Mugodhi Apostolic Faith Church members have applauded President Mnangagwa for taking a leading role in ensuring that indigenous churches are fully supported to enhance their operations countrywide.
This comes after the church conducted its first annual Passover since the outbreak of Covid-19 at the church’s headquarters in Wedza, Mashonaland East province, last week.
In an interview, Bishop Washington Mugodhi commended the Government for providing the necessary support to local churches so that they play their roles of giving hope to society and cementing social relations.
“Generally, our Passover was well-attended. Many people turned up for the event,” he said.
“We would like to thank the Government for assisting us throughout our preparations until the last day. The ground preparation was done by the Government and they went on to assist us with Zupco buses to ferry people from their homes and taking them back too.
“This was done by our father, His Excellency President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and as a church, we thank him very much for supporting indigenous Churches wholeheartedly.”
Bishop Mugodhi reiterated calls for church members to shun all forms of violence saying this negatively impacted on ordinary churchgoers and deprives them of their right to worship.
The Mugodhi church has experienced some violent confrontations recently, but Bishop Mugodhi said the Passover went well although there was “a disturbing incident where our rival group tried to force themselves into the building without any communication, resulting in our security stopping them in the process”.
“We thank the ZRP for acting swiftly and stopping the potential clash and maintaining peace. As the Bishop, I am condemning any form of violence and I would like to thank the Government too, for giving us all the security needed.
“It helped us hold a peaceful and successful Passover,” he said.
The church’s legal chairperson Tendai Mangani also praised the Government for its support.
“We would like to thank the Government of Zimbabwe for helping the church for the Passover to be successful, we actually had a very good and quality time during this period although we had a few disturbances from the splinter group led by Davison Mangoma and his colleagues who wanted to disrupt our Passover.
“They failed as they were denied access into the church by our State security details and church security, who asked them if they had a co-existence order from the courts.
“After all that had transpired, we successfully held our church services as usual and our Passover later in the day in peace with our Bishop. So we would like to thank our congregants and other stakeholders who helped in making the event a success,” he said.
The church has been witnessing a series of recurring attacks from a splinter group, which emerged in August 2019 after Bishop Washington Mugodhi was appointed leader of the church by his late father, Tadewu Mugodhi.
This did not go down well with other members and ever since, there has been a surge in physical attacks and legal battles in the courts.