An opposition MP challenging the policies of Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe is calling on Sydney Anglicans to help fight the abuse of human rights.
The spokesperson on justice and legal affairs for the Zimbabwean Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Mr David Coltart, spoke at St Swithun’s, Pymble, on Friday night, asking the diocese to partner with churches in Zimbabwe as they support the work of human rights organisations.
"We have a unique cocktail of the highest incidence of AIDS in the world yet the least amount of money per capita spent on AIDS by a government," Mr Coltart says.
"We have four million Zimbabweans suffering malnutrition and we have had 300,000 people rendered homeless in the space of two months in the middle of winter."
Since May 19, the Mugabe government has bulldozed shantytowns, markets and other structures deemed illegal as part of its "drive out the filth' campaign.
“James Morris, director of the World Food Program, told the United Nations three weeks ago that this is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today,” Mr Coltart says.
“Worse than Darfur and worse than Afghanistan.”
A committed Christian, Mr Coltart attends the Whitestone Chapel church in Bulawayo, a church partnered and planted by St Swithun's, Pymble.
The Rector of Swithun's, the Rev Roger Chilton has returned from a recent mission trip to the church.
“Christians there are starting to lose hope,” Mr Chilton says.
“They have prayed for a long time for change, that eventually Mugabe would bow to pressure from within and outside of Zimbabwe, but he has stayed on and the situation has worsened.”
Mr Coltart says the Bible helps him make sense of the current situation in Zimbabwe.
"We are in a situation described in Romans chapter one where the Lord has actually given people over and they have reached that awful situation in their own lives where they don't even know the extent of their own evil," he says.
"This is a major issue and we need the church in Australia to mobilise and bring pressure to bear on the Australian government. We need the media to educate Australians about what is going on.
"Just as Australia mobilised on the issue of apartheid, so Australia needs to mobilise around this issue."
Mr Coltart says there are practical things Sydney Anglicans can do to assist the Zimbabwean churches.
"Churches can adopt a church in Bulawayo or Harare; church organisations can write about what is going on; denominations can feed money to their sister churches; and churches here can invite people from churches in Zimbabwe to alert Australians to what is going on," he says.
The National Council of Churches in Australia is supporting the Zimbabwe Council of Churches in its calls to the Mugabe government to abide by the rule of law.
The General Secretary of the NCCA, the Rev John Henderson, says the NCCA's Christian World Service will do what it can to help the Zimbabwean population.
"We call upon the government of Zimbabwe to heed the call of God, of the people, and of the nations of the world to change its course, and ensure future fair and democratic processes," Mr Henderson says.
