Normal church service at the Tema New Town Branch of the Global Evangelical Church was on Sunday interrupted following a move by the Greater Accra Presbytery of the church to assert control over its affairs. Following a dispute between the Accra Presbytery and the Catechist in charge of the church, Pastor Gershon Banini, a two-man delegation was despatched to install a new officiating pastor and restore ties. The confusion began moments after the Head Office delegation, led by Rev Felix Mensah Agbo, the Accra Presbytery Clerk of the church, announced that a new pastor, in the person of Rev H.A.K. Agbesinyale, had been installed in place of Pastor Banini. The congregation reportedly broke into two groups, with one loudly rejecting the action of the Accra Presbytery, while the other was supportive of it. Soon after the announcement, Pastor Banini mounted the pulpit and reportedly implored the congregation to ignore the pronouncement from the Presbytery delegation, adding, "I am still the leader of this church and will remain so until this congregation declares otherwise." In an interview, a high-powered delegation of the church which called on the Editor of the Daily Graphic described Pastor Banini as a Catechist who had consistently exhibited insubordination towards the authorities of the church. The delegation, led by Rev Professor Elom Dovlo, the Director of Studies of the Global Theological Seminary and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ghana, said Pastor Agbesinyale, who had been assigned to the district, had not been allowed to operate in the church by Pastor Banini. The delegation, which also included Rev Felix Mensah Agbo, the Accra Presbytery Clerk of the church, Rev Christian Gbekor, the Chairman of the Accra Presbytery, and Mr Kwesi Norieto, an Administrative Manager of the church, was emphatic that Pastor Banini had no official role as the Officiating Minister of the branch. "Gershon Banini has not been commissioned or ordained as a pastor by the church. When he applied, he was not selected by the interview panel and since then his conduct has been to take over the congregation and delineate it," Rev Prof Dovlo stated. Explaining how the church operated, he said because there were about 100 pastors supposed to cater for 680 congregations or branches across the country, pastors were assigned to districts and they were supposed to be assisted by catechists to run the congregations that made up the districts. He added that the Tema New Town Branch belonged to the Shalom District and added that all the branches of the church were supposed to pay 30 percent of the offertory collected to the head office. He stated that the branch under Pastor Banini's leadership had persistently refused to honour its standing obligation of paying 30 percent of offertory to the head office and said the time had come for action to be taken to stop him from flouting church directives or orders. Accordingly, a letter was written to him on July 19, 2007 putting him under interdiction for exhibiting insubordination and his failure "to heed an invitation of the executive of the church for a dialogue on issues in your congregation on February 27, 2007". "You will recall that on October 8, 2006 when the Presbytery executive, led by the chairman, visited your congregation, you refused to allow him to address the congregation. You instructed that the public address system should be turned off and you closed the congregation when Rev Gbekor, the Presbytery Chairman, was on his feet speaking to them. You also refused to adequately answer the query given you by the Presbytery executive," the interdiction letter stated. Rev Agbo stated that the delegation had been accompanied to the church by the police because of the violent disposition of Pastor Banini and his supporters. He said on arrival at the church, the delegation had a meeting with Pastor Banini and some elders of the church who had initially protested that they had not been given prior notice of the meeting. He added that after the interdiction letter had been read in private to the catechist, the delegation proceeded to read it to the whole congregation. "In the course of reading the letter, the generator was switched of but I continued to read the letter, first in English and then in Ewe. Afterwards, I handed over the letter to Pastor Banini and introduced Pastor Agbesinyale as the Pastor of the church," he said. Rev Agbo said after the introduction, he asked the new pastor to give a word of exaltation, and prayed for about 15,minutes and then proceeded to take the offertory. "At that point, some members on Pastor Banini's side went out of the church and after taking the offertory, handed it over to one of the elders of the church," he said. He said just as the delegation from Accra was leaving the church, those members, who had left earlier returned and started singing and jubilating. Rev Prof Dovlo disclosed that he had been in touch with the Moderator of the church, Rt. Rev. Dr. E. K. Gbordzoe, on the issue and there was going to be a crisis meeting to address it. "The crisis meeting will show us the way forward and ensure that the majority of the church's congregation is not misled," he stated.” He, however, added that in spiritual sense, they were prepared to forgive Catechist Banini if he expressed remorse, but he could not spell out any administrative action that could be taken. Pastor Banini, for his part, explained that the branch decided not to pay the 30 percent remittance of offertory to the head office because it had refused to support the branch to roof the church building. He said the headquarters insisted that it would only give the branch the money if it agreed to take it as a loan, for which it would pay interest. According to Pastor Banini, the branch, until it embarked on the project, was paying 40 percent interest, instead of the approved 30 percent it was supposed to pay, and it was, therefore, disappointed at the attitude of the headquarters when the Tema Branch sought its help. He said the leadership of the branch, after the refusal by the headquarters to support the branch, decided to stop the payment until it finished with its project. He said unidentified persons sneaked into his house between 12 midnight and 1:00 a.m. last Saturday, only to run away when they heard noise from the room. He said the next day a security man at the church also reported that some persons had come to knock on the church s doors around the same time but he had refused to open them. He said he had lodged a formal complaint at the Tema New Town Police Station for protection. Pastor Banini also insisted that he had been the leader of the branch since 1991 and that since his application for ordination was rejected, he declined to pursue the matter further. Asked whether he had been officially ordained as a minister of the church, he said, "Anybody who leads a church is a pastor," adding that he remained the legitimate leader of the branch. He declined to be drawn into the question of whether or not his branch had broken away from the mother church. In an interview, the Tema District Police Commander, ACP John Kudalor, said the matter was a civil matter and, therefore, he did not see why the police should be brought into it. "The Police Service does not collect offertory; we only provide security," he added. He said though the regional police were aware of the matter, they had not received a formal complaint from either of the parties in the dispute. Source: Daily Graphic