The Anglican Church in Zimbabwe will on Monday file a court application seeking to seize control of one of its dioceses from its bishops in a long-running dispute that has become central to the row over homosexuality in the Anglican Church.

The Province of Central Africa wants to seize three vehicles from the Right Rev Nolbert Kunonga, Bishop of Harare, and bar him from using any of its properties, according to a report on the African website NewZimbabwe.com

Bishop Kunonga is internationally discredited as a supporter of Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe. The ZANU-PF party has described him as a “model Christian”. In an unprecedented snub of a diocesan bishop for political reasons, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has not invited him to the 2008 Lambeth Conference.

Last month, Bishop Kunonga, who according to The Church Times has never been forced to answer accusations of brutal evictions of villagers from their homes or of incitement to murder, declared that he was breaking up the Province of Central Africa and withdrawing the Harare diocese because of province’s “liberal” approach to homosexuality.

Most of the Province of Central Africa is conservative on the gay issue and homosexuality is illegal in Zimbabwe and other African nations.

Although another diocese in the province, Lake Malawi, has elected a liberal vicar from Acton in England, the Rev Nick Henderson, as its bishop, local difficulties have meant that he has yet to take up the appointment.

But Bishop Kunonga insists that the province has failed adequately to censure bishops who are sympathetic to homosexuality.

NewZimbabwe reports that the Anglican Church has engaged Harare law firm Gill Godlonton & Gerrans to pursue the controversial cleric before the “funds and investments are spirited away”.

Documents seen by the website’s correspondent show that the Anglican Church is seeking an order barring Kungonga from accessing the Church’s bank accounts, transacting with the Church’s investments and “from working and or doing business from any of the Church’s immovable properties wherever situated”.

“Following Kungonga’s withdrawal from the Church of the Province of Central Africa, he has no right to remain in possession of the Church’s assets including the bank’s funds, investments, movable and immovable assets,” lawyers said in papers to be filed at the High Court Monday.

“The Church entertains a well founded fear that Kungonga will fund his new ministry with the Church’s resources as he has access to the Church’s investments and funds.”

Bishop Kungonga used an interview with Zimbabwe’s state media last week to defend his anti-homosexuality stance.

He said: “We are inspired and motivated by our beliefs in the scriptures, our beliefs as Catholic Christians and our beliefs as human beings that homosexuality cannot be accepted because it takes away our human dignity and it is not accepted in the Constitution of our country, and it is inconceivable in our cultural background.

“It is unthinkable that a man could undress in the presence of another man and a woman can undress for another woman. So it’s an abomination not only from the scripture point of view, but also from the cultural, political set-up in which we are operating. All these are violated by thinking or intending or compromising with homosexuality.”

Having Bishop Kunonga against them is a gift for the pro-gay movement in the African Church. Homosexuals in Africa suffer routine persecution and discrimination. Bishop Kunonga’s backing for the conservative evangelical wing is an embarrassment that leaders will be anxious to distance themselves from.