EC churches set to end 20-year feud

There is hope that a 20-year-old feud between the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa and the Uniting Presbyterian Church in South Africa over church property will soon end.

Despite a countrywide merger between Presbyterian churches, the two churches under the Ross Mission in Mthatha refused to conform and have been at loggerheads ever since. They have taken each other to court, indulged in a number of fist fights and both groups regularly attempt to block the other from using the church hall.

Now the Reformed Presbyterian Church has decided to find another place after the Mthatha High Court ruled in June that the existing property, including the church hall and the mission house, belonged to the Uniting Presbyterian Church.

Reformed Presbyterian session clerk Ayanda Matiso said they had decided to find a new site to avoid further clashes with the Uniting Presbyterians.

“We do not want to have bloodshed and be drained in faith and spirituality by the ungoldy things happening. We decided not to be involved in the fights. One can see this as a sign of defeat but to us this is strategic victory and we will have time to worship our God in peace without harassment from police and interruption of sermons. A church is a holy place and those in it should treat it as such,” said Matiso.

Yesterday a group of about 200 congregrants were led to the new site by their church leader Reverend Velile Notununu, who is also the moderator.

The site is in the sports grounds of Ross Primary School which is among the hundreds of schools that have been closed by the department of education.

An elder from the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Zolanu Tiles, said the feud cost both sides a great deal of spiritual growth and filled many with hatred and vengeance.

“Now we are fed-up with all those things. We are not here to fight but to only worship God. The church is a holy place to worship and praise God, not fight.”

He said that the Reformed Presbyterian Church was established in 1800 but the merger announced in 1999 that all Presbyterian churches would become the Uniting Presbyterian Church.

“But we as the Ross Mission with 28 branches never agreed to the merger and we are still operating as the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.

“We were never part of the Uniting Presbyterians and never will be,’’ said Tiles.

Colbert Dawethi, a local traditional councillor, said the whole community was fed-up with the feud, and that was why they had decided to give the group that lost the court case a site.

The Dispatch could not get comment from the Uniting Presbyterian Church.