Zimbabwe Anglicans have been "vital contributors to sustaining and rebuilding the social fabric" of the African country, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York said in a commentary posted on Monday in the British publication the Guardian.

The bishops cited the church's development work such as HIV care, rural clinics, training in sustainable farming practices, feeding programs, and counseling and education centers, as necessary activities for preventing Zimbabwe from falling into "another round of trauma and destruction."

In response to criticism that the church is not well positioned to deliver such services due to their religious "agenda," the bishops called such talk "nonsense – and dangerously unrealistic nonsense."

"In societies where the main civil society networks are closely bound to the life of the churches, it is self-defeatingly foolish to bypass their systems," they said.

"The 'agenda' of the churches in contexts like this is simply the restoration of human dignity and stability in a deeply damaged society. No one else is there to do it."

The bishops also lamented the oppression the Zimbabwe church has faced from the government as well as former Anglican leadership in the country, saying that such attacks are a sign of the "dysfunctionality" of the society.

The statement comes nearly a year after the bishops' launch of fundraising appeal for Zimbabwe, which has raised nearly half a million British pounds since its inception.

Last week, a gallery of photographs commemorating the work of the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe was posted in Southwark Cathedral by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

"We are very, very proud of our Anglican brothers and sisters from Zimbabwe, for the courage, faithfulness and the imagination that they've shown in the last couple of years," Williams said at the gallery's opening.

"It would be difficult enough to deliver all this significant help and support if there were not other problems, a country suffering grave deprivation and political and economic crisis, but to deliver this also in the face of relentless brutality and harassment is a further extra mark of the courage and the stature of our Anglican friends in Zimbabwe."