Govt urged to probe church

National, Normal
Source:

The National,Monday16 January 2012

By ZACHERY PER
THE National Government is being called on to investigate the running of the Evangelical Lutheran church of Papua New Guinea.
Steven Mol, the former first assistant secretary to head bishop Gigere Wenge, made the call in Goroka after the closing of the church’s 28th synod at the weekend.
He alleged there was serious financial mismanagement by church leaders that must be investigated by an independent team.
Mol delivered a petition to chief secretary Manasupe Zurenuoc and Minister for National Planning Sam Basil at the synod opening ceremony last week.
“The church leaders are hiding behind the curtains and have been collaborating to defraud the church, which is the innocent Christians who are citizens of PNG, I therefore want the government to conduct a thorough investigation,” he said.
Mol said a revised church constitution adopted at the 27th Synod in 2010 in Lae hosted by the Yabim district, Morobe, allowed for discrepancies to prevail in the church.
“The revised constitution is un-church, is flawed and does not represent the interests of the church,” Mol said.
He said that the damage would be far greater during the next two years, and that there would be more problems to be addressed at the 2014 synod.
Mol questioned why the Goroka synod did not touch on the church constitution.
 “I call on the legal advisor to the church, Dr Eric Kua, to tell members why he insisted that the deliberations and amendments to the constitution to be deferred.”
He called on the church secretary Albert Tokave to resign immediately for allegedly misleading the church.
He urged the government to fund an awareness campaign regarding the damage in the church constitution.
Mol burnt a copy of the constitution on Aug 24 before the pastors conference in NCD.