The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Thursday, May 11, 1967 — The Bishop of Matabeleland, the Right Reverend Kenneth Skelton, claimed last night that the Church had the right to demand that the Rhodesian government adhered to Christian principles and to “rebuke” it if it failed to act in a Christian manner.

In his charge to the opening of the 15th session of the Matabeleland Diocese synod in St John’s Cathedral, Bulawayo, Bishop Skelton said the Rhodesian government had claimed to adhere to Christian principles, to be fighting for Christian civilisation and to be maintaining Christian standards.

He said: “The Church, therefore, has the right to demand that it practice what it preaches, it must expect its government to act in a Christian manner, and rebuke it if it fails to do so, for the church must act as the conscience of the nation”.

Bishop Skelton said a careful reading of Hansard and the speeches of public figures revealed how difficult it was to live up to those ideals. But no one should be surprised at that, for ideals have a habit of proving awkward to live with, particularly if “we hang them around our necks”.

No policy based on either of the sayings, “What I have I keep” or “He who pays the piper calls the tune”, could, however, be approved by Christians.

Much of the opposition to what was loosely called socialism, liberalism or Communism appeared to arise from an adherence to those two ideas.

“One of the marks of a civilised society is that it accepts the principle — which the rich and fortunate are privileged to provide for the poor and the unfortunate.

“Similarly, nowhere in the New Testament nor in the Christian teaching down the ages will we find any trace of approval of discrimination on the basis of race — even when disguised by the label of separate development”.