriage ceremony was at 11 a.m. on August 11^th, 1951 and the couple had three wedding receptions at Old Mutare, Muziti Village near Rusape town, and Ruze Village in Murehwa. Abel and Maggie’s marriage was blessed with four sons: Tendekai Blessing, Phelimon Dairai, [now deceased], Wesley Tanyaradzwa, Chido Scarriter, and one daughter, Rufaro Charity.  They have nine grandchildren.

After graduating from the Theological School at Old Mutare, Abel served as assistant Conference director of Evangelism and pastor of a sixteen-point Chiduku North circuit. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Newel Booth at Old Mutare in  …. and elder by  Bishop Ralph E. Dodge in 1957. While serving as pastor, he did his high school through correspondence, an equivalent of modern long distance education. He was granted a scholarship in 1958 by the United Methodist Church to study in the USA at the Missouri School of Religion, Central Methodist University in Fayette, Missouri and at Scarritte Bennette College for Christian Workers in Nashville Tennessee.

He holds a diploma in Theology, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religion and Philosophy and a Masters’ degree in Ministry to Youth. He holds the following five honorary doctorate degrees: Doctor of Divinity from Central Methodist University, Fayette Missouri; Doctor of Human Letters from Morningside College, Sioux City, Iowa; Doctor of Laws   from Mount Union College, Canton, Ohio and Doctor of Divinity from Garritte Evangelical Seminary, Evanston Illinois. While a student at Central Methodist University, Abel served as a part time Pastor of visitation among students. He was one of the only two black students at Central Methodist University.

Like a pigeon homing, Abel went back to Rhodesia in 1963 and served in the Rhodesia Annual Conference in  many capacities as pastor and station chairperson at Old Mutare Mission; Conference Youth Director; Annual Conference Secretary; Travelling Secretary of the National Student Christian Movement and jointly as Youth Secretary of the Christian Council of Rhodesia. Because of his industry and dedication in ministry, United Methodists in the Africa Central Conference found a Spiritual leader in Abel and elected him bishop on August 28, 1968 at the Africa Central Conference of the United Methodist Church session held in Botswana. Voting delegates to this Africa Central Conference came from Angola, Congo, Mozambique, and Southern Rhodesia. This was a watershed Episcopal election because for the first time in history a black and indigenous pastor ascended to the Episcopacy. Abel had succeeded Bishop Ralph E. Dodge, the last missionary and revolutionary bishop of the United Methodist Church in Africa.

Bishop Muzorewa is full of charisma.  He served The United Methodist Church steadfastly and faithfully as pastor for 14 years and 24 years as Episcopal leader of the Zimbabwe area.  Bishop Muzorewa also served as president of the College of Bishops for Africa Central Conference Zimbabwe in addition to teaching, local church work and youth ministry. As resident bishop of the Zimbabwe area, Bishop Muzorewa challenged and led his Annual Conference to donate land for the establishment of Africa University across Old Mutare Mission where Africa University stands now.  Bishop Muzorewa is one of the founding members of the Board of Directors of Africa University. The United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe increased in its ranks and penetrated into areas beyond its traditional stronghold of Manicaland and Mashonaland East Provinces.

Under Bishop Muzorewa’s watch, The United Methodist Church made inroads into   Masvingo Province, an area traditionally known to be a Dutch Reformed Church bastion. Besides this, Bishop Muzorewa’s evangelistic prowess caught fire in neighbouring countries like Botswana, Malawi, South Africa, and Zambia and resulted in establishing strong foundations for Methodism in these countries.

                              WHOLE GOSPEL FOR THE WHOLE PERSON

In answering his call to ministry, Bishop Muzorewa believed that his duty was to feed the flock he had been charged to lead.  His conviction is entrenched in his bedrock belief that Jesus came to give human kind abundant life.  His life, ministry, evangelistic preaching, prophetic preaching and liberation evangelism epitomised his firm convictions.  The following scriptural passages were the fulcrum from where his theology for ministry revolved:

“ I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless He is born again” (John 3:3) and  “the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed” (Luke 4:18).

 Furthermore; Amos 5:24 says “…let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream” and to his fellow oppressed Africans he favoured to preach on “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk!” (Acts3:6).  Acts 3:5 inspired Bishop Muzorewa to write a book entitled “Rise up and Walk.”  He envisaged God commanding Zimbabweans and Africans at large to rise from their state of hopelessness and set themselves free from incapacitation and political oppression. Bishop Muzorewa shares the same conviction with the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who said “our business as preachers and as a Church is to send people to heaven and bring heaven to earth”.. The  core of Bishop Muzorewa’s ministry was based on  “preaching the whole  gospel for the whole person and not  a pie in the sky  sort of gospel.” 

“Whenever I preach, I preach for repentance, conversion, refilling by the Holy Spirit and social salvation, said Bishop Muzorewa.  Bishop Muzorewa also believes that “politics has no place in Christianity but  Christianity has a place in politics!”.

  CONTRIBUTION TO THE LIBERATION OF ZIMBABWE

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 In the late 1970s Rhodesia was threatened with the Smith-Home Settlement proposals which were designed by the British Government to grant independence to the white minority only constituting a 5 percent of the Zimbabwean population. The Zimbabwean nationalists who had heard and seen the impact of Bishop Muzorewa’s prophetic preaching on “the whole gospel for the whole person” and were locked up in detention centres through their surrogates approached him for his counsel and leadership. He was asked to lead the non-violent African National Council mass movement to reject the Pearce Commission, which was sent by the British Government to test African opinion on their political proposals. Bishop Muzorewa consulted the Rhodesia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church Session at Old Mutare […when…..]. as to whether he should  involve himself in political activities.  In response, The Rhodesia Annual Conference voted unanimously and approved Bishop Muzorewa’s involvement in national politics.  Bishop Muzorewa says, “ I heard God in my  soul saying the liberation of people is God’s business too. ” His perspective on the liberation of Zimbabwe is spelt out in his book “RISE UP AND WALK.”

Like a Moses on Mount Sinai, Bishop Muzorewa’s messages about liberation theology resonated with the Zimbabwean people across the country. At Nyadiri Annual Conference he preached on “ the valley of dry bones” a message based on Ezekiel 37  “Son of man, can these bones live? ”. The sermon infused life and hope to all Zimbabweans at home and Zimbabwean exiles scattered to the four winds of the world. His sermons breathed a lease of life to Zimbabweans in detention camps, and institutions of higher learning that one day they would taste freedom. Because of his fiery sermons of a political nature, he incurred the dislike of the Rhodesian authorities who prohibited him from entering the rural areas of Zimbabwe where the majority of Zimbabweans lived as subsistence farmers.  His liberation sermons inspired thousands of youth who left the country to go to neighbouring countries to seek military training so as to come back to Zimbabwe and fight the oppressive system.

Because of his penchant for peace for people of Zimbabwe, Bishop Muzorewa embraced the Ghandi philosophy of non-violence and invested energy in bringing peace to the war-ravaged Zimbabwe. Some sections of the Zimbabwean community and some overseas Christian friends called him all sorts of names.  Bishop Muzorewa endured ridicule from some Christians in America who branded him a communist bishop because he held a gun in his hand at one time when he was promoting his peace initiatives for bringing peace to Zimbabwe.

“I used to laugh my lungs out when some Christians in America labelled me communist Bishop when I held a gun from freedom fighters who had surrendered and accepted our peace initiatives to symbolise the violent process had given way to non-violent process. It was grossly misinterpreted to mean “violent bishop.”

A clear portrait of a bishop who loved peace had emerged in Bishop Muzorewa, manifested by his non-violence movement and peace initiatives. His house was bombed with grenades and he had to go in exile for 14 months, living in Zambia Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi. It was during that time that he set up and chaired a committee that chose the colours and design of the present Zimbabwe flag.  Bishop Muzorewa reflects and his mind fishtails back to the 1970s fighting for freedom with the likes of the late Herbert Chitepo.

 “I shall never forget the evening my uncle Soko Mukanya Herbert Chitepo and I spent in the Zambian State House as guests of Dr. Kenneth D. Kaunda, only to wake up the following morning with the news of Uncle Chitepo’s death.”

Harking back to days when Bishop Muzorewa went into exile, the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area of The United Methodist Church remained united and vibrant. Because of his abiding commitment to peace, Bishop Muzorewa engaged in peace talks with the Smith regime, resulting in the effective but misunderstood Internal Settlement of 1978, which ushered in the principle of “one man, one vote.” Pope John Paul 11 of Rome and the United Nations awarded the Bishop Muzorewa with peace awards and some magazines referred to him as a spiritual giant of his courage in large doses to bring peace to Zimbabwe.

Bishop Muzorewa felt a bounden duty to see through the Zimbabwean political process. His constituency in the Church and nation urged him to run for the higher political office. As a result of his participation in the struggle for majority rule in different capacities, he was elected the first black Prime Minister of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia for nine months. His term of office as Prime Minister was interrupted when he agreed to hold the Lancaster house Conference that brought all feuding political parties to one table. His compassionate character became an arrow in his quiver and in the same spirit of wanting to avoid bloodshed in his country, opted for bringing peace to fellow Zimbabweans. The Lancaster House Conference resolved that Bishop Muzorewa hands over power to a British-appointed governor, Lord Soames.  Lord Soames was charged with conducting an all parties involved election.

However, in his capacity as then prime minister, he hired a constitutional lawyer from America, hoping for a constitution conducive to freedom and democracy. The 1980 general elections saw Robert Mugabe elected prime minister.. In 1983 the present government detained Bishop Muzorewa for 10 months without any cause and without trial and he says, “ I have forgiven all concerned for that cruel act against me.”

Thousands of men, women and youth were converted to Jesus Christ through the powerful evangelistic sermons and services of Bishop Muzorewa. He also assisted hundreds of disadvantaged people with school fees, charitable gifts, facilitating with scholarships, travel airfares for those going abroad, employment, house rentals, electricity bills, medical costs etc.  Bishop Muzorewa says, “that was part of my ministry” and all African bishops, are familiar with these kinds of demands on their lives and family budgets.

RETIRED BUT NOT TIRED

One would think retirement would have slowed Bishop Muzorewa down. But after all the taxing Episcopal duties, Bishop Muzorewa has sufficient energy to participate effectively in community service activities.  He galloped off in another direction after retiring in August 1992.  Abel has a built a cottage in the community where he was raised by his   maternal grandma, Dorcas Maitirwa Munangatire and his aunt Edith Mazire, his mother’s only sister. Abel and his wife enjoy market gardening where they raise mainly vegetables. 

Once a preacher always a preacher, Bishop Muzorewa is still invited to preach in the proverbial Easter revivals, conventions, Harvest Thanksgiving cultivations and conducting countless funerals and marrying young couples.  He has married 20 couples   in less than 12 months this year.   Because of his tight schedules as if he was still active in office, he has popularised the phrase “retired but not tired,” as a running joke on his private letterheads. Currently, he is the National Patron of Araunah Mission Fellowship of Zimbabwe, a national organisation of the blind people. It is amazing how much he is still doing for the church after 14 years of retirement.