Africa-Press – Eswatini. The All Saints Cathedral Parish Council in Mbabane has alleged that death threats and curses were made against all parishioners who were against Bishop Dalcy Dlamini.
The council yesterday filed an urgent application at the High Court, in which it seeks to stop the transfer of Canon Reverend Advent Dlamini from Mbabane to Mhlume.
In its application, which they failed to get, the council lists five complaints which it claims to have raised with the Diocese in Eswatini.
The complaints include the alleged death threats, curses against some members, gossip and claims.
On the death threats and curses, the council alleged that during an all-night prayer organised by the bishop at MITC on May 5, one of her guest speakers ordered the congregation to pray death on all All Saints parishioners who were against the bishop.
They alleged that a curse of death was also extended on their spouses and a curse was also pronounced on their children.
They said this was in view of some parishioners, who had also attended the all-night prayer.
“This is disturbing and causing fear in the congregants. The bishop condoned same,” alleged the council.
The prayer, according to the council was “Baba, bonke abemelene neBishop sithi abafe, sithi abafazi babo abasale babafelokazi, if kungamadoda, akufe abafazi babo, abantwana abasale bazihlupheki. Sehlisela icurse upon their lives, imindeni yabo mayihlupheke…”
The council also said it complained of alleged bullying and exerting trauma on All Saints servers, which they claimed was witnessed during a servers workshop held on April 22, at Saint Georges and James.
They alleged that some of the All Saints servers were seen making noise during the session, among others, and the bishop allegedly openly isolated and rebuked them to keep silent since she hated them because they were from the Cathedral.
Further, they alleged that there was bullying, gossip and spreading of innuendo about All Saints Cathedral Parish by the bishop.
“On or about April 6, during Maundy Thursday held at St Georges and James in Manzini, the bishop uttered innuendo about the All Saints Cathedral Parish in the audience of all the Diocesan clergy, wherein she informed the attendees that the Diocese of Eswatini was unable to remit the pension contributions for the clergy due to All Saints withholding their assessment,” alleged the council.
It further submitted that while the Cathedral parish had not remitted the assessment, it was one among many parishes that had not paid assessment.
They said the Cathedral had deliberately withheld the assessment, a decision taken at vestry because they felt the bishop was allegedly not co-operating in as far as addressing administrative and ministerial issues that affected them directly, and had sought her audience on same.
They submitted that the Cathedral Parish believed that the bishop should have addressed them directly on the issue of the assessment remittance and responded to their concerns.
Statement
“The parish feels that uttering such a statement by a bishop was demeaning and meant to assassinate their reputation and set them up against the wide church. The Diocesan office knew why the Cathedral assessment was withheld and the issues of concern, but the office, instead of addressing the party concerned chose to make the Cathedral a spectacle in full view of all the clergy.
“On April 1 at the all night prayer held at St Phillips and James, one of the clergy, from a different parish, requested the congregation to pray against the demon withholding the Cathedral assessment,” they further alleged.
They said this made them to strongly believe that there was gossip and the bishop’s office was at liberty of summoning the parish and discuss the issue with them without allegedly perpetuating gossip on the matter.
The council further stated that it had come to their attention that the bishop had allegedly been accusing the parish of being demon possessed.
“This is very disturbing, coming from a spiritual leader who should be giving guidance on the church’s spiritual matters and lead in exorcising demons. The bishop has also mentioned this to some Cathedral parishioners. While we were not willing to believe this, it was very disturbing that a service which has, over the years, been conducted at the Cathedral, was suddenly shifted to another venue, citing costs and convenience as a reason.”
They claimed that the occurrences were coincidental.
They said they were left confused by such behaviour as the bishop responsible for shifting the service had allegedly been spreading rumours of demons at the Cathedral
The council further alleged that the bishop had employed divisive tactics, wherein she had publicly pronounced the All Saints Cathedral as demonic.
They submitted that this resulted in a prayer being made in this regard.
“We also observed during the press briefing held outside the bishop’s residence, where about 10 congregants joined the bishop and her executive and lay workers and there was a clear demarcation of a danger tape wherein the Cathedral parish was not allowed to go past the danger tape,” they alleged.
Alienated
“We believe the Cathedral is being set up against the wider church and being alienated. This happened on April 26 at a date and time where the All Saints Cathedral Parish had requested to present their concerns to the bishop.
The bishop also attempted to split the parish church council in that she flatly refused to address the parish council on the Cathedral concerns, but singled out the senior wardens, threatening them that they were her officials,” they alleged.
They also submitted that the rest of the council was allegedly refused entry into the meeting the bishop had organised the day after the press conference.
The council members spent more than four hours outside the bishop’s residence while the bishop allegedly proceeded with the meeting with two senior wardens.
According to the council, the bishop on February 23 issued a communication, where she advised the church of vacancies of arch-deacon of the West and the dean that had been created following her assumption of the office of the bishop.
They said upon receiving the communication, the Cathedral Parish sought clarity from the bishop’s office on the matter due to that the dean also happened to be their rector.
The Cathedral Parish, through the council requested the bishop to clarify what the status of the Cathedral rector would be following this development.
They alleged that through meetings and correspondence from the bishop, she then clarified that the incumbent, Reverend Canon Advent Dlamini, would stay as Cathedral rector until further notice.
“The congregation was dissatisfied with the response from the bishop and requested her to clarify the ‘until further notice’ since they felt that it was vague and brought uncertainties.”
They said they also requested from the bishop that Dlamini be not moved as the Cathedral rector due to the effective pastoral ministry he performed in the parish.
The parishioners, according to the council, unanimously felt the timing to relocate the incumbent as rector was not ideal considering the many events and the degree of spiritual needs at the parish.
They said Reverend Canon Advent Dlamini has an effective pastoral programme for the parish and emanating from COVID-19 era where the church was slowly coming back to normal, with many parishioners going through emotional distress, bringing a new rector would affect the growth and progress of the church because of personal and emotional predicaments.
Transferred
“In the not so long past, the bishop also transferred the assistant priest, Reverend Canon Thandekile Zulu, to new a parish.
Removing Dlamini would mean the Cathedral will have a completely new clergy team, and the congregation decried this,” they further alleged.
The council also alleged that despite all these concerns, the bishop did not give the parish satisfactory reasons on the planned transfer.
The five complaints from the parish council;
1. Bullying – Gossip and spreading innuendo about All Saints Cathedral Parish.
2. Dismissing of the All Saints Cathedral Parish concerns.
3. Implementation of divisive tactics.
4. Death Threats/Curses pronounced.
5. Bullying and exerting trauma on All Saints Servers.
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