Representatives from Lebombo and the Diocese of Nampula announced at a contentious provincial synod in August that they intend to remove their dioceses from the IAMA.
The Most Rev. Vincent Msosa, the church’s first elected presiding bishop and the Anglican Communion’s youngest primate, is at the center of the divisions, which run along generational and tribal lines.
Critics allege that a series of canonical changes supported by Msosa that were slated for discussion at the August synod are aimed at magnifying his power.
‘Competition Instead of Fraternity’
The new church’s second provincial synod meeting, scheduled for Zoom August 29 and 30, was slated to consider the canonical changes, and proved to be a flashpoint for the conflict.
An initial dispute focused on the church’s rules for convening its synod. Canon 1 of the IAMA’s Canons & Constitution specifies that regular sessions of the church’s provincial synod must be scheduled seven months in advance, and Canon 48 states that five months’ notice is necessary for amending the church’s canons and constitution.
Archbishop Msosa told The Living Church that he called for the meeting at a gathering of the church’s bishops in April, relying on a provision in Article III of the IAMA’s constitution that allows the presiding bishop to alter the time of the synod for good cause if a majority of bishops agree. All ten of the bishops present consented to changing the dates, he says.
When the provincial synod meeting began, Msosa told TLC, delegates from the Diocese of Lebombo and Bishop Manuel Ernesto of Nampula began interrupting the meeting, saying they wanted to speak. Shortly afterward, the delegates from the Diocese of Lebombo posted a message in the meeting chat protesting that the synod had not been properly called, because seven months’ notice had not been given, as required by Canon 1.
The delegates from the Diocese of Lebombo then logged off. The delegates from Nampula, Msosa said, raised the same issue, and then also left. The next day, the delegates from the Diocese of Nampula sent a letter announcing that the diocese planned to leave the IAMA.
Nampula’s letter accuses Msosa of unilaterally changing the date of the synod and argues that canonical changes could not be considered because the synod’s date had been fixed less than five months in advance. “Violations of canonical and constitutional norms are systematic and intentional” across the church, they allege.
“As one of the founding dioceses of the province, we conclude that the current situation in the province, characterized by competition instead of fraternity, a focus on dismantling the legal architecture that, in the context of religious communities, was created to spare each generation from having to create its own legal system instead of concentrating on spirituality and the bond of peace, is moving away from the IAMA project initially conceived by all.”
These reasons, the letter said, led the diocese’s delegates to “withdraw from the provincial synod because it is a synod that should not have been constituted as such,” and the Diocese of Nampula further planned to “withdraw from the IAMA and distance itself from its current state of operation.”
Ernesto told TLC that his diocese’s standing committee has begun formal steps to disaffiliate from the IAMA “to protect our integrity and our diocese from harmful actions promoted by Archbishop Vicente.” Action on the matter would be taken by the diocesan synod.
“Our priority is to distance ourselves from the trajectory that the province is heading to,” he said, adding that he has called on the Anglican Communion Office to intervene. He added that the Communion’s leaders and IAMA’s mother church, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, “have moral authority over the new provinces and structures they put in place. As a young province, IAMA should not be left struggling alone to survive.”
Lebombo Election
Msosa’s opponents trace the conflict to disputes over the election of a new bishop for the Diocese of Lebombo, the church’s oldest diocese, which is based in Mozambique’s capital and largest city, Maputo. Msosa described it as the IAMA’s only financially sustainable diocese. The see was vacated when the IAMA’s first primate, Bishop Carlos Matsinhe, retired in 2024. An election had been scheduled for September 6, but Msosa canceled it.
TLC was told that a leading candidate in the election is the Very Rev. Tomas Zandamela, a senior court judge, who has been the diocese’s vicar general since Matsinhe’s retirement. Before Zandamela’s ministry in Lebombo, he served in his diocese with distinction, Ernesto told TLC, leading the development of four church plants in Nampula. Zandamela worked in Nampula without a stipend, while also serving as a judge.
Archbishop Msosa said he canceled the election on the recommendation of the church’s chancellor because the Diocese of Lebombo had failed to pay its annual contribution of U.S. $1,000 to the provincial office, and because the members of the consultative council responsible for managing the election had been chosen incorrectly.
Msosa questioned whether Zandamela was canonically qualified to stand for office. “Our constitution is clear on the requirements. A candidate should have a bachelor’s degree in theology [and] work at least ten years full time [in church ministry]. I do not know if their preferred candidate meets the requirements,” Msosa told TLC.
Several senior clergy, including Ernesto, told TLC that Msosa’s preferred candidate for Lebombo is the Rev. Mauricio Mungunhe, his former classmate at the Seminary of the Transfiguration in Grahamstown, South Africa, who now leads the province’s newly created mission department. Msosa told TLC that five priests have been nominated for the position, and he doesn’t have a favorite among them.
The dispute over Zandamela’s qualifications surfaces a tension between the letter of the IAMA’s canons and the way the young church has functioned. Canon 18, which lays out the ideal qualifications for bishops inherited from the well-established Church of Southern Africa, also gives the presiding bishop authority to relax the rules when it is “in the best interests of the Diocese concerned.”
This has been the practice in the IAMA since the beginning, especially because nearly all the clergy in nine of its dioceses are not paid salaries. Ernesto claims that Msosa’s intention to refuse to relax the canons in Zandamela’s case “explores the gaps of the constitution against or in favor of some.”
“We need to consider the intentions of the legislators, to include everyone while also taking the episcopal ministry seriously, and not to exclude. This is the interpretation of the canons that served all the new IAMA bishops, otherwise no one could be qualified,” he said.
Msosa himself benefited from the common practice of relaxing the requirements, Ernesto said. When he was consecrated as Bishop of Niassa in 2017, Msosa had only been ordained for four years and was five years short of the canonically required age of 40.
Ernesto told TLC that the election for diocesan bishop in Lebombo was rescheduled by the archbishop for February 2026, but the diocese would prefer to convene a synod first to determine its status in relation to the IAMA.
Canonical Changes
Proposed changes to the provincial canons supported by Msosa have also caused contention, with some claiming that they are aimed at increasing the archbishop’s power.
The IAMA’s canons, which were closely based on the canons of its mother church, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, specify that the church’s presiding bishop is chosen for a renewable term of five years, and that the see must rotate between bishops of the church’s Angolan and Mozambican dioceses.
An amendment proposed by Bishop Lucas Mchema of Niassa would allow the presiding bishop to remain in office until retirement, arguing that “the model of holding elections every five years is not sustainable, as it would mean that every five years the Province would enter into a power struggle, which is not healthy for the Province.”
Another proposal amends Canon 18, which establishes the criteria for a potential bishop. The proposed changes keep the requirement of a degree in theology, but shorten the required years of service in full-time ministry from 10 to five. Most importantly, it removes the archbishop’s power to relax the requirements, a common practice in the church since its founding.
Opponents claim that the changes discriminate against older clergy (like Zandamela), many of whom were prevented by civil wars in Angola and Mozambique from doing theological study in South Africa. Many older clergy performed their ministry while also holding secular jobs as teachers, doctors, and lawyers.
“We are the priests who risked our lives preaching the Word of God during the 15-year civil war in Mozambique,” said an older priest from Northern Mozambique. “We are the same, again preaching and helping persecuted Christians being killed in Cabo Delgado and Nampula by the jihadists.”
The provincial synod decided not to vote on the canonical changes after the abrupt departure of the delegates from Lebombo and Nampula.
Msosa’s opponents are also frustrated about his attempts to move the province’s offices from Mozambique’s capital to his see city, Quelimane, in central Mozambique, 1,800 kilometers away.
“The process is being implemented despite the proposed changes having yet to be approved,” said one Mozambican bishop, who asked not to be named. Provincial employees, he added, have filed a lawsuit to stop the forced move.
A bishop also told TLC that Msosa attempted to convince his fellow bishops to allow him to use the now-vacant residence of the Bishop of Lebombo in Maputo, but they declined. “That house belongs exclusively to the bishop of that diocese,” he said.
Msosa’s opponents also say they are frustrated that so many Nyanja have been elevated to positions of senior leadership in IAMA. Most Nyanja or Chewa people live in Malawi, but about 1.784 million live in Northern and Central Mozambique, where they make up a little over five percent of the population.
“Four of the eight bishops in Mozambique are from the archbishop’s tribe. They are himself in Zambezia, Bishop Lucas Mchema of Niassa, Bishop Paulo Hansine of Pungue, and Bishop Emmanuel Capeta of Inhambane. In Angola, three of the four bishops are also from one tribe,” said Jose Manjate, an Anglican layman from Maputo.
Dona Natalia, a lay Anglican from Chimoio, Mozambique, said of Msosa, “He demeans our priests and bishops, yet they are the ones who put him where he is today. These are our fathers, husbands, and brothers. They tell us their challenges.”
She added: “I appeal to the Communion leadership to come and restore sanity, even if it means closing all the churches for a while. I will worship in my kitchen.”
Rivalry and Accountability
Archbishop Msosa claims that the church leaders who oppose him lack proper theological training and that their criticisms are rooted in disappointed ambition and a desire to resist financial accountability.
After detailing his academic achievements, which include two master’s degrees and current study for a doctorate, he asked: “Which Anglican seminary did they attend? I suspect this may be a problem in how we understand the church.”
Msosa added that he believed the conflict’s roots lay in an earlier rivalry between himself and Ernesto, who were both candidates for an episcopal election in the Diocese of Niassa in 2017, and again for the church’s primacy in 2024.
“Bishop Ernesto hoped to become diocesan Bishop of Niassa, but he lost it to me. He was not elected, and it brought pain to him,” Msosa said, adding that Ernesto’s loss in the primatial election “brought another pain. He had wounds from Niassa, and now he lost again.”
Ernesto said the differences in the current conflict “are not personal and I do not hold any grudge.”
“Our differences are about integrity in ministry and faithfulness to Anglican governing proceedings that are being compromised at the risk of credibility and stability of the church. … Many are saying this is not acceptable in a church of the caliber of our beloved Anglican church.”
Msosa also said that he had received reports in May from an auditor about mismanagement of funds in the Diocese of Nampula, information that he passed along to the Anglican Communion Office. The auditor had recommended a forensic audit of the diocese’s accounts.
“I shared the same with the provincial chancellor, asking him and his team to get in touch with the Bishop of Nampula to understand what is happening,” Msosa said. “But Bishop [Ernesto] wrote a very bad email attacking me.”
Ernesto explained that the audit report only flagged some accounting irregularities that needed to be corrected. “Our diocesan financial position is in good order and can be verified,” he told TLC.
A representative of the Anglican Communion Office in London told TLC that it has not been asked to help settle the dispute.