Anglican torn asunder

OWING to the highly controversial administration of Bishop Maternus Kapinga of the Ruvuma Diocese of the Anglican Church there have arisen severe divisions amongst worshippers, The Express has established.

These serious divisions can be seen as threefold, according to our sources. The first division is amongst the bishops themselves, as some of these see Kapinga as a liability to the Church.

There is division amongst the ordinary worshippers, between those who have decided to tolerate him against those who are not prepared for that.

The third division is between the congregations who have decided to stand firm against him on the one side, and his few loyalists on the other.

According to our sources, the worshippers had noted a lot of discrepancies immediately when he took over in 1998/99. But the real debacle started in 2003.

“It was very unfortunate for our bishop that just in the early days of his tenure there were suspicions about him amongst the donors”, said our source.

Elaborating he said that in 1999, while Kapinga was still quite new to the Ruvuma Diocese, one organization, “Bread for the World”, had planned to grant 100 million Tshs for the purpose of rehabilitating the diocesan boat and for buying it a new engine, but after ‘smelling a rat’ the charitable partners pulled out.

According to our sources, in 2003 the Church elders had started to act covertly in advising the bishop, fearing that any open criticism would provoke a violent reaction and lead to serious divisions amongst the worshippers.

However, with a new administration in the synod, certain measures were supposed to be enacted as a matter of procedure.

That is; a financial committee was supposed to assess expenditures and give a report to the concerned authorities.

This was a procedure that was aimed at building up the trust of donors, who for quite some time had been sponsoring various projects under the control of the diocese.

From 2005 to 2007, the bishop never convened even a single meeting because he knew that members of the committees concerned would ask to see the financial reports.

Bishop Kapinga, who had made it difficult for us to get the story from his side after his failure to collaborate with this newspaper, took his critics as total enemies and the battle was on.

“Due to this tug of war the bishop has expelled from leadership whoever did not put up with what his critics call “dictatorial tendencies”, said one source.

But this did not end with administrative matters, it was reflected in the conduct of church services as well.

“The division has caused factions so that, although worshippers are still counted as belonging to the Anglican Church, the radical factions now attend the second communion while the first one is attended by the moderates”, he added.

The situation is similar in almost all of the suffragan churches: Chiulu, Puulu, Mbaba bay, Mbinga and Liuli. The situation is even worse at Puulu where now worshippers are planning to defect and join other Christian denominations.

In Mbinga, the bishop managed to get the support of the district commissioner, Rtd-Col Edmund Mjengwa, and the OCD Christopher Millinga, who threatened the congregations that they would initiate legal action against the rebellious.

At the headquarters, Bishop Valentine Mokiwa has taken a different approach. He has asked Bishop Kapinga to find a negotiated solution with his congregation, but it seems this has fallen on deaf ears.

Due to this tug-of-war certain projects have collapsed totally, for example the sugar plant at Lundo, where even the sugar processing machine has been removed completely and sent to an unknown destination.

The MV Ndongonji boat is just rotting in the water after having remained redundant for quite sometime. The sunflower farm at Ngehe and its refinery machine are now functionless.

The Liuli Technical Centre has followed suit, the youths who used to learn fishing and carpentry now sit idle.

Moreover the synod committees now are composed of the bishop’s ‘puppets’, a good number of Church functionaries are the chosen of the bishop, and not elected ones as the constitution requires.

Since 2003 the standing committees are not functioning, priests who have called for the normalization of the Church administration have likewise been suspended.

For instance; the standing committee in its meeting convened at Mbamba bay on January 17, 2003, came up with proposals that Bishop Kapinga was supposed to implement.

Three priests who attended that meeting, namely Fr. Julius Ng’ohi, Fr. Lucas Chiwinga and Fr. Andrew Mwanja, delivered proposals on behalf of the standing committee but these did not get a positive response.

Instead the three were suspended immediately by a letter from Bishop Kapinga dated January 23, 2003.

The three priests had proposed to the bishop that he should abide by the standing committee’s recommendations, particularly on financial matters.

The priests had also called upon Bishop Kapinga to respect the Church’s constitution, and resolve disagreements through dialogue. But this fueled even more hatred from the bishop who remains intact, with firm support from the Church headquarters in Dar es Salaam.

The three priests have since been dispersed after the top Church administration failed to rescue them. Fr. Ng’ohi is currently at Chiulu ministering to the defected faction from Chiulu and Liuli.

Fr. Chiwinga has shifted to the Mbeya diocese, while Fr. Mwanja’s fate is not yet clear. Amongst the victims of the ‘iron fist’ is Mathayo Laukila, who used to be synod secretary. He was immediately suspended by the furious bishop.

The bishop had promised that there would be a meeting in November 2007 to resolve matters. But after noting that the main agenda (as the congregation had preferred) would be financial matters, the bishop immediately turned into a ‘roaring lion’.

He became even harsher, prompting Bishop Mokiwa to visit the dioceses early 2008. What he ordered was never heeded at all. He had ordered that the suspended priests resume their posts and the constitution be adhered to.

The Express is in possession of various letters from various parts of the Anglican communion, trying to resolve the situation amicably.

Amongst those letters is one dated September 13, 2009, and its sequel of September 20, 2009. The letter, which is addressed to Bishop Mokiwa, elaborates in detail the administrative eccentricities of Bishop Kapinga.