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| Opinion |
| Editorial |
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by
Editor, 15 June 2006
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06:36:04
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Church should be role model
Recent events in the Anglican Church, especially the Diocese of Lake Malawi, relating to the succession of the late Bishop Peter Nyanja, are not inspiring, to say the least. They also paint a bad image of the entire Christian community.
Nyanja’s succession has caused divisions in the diocese for over three months now. First, it was British clergyman Paul Nicholas Henderson who was rejected for allegedly being associated with a gay movement in the United Kingdom. After Henderson, came Bishop Leonard James Mwenda from Zambia, who was also rejected by another faction of the diocese. Mwenda was unceremoniously kicked out of the Bishop’s house with a court injunction, forcing him to seek refuge at a relation’s house in Lilongwe.
Now we learn that Mwenda is the bona fide Anglican Bishop of Lake Malawi Diocese following a ruling by the High Court in Lilongwe on Monday.
It is good news to learn that the issue is over and we hope all parties to the case will bury their differences and allow the Bishop to do his job, which is to spiritually lead the flock, not running up and down court corridors seeking redress.
The judge has advised the concerned parties to resolve the matter at church level. We agree.
The Anglican Church and all other denominations are seen as role models in society. They should preach peace, dialogue and reconciliation. But, this status is eroded when the very institutions we look up to for salvation start fighting and dragging each other to a secular court.
And this should not be the case when the church finally seeks to recover the Bishop’s office and residence keys—as has been stated—because it will be a complete contradiction of the court judgement and the claimed internal reconciliation.
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