The Anglican diocese of the Highveld has been given an ultimatum by a senior church member to prove its claims that it is investigating him for the misuse of church funds or face a lawsuit.
Shadrack Ngubeni, a member of the project team at St Boniface church in Vosloorus, who claims he has been investigating allegations of misappropriation of funds at his church, has given the church seven days to produce the evidence implicating him or face the music.
The problem started about a week ago when a diocesan circular, widely distributed in parishes, said the diocese, including its bishop, Charles May and its registrar Jonathan Cornelius, claimed that Ngubeni was being probed “for misappropriation of funds”.
The diocese said besides investigating Ngubeni for alleged embezzlement of church funds, it would “sue each member of the project team “for libel,
defamation and reputational damages” for claiming that it turned a blind eye to allegations of sexual harassment and financial mismanagement brought to its attention.
However, Ngubeni said in a replying circular he would be consulting his lawyers to determine a line of action against Cornelius, May and the diocese.
Speaking to Sunday World, Ngubeni said he was giving the diocese, May, Cornelius and May’s Chapter (bishop’s advisers), seven days within which to provide written evidence of their alleged claim that he was being investigated for “misappropriation of church funds”.
“I demand a letter of complaint and evidence adduced at a tribunal that tried me and found me to be deserving to be investigated for misappropriation of parish funds.
“I am part of a project team that is unearthing the rot in the church’s finance in my parish.
“Now the registrar and the bishop have the nerve to want to throw mud at me.
“If Cornelius and the bishop want to investigate me for misappropriation of church funds, simply because my colleagues and I in the project team are blowing the whistle and alerting the world about the misconduct in the church and the diocese, I urge them to bring it on.
“We will not be intimidated, not even by the registrar or the bishop. Our only concern is to ensure that there is accountability in both our parish and the diocese. The gloves are off. If they do not provide evidence within seven days, my lawyer will be knocking on their door,”
Ngubeni said.
Ngubeni said the assertion by Cornelius that “only a small minority of the of the St Boniface has indicated that they blame May” was false.
He said there was a groundswell of discontentment in the church, and that the numbers of congregants attending the church were dwindling.
“The congregants are leaving in droves, and this is partly because of the way things were turning out in the church.”
The project team also claimed in the circular that May, who was informed on several occasions about the misuse of finances in the church, did nothing to have the matter investigated – and this includes the sexual harassment of a female worker by the parish rector.
The project team also raised issues about the diocesan’s inability to account for the misappropriation of their church’s investment account which had grown to R680 000 but now stood at R86 000.
No explanation, said the project teams, had been given to the church for the shortfall and the “raiding by the diocesan hierarchy of our church’s investment”.
The team also claimed despite raising the issues with May, he failed to respond to the team’s letters of concern, which, among other things, expressed grave concern about their rector’s unbecoming behaviour, including improper sexual advances to a female employee and the misappropriation of the church funds.
The circular was distributed a few days after Cornelius stated in a letter to the diocesan parishes that “the Trust Board and Chapter has resolved [to] instruct our attorneys to sue each member of the project team for libel, defamation and reputational damages”.
He claimed that reconciliation had taken place at the parish of St Boniface and the majority of the “congregants are satisfied with the leadership of May, and that St Boniface has been the subject of two audits, both of which were accepted by the congregation” and that “the only objection to the audit (sic) came from the team”.
He said claims that the diocese had misused St Boniface’s investment funds were without basis, and that the alleged sexual harassment of the female cleaner had been dealt with, and that reconciliation had taken place at the parish.
The project team was unfazed about the threats of being sued.
“We have nothing to hide. Mr Cornelius is ill-informed and is using emotions to defend the indefensible.”
By the time of going to print, Cornelius and the bishop had not responded to our written enquiries.
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