Infightings are slowly eating up the clergy of the Anglican Church in Malawi, it has been revealed.
The Diocese of Upper Shire has over the last few weeks been faced with top notch disagreements by the priests and its Bishop Brighton Malasa.
Congregants have also been joining the infightings, according to anonymous sources privy to Malawi24.
The wrangles span from disagreements over decrees that have been made by top leadership of the Church in various areas, appointments and accusations of corruption.
In a series of correspondence that Malawi24 has in a possession, the wrangles are seen to hover around Clergy Representatives Father MacDonald Njalam’manu Banda, Canon Will Madi, Bishop Malasa and congregants.
In an email, Banda responds to criticism of falling short of his advisory role to Bishop Malasa by insinuating that the Bishop has been actually ignoring him and denying him opportunity to render advice to him.
The bone of contention appears to be the incessant resignations of priests on various roles and in parishes where they are deployed.
Recently, one Father Mathews Singano Kachala had resigned as Archdeacon of Zomba Parish over what has been termed by Banda as ‘some issues between him and the Bishop.’
In the email, Banda states that the Bishop had asked him to engage Kachala in a meeting so that he would rescind his stance but it all but failed.
However Banda indicates that he Madi were not part of the decree or a meeting that discussed Kachala’s resignation.
“We as representaClergy of the Clergy were concerned that he had thought. and requested him to give it a second thought. The complication was that the Bishop ( Malasa) had accepted the resignation through an email when he was in Nairobi, Kenya. I am mentioning this to stress a point that as clergy representatives we have trying to do something but we couldn’t be announcing it” reads part of the email in which Bishop Malasa is copied.
At the beginning of the email Banda is seen to have been replying to an unknown member of the clergy who feels the two (Banda and Madi) are failing to engage the Bishop and also that they have been part of decisions that the Bishop has made and led to withdrawal of pastoral services by a batch of priests. He writes to shrug the accusations off by way of saying the landmark decisions in question have single handedly been made by the Bishop.
“Watching the bishop getting out of his way; Fr. Pembamoyo, I want to assure you as a fellow priest that I am not one of the people who just sit and watch while the bishop is getting out of his way as you have said. I as an individual can’t be happy to see that happening without doing anything. I love the Bishop and the church as everyone does. I once worked closely with the bishop as you are aware. I can’t celebrate when seeing the bishop going off track.” He writes.
