*Group calling self “Concerned Christians” slams church leadership
A small group of EBC worshippers,
which has named itself as “Concerned Christians”, has been slamming the local
church leadership over the alleged poor handling of a crisis situation,
provoked by the suspension of a Christian, Hansel Ekwa Itue.
Ekwa Itue was judged and sanctioned
by the EBC leadership for challenging the moral authority of Rev. Patrick Munjoh
Gefon,one of the three church pastors.
Rev.Gefon (native of Babanki, Northwest Region) has served as senior pastor of EBC, Great Soppo, for three years.
EBC ,on March 25, 2020, suspended
Ekwa Itue for three months, during which period he was not supposed to “participate
in the Lord’s Supper; not to hold any office in church; not to be called upon
to pray, teach or preach; not to tithe;not to be delegated to represent the church or
church group in any gathering.
Ekwa Itue’s suspension
letter (signed by EBC Chairman, Bro Tabong Augustin; Senior Pastor
Rev.Patrick Gefon and Bro Nkwan Amos, church
secretary),however ,permitted him only to attend worship service and Bible study; he was assigned a host of
counselors to follow him up.
Following the suspension of the “rebellious”
Christian, Rev.Gefon and the EBC leadership on the one hand and Mr. Ekwa Itue
and a small group of “Concerned Christians” on the other
hand,have been at daggers drawn, a situation that is jeopardizing the peace and
unity that EBC has known for decades.
It is feared that tribal sentiments over the
handling of the church imbroglio,may
leave the church in pieces rather
than in peace.
EBC leadership has initiated mediation and reconciliation
talks, but the opposing group has rather given preconditions if it must attend
any reconciliation meeting.
The small but “rebellious”
group is made up of Dr. Filbert Eko, Eyole N.Monono,Yawa Monono,James
Handison,Quintin Nartey and Lydia N. Haddison.
Even as of August 11, 2020,
the EBC leadership still wrote another letter titled “Invitation To Dialogue/Reconciliation”, which it sent to the group
of “Concerned Christians”, who are reportedly members of the same family and
natives of Buea.
The crisis developed an
ugly twist when Rev.Gefon was later slammed a three-month suspension by his
immediate church boss, Rev.Dr. Liombe Timothy.
Rev.Dr. Liombe, who is Field Pastor/chair of
Soppo Field (Buea and Muyuka) Council of Churches, slammed a suspension against
Rev. Gefon for allegedly using the pulpit to spread what the latter’s challengers likened to hate speech.
But the EBC leadership, banking on the CBC
Constitution, swiftly reacted by addressing a letter titled “The Position of EBC Great Soppo Buea In Relation
To The Recent Happenings In The Church”, to the Chair of Soppo Field
Council of Churches, Buea .
In the letter dated 6th
May 2020, the EBC leadership justified the temporary suspension of Ekwa Itue,
and noted that activities of the “Concerned Christians” were irregular and
their letters full of misinformation intended to “foment a conflict in the EBC
and magnify it, as they threaten to destabilize the church”.
The EBC leadership regretted
that the “Concerned Christians” had in one of their letters, among other things,
accused the Pastoral desk of “lacking
experience and dynamism to handle churches in coastal areas, particularly a
church like Ebenezer Baptist Church”, an accusation which it dismissed as
unfounded.
“EBC has grown numerically, spiritually, financially
and even in their relations with the community”, the church leadership noted.
EBC decried the manner in
which the Soppo Field Ministerial Council handled the former’s internal issues,
without respecting church regulations.
Sanctioned Christian,Hansel
Ekwa Itue, had accused Rev. Gefon of arrogance and of managing funds raised for
the building of a residence of a
desperate pastor in Munyenge without
consulting other church officials as required by regulation, but the
accused dismissed such claims, noting that raised funds were used transparently
for the intended purpose with the
knowledge of the church congregation.
“It is important to know
that the church does not have any record on how much was raised and how it was spent,
yet the fund raising was done in this church,”
Ekwal Itue had alleged in a Feb
10th 2020 letter to “The
Crisis Management Adhoc Committee” of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Great Soppo.
In his second letter dated
March30, 2020 addressed to the Chairman of Soppo Field Ministerial Council, Ekwa
Itue narrated how his efforts to cause Rev. Gefon to respect church principles,
instead provoked the pastor to attack him whenever the Man of God mounted the pulpit on Sundays.
Ekwa Itue regretted that the
crisis escalated because an allegation circulated that he
had stormed Rev.Gefon’s office and beaten him up, an allegation which the former
dismissed as unfounded, noting that he visited Rev.Gefon to discuss privately
with him towards reconciliation.
“I made countless efforts to meet the Pastor
for us to get out of the deadlock, and going to his office on that day was
proof of my will to seek peace and understanding between us”, argued Itue in
his second letter.
This reporter on August 11thAugust
met Rev. Gefon and Nkwan Amos,EBC secretary
to get their reactions to accusations leveled against them by Ekwa Itue
and the group of “Concerned Christians” and they welcomed him .
Nkwan Amos told this
reporter,” The genesis of the crisis is that a Christian,Hansel Ekwa Itue was
disciplined by EBC . He refused to
accept the sanction and walked out, then a group calling itself “Concerned
Christians emerged and started writing letters against the church and its leadership,
claiming the disciplinary sanction was unjust”
The secretary said EBC has
been making a lot of efforts to bring about reconciliation, with little or no
success.
“But first of all before
reconciliation comes you must accept
that you are wrong; reconciliation becomes difficult when someone has not
accepted that he is wrong,” he added. “When
Mr.Ekwa Itue was disciplined he insisted he was not wrong and refused to apologize. So reconciliation
could not be immediate when he had not accepted wrongdoing”
Nkwan regretted that both Ekwa
Itue and the group of “Concerned Christians” (not a recognized group in the
church) have been hesitant to come for reconciliation for the unity of the
church.
“The conditions they are
giving us for reconciliation cannot be accepted, because they are not even a recognized
group in the church”, the secretary said, citing Chapter 8,Article 32(4 ) on
PROHIBITIONS of the CBC Constitution.
The subsection 4 reads: “Any complaint, petition or memoranda, verbal
or written submitted by any person, or group of persons not properly
identified as an authority ,a body or
institution operating within the confines of the Convention or not channeled
through the competent authority or body
must be considered inadmissible.”
Nkwan admitted that the
crisis has negatively affected church attendance and other activities of the
House of God
On allegation of Northwest
/Southwest divide in EBC,Nkwan said, “This was mentioned by the letters of the Concerned Christians. They
said if we don’t [yield] to their demands it will lead to inter-tribal
conflict. So we believe that they are pushing towards that direction.”
Reacting, Rev. Gefon
admitted he was placed on suspension for alleged hate speech against Bakweri
people, which he added was false accusation; reason why he said when he was absent
during a church service, the Bakweri vernacular choir protested, by “refusing
to sing because of my suspension. So if I insulted people, how could the same people
protest against my suspension? To me, the “Concerned Christians” are the ones
propagating hate speech,” he said.
Rev. Gefon rather thought
he was suspended because he spoke truth to hierarchy: “that according to the
CBC constitution they were not supposed to entertain an unrecognized group as
the “Concerned Christians”.
He further noted,”To show
that my suspension was not genuine, it has been lifted by the Field Pastor
earlier than scheduled.”
This reporter learned it was the Executive
President of CBC,Rev Dr. Ncham Godlove ,who ordered that the suspension on
Rev.Gefon be lifted forthwith, but your
reporter could not independently confirm
it.
A letter signed by Rev.Dr.
Liombe Timothy, dated August 8, 2020 and titled “Reinstatement of Rev. Gefon Patrick”
partly reads: “We write to notify you that you have been uplifted from your
suspension dated June 17, 2020.You can begin work from Wednesday August 19,
2020”
Asked about his
relationship now with the Field Pastor who suspended him, Rev Gefon quipped:
“He remains my Field pastor, I respect him and we are bound to work together.
In any aspect of life we all can err. Pastors are not God; they are human
beings.”
Rev. Gefon said he had no
personal problem with Ekwa Itue,but admitted
the latter had attacked him. “He did not attack me because of any
personal problem but because he thought I was not following the procedures of
the Church. He was not right.”
Asked whether personally
he was working towards bringing back disgruntled Christians, Rev.Gefon said," Definitely!
That is the job of a pastor. The pastor is a peace maker. If they want to sit
with us and we talk we are ready. When Hansel Itue was disciplined, he wrote a
letter saying he wanted to leave the church. We have not responded because we don’t
want him to leave. He is part of us.”
In one of the latest
statements made public by the group of concerned Christians, it said: “We will
repeat, we don’t have any personal issue with Rev. Gefon, we have issues with
the way the church is being administered…
“We regret to say that
some persons have taken the church hostage with their bad judgments and this
has greatly polarized the church within tribal lines.”
.The EBC has scheduled a “Dialogue
and Reconciliation” meeting for August 17th 2020 and it is hoped the
Concerned Christians and Hansel Itue would attend.
EBC, established since
1934, now has three pastors to shepherd Christians, viz: Rev. Patrick Gefon, senior
pastor; Roland Lyonga, associate pastor and Minister Ntalah Alimah
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