Church solves succession dispute

KIGALI - Following months of succession battles that rocked Prayer Palace Church in Remera, where pastors were fighting to succeed its former leader, the church has finally settled on one pastor. The wrangles, sparked off after last year’s death of the former church leader, Pastor Jane Kanyange, were resolved after the intervention of the forum for the Born Again Pentecostal Churches. The church had split up during the process of electing a person to replace the deceased and each faction was fronting its own candidate. One group was headed by Pastor Moses Muhumuza while the other was led by both Gerald Mutiganda and Pascal Basabe. Mutiganda’s group claimed that they were members of the founding body and wanted a big say on who should replace Kanyange. They regarded Muhumuza’s group as ‘newcomers’ to the church. In a dramatic move, Muhumuza’s faction was later on ousted from the church, triggering bitter exchange of words between the two factions. Before eviction, it was reported that Muhumuza’s group got hold of the church’s sign post and stamp while the other group held documents that included the land title and the provisional operating license of the church. In the process of arbitrating the crisis, Muhumuza’s group accused the Forum of Born Again Churches headed by Bishop Charles Rwandamura, of being biased in favour of their opponents. Rwandamura later stepped aside but invited a number of Pentecostal churches which formed a committee of elders led by Pastor Paul Gitwaza of Zion Temple to solve the problem. The parties later agreed to bury the hatchet and Pastor Muhumuza emerged the winner, appointing him a senior pastor to be deputized by Pascal Basabe. When contacted, Mutiganda said; “we buried our differences and we are now going to work together as one body, thanks to the interventions the spiritual giants who guided us to reconcile.’ “The two factions met and we worked it out, which is one way of managing conflict; everybody was happy with the outcome,” he said. Ends

National

Church solves succession dispute