Total Pageviews

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Manawa: That PCC Decision Sanctioning Pastor Wara &Two Other ‘Recalcitrant’ Pastors


Change is the only thing that is permanent. When Rev. Festus Ambe Asana became Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon PCC, he announced that change had come to the PCC. He was not blowing hot air. Within months of his leadership the axe fell on a good number of PCC methuselahs who initially considered themselves untouchable. A good number of them had become brazenly corrupt. The decision was highly acclaimed. Even before the Moderator took this commendable step, a majority of PCC vote holders were already shifting uneasily on their seats. The crusade against corruption in the church was already underway championed by Ntumfor Nico Halle.
Last Sunday, June 3, Rev Festus Asana took another very dramatic decision. He authenticated albeit tacitly, sanctions on three ‘recalcitrant’ pastors. The three are Rev. Solomon Wara and Rev Tokabo Divine. Rev Adose Osage, one of the sanctioned pastors will have to reimburse a sum of 10 million FCFA to the PCC. MANAWA has no quarrel with the PCC Moderator who made the pronouncements on the heels of the graduation ceremony of 24 student pastors from the Presbyterian Seminary in Kumba.
During the occasion, Rev. Dr. Muyoh Joshua, Dean of Studies at the Theological seminary urged the graduating pastors to abide by their calling.
In his sermon, the Right Reverend Festus Ambe Asana harped on his philosophy of change. He described the sanctioned pastors as ‘bad seeds’ and urged the graduating pastors not to emulate their examples.

Is Pastor Wara Really a Bad Seed?
Rev. Solomon Wara is a household name not only in Bamenda where he resides, but far and wide. His ministry recently received an award from Cameroon Post International, a renowned English language newspaper as the best in healing and deliverance. The testimonies of people he has delivered and healed are there as proof. There must be something good in something whom almost everyone speaks good of, just as there must be something evil about anyone whom everybody condemns.
Pastor Wara is different from other healing and delivering evangelists in that he never discourages those seeking healing from taking their drugs. Many others tell those who come for healing and deliverance that they don’t need to spend any money in hospital, indirectly saying the money with which the patient should have gone to hospital should be given to their churches. That is outright feymania. Deliverance is necessary for people who have spiritual problems; the doctor attends to physical problems. Preachers, who give the impression that doctors are useless, greatly misdirect those coming for deliverance.
Polyclinics, renowned for the handling of HIV cases, told Chronicle that a sero-positive patient who had been put on anti-retroviral drugs, came to him after a deliverance session saying he should test her; that she had been miraculously cured of AIDS. Of course, he did the test and she still proved sero-positive. This is not to say that people cannot be cured miraculously. This depends on the degree of the patient’s faith and Pastor Wara never fails to point this out. Many patients with doubtful faith have died because they stopped taking their drugs with the misconception that they had been cured simply because they have attended deliverance services and/or crusades. To say that Pastor Wara is a realistic and sincere evangelist is to call things by their true names.

The PCC Failing to Learn From the Bible and History
History has been defined simply as the story of the past events of man. History scholars commend studies on man’s past so that he can cope with the present and plan for a better future avoid the errors of the past. History is repetitive, sometimes refusing to make sense, says W.B. Yeats. PCC authorities forget that the Protestant church came into existence thanks to Martin Luther who wrote 95 points against the Catholic Church for the sale of indulgences. He pasted them on the wall of the Catholic Church in Wattenberg, Germany. That was the beginning of the Reformation. But what many people don’t know is that Martin Luther died still a Catholic. But the seed of discord he had sown grew. Today we have not only the Protestant and Baptist churches, but myriads of worship houses and ministries.
W.H. Auden, an English poet, was not far from the point when he wrote that most of the confusion in the world today stems from Martin Luther’s rebellion against the established church.
The PCC should therefore learn from the fact that Martin Luther died a catholic, a lesson that we should learn to tolerate dissenting views within the same community or organization if we want a healthy society. The PCC should recall what happened in the case of pastors with dissenting voices like the late Michael Bame Bame and Rev. Jonathan Awasom. Rev Bame Bame started the Revivalist Movement in the Presbyterian Church because of such vices like corruption, immorality and even occultism which had taken root in the church. He was condemned outright and sanctioned. Today, the PCC is implementing most of the reforms he proposed.
Rev. Jonathan Awasom, like Pastor Wara was PCC Pastor in Bambili. The church tried to victimize him when he came up with reformatory ideas. He was expelled and derobed. Today, he is based in the U.S. His victimization hastened his departure. Today, he is away from the scene but his ideas live on.
The PCC hierarchy appears not to have also learnt from the very Bible it uses for evangelization, when the disciples were preaching and some authorities tried to victimize them. Other more sensible persons thought otherwise. “If these men are of God, they will succeed. If they are not they will come to naught”; was the advice from the sensible ones. If all what Pastor Wara and other deliverance pastors are doing are not of the Lord, everything would come to naught. But the PCC hierarchy has decided to take a position in a matter which is God’s prerogative.

The Necessity to Respect Vows
The above analysis is by no means an encouragement for insubordination. People should respect the vows they take at graduation. Going against them is breaking a covenant. If God protects the people of Israel to this day it is because He entered into a covenant with Abraham, the ancestor of the Israelites. The failure to respect vows is the cause of the regrettable situation in the Catholic Church today. Priests who took vows of chastity and celebrity are today not only openly involved in immorality with women many of them married, some priests even get married. We have also the more deplorable cases of child sexual molestation; male children to be more specific.
But the vows whose breakings are even more serious are those related to respect for hierarchy and the tenets of church teachings. Failure to keep them, especially those related to preaching can be disastrous. The case of Father Etienne Nkumba of Bonjongo Paris in Fako is a good example. It was Bishop Pius Awa who ordained him. Father Etienne eventually became a healing priest, ignoring his hierarchy. Of course, Bishop Awa suspended him. Today all his preachings and healing have come to naught.
Every individual has the right to choose the path of his salvation. If you find the doctrine of the religious establishment you were ordained to serve no longer palatable, officially resign and start your own denomination. That is far better than creating a controversy and waiting to be sanctioned. Pastor Wara attained a level of popularity which only Rev. Bame Bame reached. He certainly received warnings and admonition from his hierarchy. But for some unexplained reason, he continued what he was doing. Many of his supporters see the sanction taken against him as an act of persecution. Some of them who spoke to MANAWA say they are more committed not to his preaching and healing than ever. But for how long? There is school of thought that a Pastor dismissed from his church is like a flower pulled off the river bank after heavy rain when the volume of the water rises. The weed thus floats without any destination and can only germinate and produce seeds again if it is fortunate to be deposited on another bank if not, it keeps floating until it gets rotten.
Rev Wara may become like that flower, but for now he has to adjust to the new situation where he finds himself. MANAWA takes the position that the established church should be more tolerant to diverse views and adapt to changes. Whether we accept or not, many changes have been introduced to evangelism by the Pentecostals or ‘Born Agains’ the charismatic movement in the catholic church is a manifestation of its adaptation to modern preaching and evangelization.
The PCC has to learn to live with the fact that its Christians and clergy are much under the influence of democratic tenets. Rev Festus Asana’s perception of change should not rule out attitudinal changes within its clergy. The solution is not the sledgehammer but dialogue. Dogma is still necessary in some aspects of preaching, it must be understood that if the Catholic Church could not suppress Martin Luther over 400 years ago, it is unlikely that the PCC can silence completely some members of the clergy who consider healing and deliverance as an alternative means of spreading the Good News. Jesus Christ predicted that many false christs would emerge. The Bible prophesizes that before the end of time, some counterfeit prophets would emerge preaching, casting out demons and working miracles in his name. At the same time Christ called on his not to judge in order that we too should not be judged. Sanctioning Pastor Wara and his colleagues is passing judgment on them which is Biblically unacceptable. The PCC should reconsider its decision on Pastor Wara and engage dialogue rather than the sledgehammer when dealing with future cases of dissent in the church.

No comments:

Post a Comment