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Church of Central African Presbyterian (CCAP) synods of Nkhoma and Livingstonia are engaged in a battle over boundaries with accusations that Nkhoma Synod is encroaching in the other synod’s territory by building its prayer houses.
The Livingstonia Synod has since vowed to retaliate and invade Nkhoma Synod’s territory if the latter continues to defy borders.
Both Livingstonia Synod and the General Synod confirmed the fight on Monday and said the mother synod was organising a meeting of the two bodies to resolve the matter.
“Before this issue came out, as a General Synod, we had already arranged a meeting with both Nkhoma and Livingstonia over the same boundary. We will be meeting the two synods in two weeks’ time,” said General Synod Moderator Felix Chingota in an interview.
Chingota, however, could not be drawn to answer more questions.
Nkhoma Synod could not be reached on Monday as all their land phones went unanswered.
Livingstonia Synod General Secretary Maurice Munthali in an interview said the problem over the boundary dates back to two decades ago and discussions have been going on since then without reaching a solution.
“We are not quarrelling as such but we want to find out how best we can honour the boundaries. Nkhoma has been erecting prayer houses inside our territory. If they choose not to respect the boundaries we will have no choice but to do likewise. It is better to disregard the boundaries than to pretend that we have them,” said Munthali.
According to Munthali, the boundaries between the two synods are Dwangwa River in the upper land and Bua River in the lake shore area.
However, he said Nkhoma Synod has been building prayer houses as far as Nkhamenya in the North and Dwambazi in the lake shore area.
“People have been saying that this issue about boundaries would only confuse our Christians but according to us it is this erecting of churches inside someone’s territory that would confuse our Christians even more,” said Munthali.
He said the issue has already been referred to the General Synod which has proposed a meeting with the two synods.
Munthali, however, said although the two synods have different backgrounds he does not think that the differences over boundaries come from that.
“Historically Nkhoma Synod is not a CCAP family, it is only from 1926 when Nkhoma joined the CCAP but we would not want to go back to that because we take them as CCAP. We would not want to assume that they are doing this because they are not CCAP, that would be unfortunate,” he added.
Nkhoma Synod has its roots from the Dutch Reformed Church of Holland while Livingstonia traces its origin to the Church of Scotland of the United Kingdom.
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