MBABANE - The Parish Church Council and Reverend Canon Advent Nhlanhla Dlamini are being investigated for allegedly being in the process of acquiring land to form a breakaway church.

This was disclosed by the Registrar of the Diocese of Eswatini under the Anglican Church, Mbuso Simelane. Simelane made these allegations in the matter where the Parish Church Council and Reverend Canon Advent Dlamini want the Diocese of Eswatini Anglican Church of Southern Africa to be interdicted from revoking his pastoral licence. They are also challenging the transfer of Reverend Dlamini. “I am investigating claims that while they are appearing in court, they are in the process of acquiring land for themselves so that they could form a breakaway Anglican Church,” said Simelane.

In his affidavit, Simelane alleged that the applicants (Parish Church Council and Reverend Canon Advent Dlamin) were allegedly tearing the Anglican Church apart. “There is nothing wrong with forming a breakaway church as the Anglican Church came to being by breaking away from the main church. The problem is that in doing so, if true that the applicants are forming a breakaway church, they should not do so under the premise that they have not been consulted about the transfer of Reverend Dlamini and that the point of departure is that the consultations have broken down since the diocese is refusing to breach the provisions of the diocesan regulations and canon,” submitted Simelane.

It was further his argument, that no priest was owned by the congregants but was exercising a calling from God under the hand of the bishop. He argued that the applicants should not mislead the court that they were entitled to be consulted when a priest was rotated, and to abuse Reverend Dlamini to agree to stay at the Cathedral so long as they were happy with him. He narrated to the court that in or around 2015 or thereabout, he was allegedly called upon to face at least 250 strong congregants of the Cathedral, (inclusive of the members of Parish Church Council in an impromptu vestry, where they wanted Reverend Dlamini to be transferred from the Cathedral for introducing a ‘free service’ once a month where the sacrament of the Holy Communion was not administered.

Leaving

“The second applicant (Reverend Dlamini) wanted to catch the youth and parishioners who were leaving the Cathedral parish to various ministries around town where they danced and did not sing the prescribed hymns. There was also the hype of ‘oh pastor I receive’,” alleged Simelane. He alleged that Reverend Dlamini also wanted to give the members of the congregation a chance to identify their skills in preaching. “If my memory serves me right, that was the time where lay ministers in the person of Rev Dr Thokozani Nkambule, Rev Muzi Masina, Rev Lucky Vilakati, Rev S. Motsa and Rev Artwell Simelane, Rev Phindile Mkhonza and others, answered their calling of becoming lay ministers based on the introduction of the free service,” Simelane submitted. He said he was supposed to chair that vestry meeting with Amos Motsa and Gogo Jonga but they left him on the podium alone. According to Simelane, the congregation was angry that Reverend Dlamini had purportedly breached Canon 24, which provided that he must celebrate the Holy Communion every Sunday and not introduce acts of other ministries of a free service and that he had overstayed in the Cathedral.