Elcin’s cracks deepen amid proposal to split into three dioceses

VEIKKO Munyika, who has recently retired as bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (Elcin), says church leaders recently proposed splitting the church into three dioceses.

Munyika revealed this in a document he shared with The Namibian this week, which was drafted a few days before Elcin convened its 24th synod on 29 and 30 November.

Reverends Hilya Nghaangulwa and Gideon Niitenge were seconded and appointed as heads of the eastern and western dioceses, respectively, at the event.

The third diocese will be known as the Elcin southern diocese.

The church does not have a bishop currently, since bishop Martin Ngodji died in September.

The bishop of Elcin’s southern diocese will resume his duty in January, and would be based in Windhoek.

Munyika’s document states a third diocese was proposed after the 23rd Elcin synod on 17 August this year failed to elect a bishop for the church’s western diocese.

The synod was held at the Elcin Centre at Ongwediva.

“Elcin is already faced with challenges and it does not need to add more challenges to existing challenges. The church is already struggling to pay N$2 million owed by Paulinum Theological College for water and electricity to the City of Windhoek,” Munyika says.

He says the church owes it affiliates, such as the World Council of Churches, Lutheran World Federation, the Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa, the United Church of Christ, and the Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church N$1 million.

Munyika says it would not be wise for Elcin to establish another diocese.

By doing so, the church would be “committing suicide”, he says.

“Elcin employees are starving, and we are busy building. Perhaps Elcin is self-destructing,” he says.

The retired bishop says his fellow clergymen and women are ignoring him.

Elcin pastor Joseph Shikuma this week said the church’s synod was a ‘kangaroo synod’ which violated the church’s constitution.

Shikuma is a former Elcin dean at Ongwediva’s deanery.

He now heads Elcin’s Eheke parish in the Oshana region.

He said Nghaangulwa was illegally appointed as head of the eastern diocese, as she was not among the candidates who contested for the position of bishop of the eastern diocese at the church’s synod.

He told the eastern diocese proposed allowing Mathew Tshapaka Tshakapolo and Elcin general secretary Alpo Enkono to contest for this position at the synod last month, but this was allegedly rejected.

Shikuma accused Nghaangulwa of attaining the position because she is a Kwanyama.

Munyika this week said an election between Tshakapolo and Enkono could not take place because Tshakapolo withdrew from the race and boycotted the synod.

He said Nghaangulwa was seconded because she was Nambala’s deputy.

Munyika denied the existence of tribalism in the church.

Both Niitenge and Nghaangulwa declined to comment on the matter.