A restriction placed on the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the church by Apostles Revelation Society (ARS) by the Volta Regional Security Council (REGGAES) will only be lifted if the two feuding parties agree to drop their differences and live in peace with each other.
The REGSEC will determine this when the two factions agree to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the church as one body, on the same day and not separately.
The Volta Regional Minister, Mr Joseph Amenowode, announced the decision at a news conference at HO last Thursday.
The restriction was placed on the church at a REGSEC meeting held on Monday, November 30, 2009.
Explaining to the regional security council, the regional minister said following the death of the leader and founder of the church, Mawu Fe Ame C.K.N. Wovenu, a leadership dispute ensued.
The dispute led to the institution of a court action by one of the factions, usually referred to as “ the Amega faction”, which is led by Rev Apostle James Amega against the other faction also referred to as “ the Apostles faction”. The Accra Fast Track High Court on February 26, 2009 gave its ruling on the matter.
The court ruling stated, among other things, that the ARS had not legally chosen a leader, the leadership of Apostle Amega was not legal, but de facto, the College of Apostles was alien to the constitution of the church, and that even if the College of Apostles had power to remove Apostle Amega, they did not give him the opportunity to defend himself as demanded by natural justice.
It further ruled that Apostle Amega should have been given a hearing.
“The REGSEC over the past years had taken a number of measures aimed at resolving the leadership problem in the ARS but without much success”, he said.
He said some of the steps taken included placing a ban on all activities of the Church in 2000. This was lifted in 2006 following a letter written to the REGSEC by the two contending factions pleading for the injunction to be lifted.
Mr Amenowode said in 2007, by a radio announcement the REGSEC ordered the two factions not to engage in any activity but they went ahead to hold a joint celebration which resulted in serious disturbances.
In 2008, the regional minister said because of the general elections , the REGSEC ordered the police to impose bans on all celebrations of the church but both factions defied the order.
This, he said, also resulted in serious disturbances.
He added that when the current administration took over the affairs of the region this year, the REGSEC took further steps by inviting members of the two factions to the offices of the Volta Regional Co-ordinating Council (VRCC) to deliberate on how to amicably resolve the lingering leadership dispute.
The minister said another meeting was held at Ho on Friday October 23, 2009 between “the Amega faction” and “the Apostle faction” during which both factions agreed to abide by a memorandum of understudying reached with the REGSEC. The two contending factions agreed, among other things, that an interim neutral body, made up of representatives from the Christian Council of Churches in the region be tasked to convene the General Conference of the ARS Church.
The MOU also stated that each faction should nominate one person to work with the Christian Council to constitute the General Conference whose membership should be limited to the 43 branches of the church.
According to the MOU, the General Conference which should be made up of members of each faction should set up a Constitutional Review Body to review the existing constitution.
The minister said they were, therefore, surprised that before the MOU, which had a great potential for resolving this leadership problem within the Church could be signed, the Apostles faction had taken a different course of action by setting up a nine-member Constitutional Drafting Committee to come out with a constitution to be promulgated by the end of April, 2010.
Apart from that, he said, the faction had also organised a delegates’ conference at Tadzewu, and planned to revive the ‘holy anointing’ for its members without contacting the REGSEC, contrary to the tenets of MoU the two factions agreed upon.
These actions, he said, displayed total disrespect for the entire membership of REGSEC which if allowed would not promote the peace and security of the region.
He called on the supporters of the Amega and Apostles faction, to prevail upon their leaders to smoke the peace pipe in the name of the Almighty God so that they could have one united strong church to enable them to have a happy 70th anniversary celebration of the of the ARS Church.
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