Zimbabwe Police Stop Anglican Prayer Retreat

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe’s mainstream Anglican church says police have stopped a retreat of 80 clergy over claims that their prayer gathering was not given police clearance under sweeping security laws.

The Anglican church has been split by a breakaway group led by a bishop close to Zimbabwe’s president who has seized church properties without police intervention. The bishop has been excommunicated by world Anglicans.

The mainstream Diocese of Harare said in a statement that police loyal to the bishop returned to a private school east of the capital on Tuesday and were in a standoff, demanding that the clerics, including two bishops, leave the school grounds.

It said police ordered them to disperse on Monday but they refused, denying any wrongdoing and insisting police remove them by force.