VP Chiwenga consoles Siyachitema family

VICE PRESIDENT Constantino Chiwenga has consoled the Siyachitema family following the death of Anglican Bishop Jonathan Siyachitema on Friday last week.

Bishop Siyachitema (90) has since been accorded a State-assisted funeral and will be buried tomorrow at St Mary’s Cemetery in Chitungwiza.

“I learnt with a deep sense of shock and disbelief of the untimely passing on of Bishop Siyachitema, in the evening of Friday, 6 May 2022,” he said.

“On behalf of my family, office and nation at large, I wish to extend my deep condolences to the Siyachitema family for this sad loss. May the soul of Bishop Siyachitema rest in eternal peace.”

VP Chiwenga said Bishop Siyachitema’s wisdom and good pastoral disposition became evident when he was appointed the Anglican Church’s Bishop of Harare in 1996, until his retirement in 2000.

He said it was painful that Bishop Siyachitema passed on at a time when the family was recovering from the sad loss of four members last year. A mass was held yesterday at St Mary’s Cathedral in honour of Bishop Siyachitema.

Family spokesperson Ms Florence

Siyachitema confirmed the burial arrangements.

“The burial will be held tomorrow (today) at St Mary’s Cemetery in Chitungwiza in the afternoon,” she said.

“The programme will start with a funeral mass at the Cathedral in the morning followed by burial in the afternoon.”

Bishop Siyachitema was born in 1932 and educated at Sarum College.

His pastoral work began when he trained at Salisbury Theological College in the United Kingdom in 1969 and was ordained as a priest at St. Mary’s Bristol and returned to the then Rhodesia in 1971 to work as a priest at St Andrew’s, Mpopoma, up to 1976.

He became the first Black Dean at St Mary’s Cathedral from 1976 to 1981 and was also the founding Bishop of the Lundi, now Diocese of Central Zimbabwe from 1981 to 1996.

Bishop Siyachitema also served as president of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches from 1978 to 1998.

The highlight of his illustrious pastoral career was when he led a delegation of leaders at the Lancaster House talks, which culminated in the attainment of independence.

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