The misuse of power by church wardens : a challenge to pastoral care

Abstract

This research seeks to reveal the misuse of power by some church wardens, who are in the upper echelon in the parish leadership of the Anglican Church, in the diocese of Mthatha. It also seeks to reveal that as a result of this power abuse, the clergy as well as parishioners who voted these church wardens into the parish administration suffer trauma. There are also ensuing results manifested by cracks and crevices that are created in the Anglican Church, which are signs of an unhealthy church. In the endeavour to achieve his purpose, the author has embarked in conducting a research, with affected parties. Firstly, he encounters his own experiences as an incumbent of a parish. Then he approaches a parishioner who was aspiring to be admitted into the ordained ministry of the church who suffered at the hands of the churchwardens. Lastly, he approaches an ordained minister who was an incumbent of a parish who also received ill-treatment at the hands of churchwardens, as well as other clergy of various parishes whose stories could not be accommodated in this exercise because of space. Having established that the church wardens did misuse power and exceeded their terms of reference in the exercise of their duties as shepherds of the flock of God, he embarks on devising ways to come up with positive remedies of healing this incompetent administration of lay church officials. Firstly, he seeks to curb the power the church wardens assume to have. Then he draws a church of his dreams, a healthy church, led by healthy church leaders who are not lords over God’s flock but who pastorally take care of them, and leaders who are not corrupted by power, but always conscious of the fact that they are the servants of God. This exercise demonstrates that abuse of power in any church has disastrous effects and perpetrators should be stopped, if the church which is endowed with propagating the Gospel, wishes to be effective in its mission.