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By:
HARRISON MAINA | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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May,31-2016 20:51:26
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(Originally Posted SAT May 28, 2016, Updated SUN, May 29, 2016, 5.12pm) BOSTON--The ongoing All Saints community church dispute hearings at the Norfolk Superior Court took a sudden dramatic turn at the close of the day Friday night when the presiding Judge, Jeffery Locke threw the defense team into a tailspin after raising serious concerns over the lack of witnesses who have ever seen anything voted and approved for during the running of church affairs. The Kenyan community church based in Quincy, near Boston has been thrust into turmoil when a slowly simmering dispute over a church Constitution boiled over in October 2015, when the church pastor announced plans to retire as the spiritual leader, took 3 months leave to the motherland where he interviewed and groomed a successor, only to meet resistance upon returning to Boston with the news.
Fearing the pastor was going behind their back to install a successor of his choice with a goal to maintain a tight fisted control of the church and it's property that they have worked very hard to acquire over the years, a large majority of the congregation rejected the proposed successor, charging that the pastor did not follow provisions in a newly revised Constitution that is yet to be voted for, approved and adopted by the congregation. The opposing group alleged that that the pastor edited out and amended several sections in the disputed Constitution, so as to keep the church under his sole control through a compromised church council and board of directors made up of his close family members and close associates. Led by attorney Corina Hale, the group suing the pastor told the court that suspicions existed that that the pastor and a "compromised" Church Council wanted them out of the church so they can keep the church property acquired on their backs to himself. Directing his remarks to Stephen MacLaughling, Rev. Thanji's defense attorney who had just finished cross examining a witness right at end of the court day, Judge Locke expressed extreme disappointment for the apparent lack of any witness who would provide any evidence of voting in the church. "Since this hearing started on Tuesday morning till today evening, I have seen many witnesses who are eloquent, very persuasive, sincere and frankly speaking very good people. What I have not seen is any one person who can testify to having been present when anything was voted for and approved, whether during Annual General Meeting, Special General Meeting, or for bylaws, Constitution or anything else. Could it be possible, is it possible, that you find me such a witness before we return here on Tuesday morning?" the judge pleaded with grave concern before he rose and ordered the court adjourned. Caught by surprise, attorney MacLaughlin quickly said that it was possible, as he simultaneously turned to Reverend Thanji and supporters seated in the benches in search of a volunteer witness. The judge earlier on was dismayed that members of the church had never been given an opportunity to vote with "Aye" for those in favor or "Nay" for those opposing. However, by the time attorney MacLaunghlin turned back to the judge to affirm the name of a potential witness, the judge was already on his way out, with the security guards ordering everyone out of the courtroom, leaving the defense team in disarray during a moment of utter confusion as they tried to brainstorm names of other possible witnesses.
The dramatic development came soon after Richard Richu, a defense witness who joined the church in 2001, then appointed to the church council by the pastor in 2002 to the present, while still hired as a paid "peoples' warden", told the court that a final draft of the disputed church constitution was finalized in 2009, then brought by the pastor, Rev. Thanji, to attorney Pascalina Gathua, a Kenyan attorney based in Lowell for notarization sometimes in 2012. Under intense cross examination by attorney Hale for the suing group, Richu admitted that he did not know why the final draft of the constitution neither bore a date of notarization, nor the signature of the person who brought it to attorney Gathua for notarization. Richu collaborated several plaintiff witnesses' testimony that the first time he saw constitution was in 2006, when Rev. Thanji brought it to the church and asked for it to be reviewed so as to incorporate the needs of the then rapidly expanding church membership. "A constitution review committee was appointed by the pastor and met several times a month for about two years. Then a second review group was appointed to do further reviews until a final draft was ready in 2009.Then it was taken to the attorney to be notarized," said Richu. "When is the next time you saw the constitution after it was notarized?" Hale pressed Richu. "It was brought back in 2012". At this point, Judge Locke interjected loudly; "It took three years, why"? "Yes your honor," Richu said. "The pastor told us that the first attorney he had brought the Constitution for notarization took too long to get back to him, only for the pastor to find out that the attorney had moved out of state."
Richu said that to avoid further delays, Rev. Thanji decided to bring the draft constitution to attorney Pascalina in Lowell to amend and notarize. "How do you know that?", The judge again sharply interjected. "Because we gave it to him, he brought it there, and then he brought it back to us," the Peoples' Warden responded while dramatizing with both hands the acts of handing a document to someone and receiving it back. Under more intense questioning, Richu admitted the same contention other plaintiff witnesses testified to that the alleged final Constitution was never voted for by the review committee or at any of the Annual General Meetings (AGM) since 2012, or even the Special General Meeting (SGM) called at the church in October 31, 2015. According to Richu, The SGM was called for when the Constitutional crisis deepened,causing a temporally boycott of the church services by the opposing group, which being the majority, brought a crippling financial impact to the church as they stopped contributing their tithes and offerings. "When it was brought in the church in 2012, we were just told in the church that the Constitution is now ready and anybody who wanted a copy to read can request for one," Richu responded to the dismay of the judge. Richu vigorously defended the pastor against accusations that he appointed his own cronies to the church council and management board in order to have them vote for his selfish agendas, charging that most members did not want the committment to serve as they claimed to be busy with their work schedules, families and school. "That is why i have been forced to be the Peoples' Warden and Church council member for all these years contoniously." Several plaintiff witnesses, including Peter Karanja, a founding member, George Kamau and John Bret Giathi told the court that the alleged 2002 Constitution only surfaced after rumors started circulating among members that the church indeed had a constitution that they had never seen, after one church council member privy to the matter leaked the document. To quell the growing dissent and grumbling from church members who had been requesting to see the rumored constitution without much success, Rev. Thanji suddently brought a document that he said is the Church Constitution and appointed a team to review and modernize it to cater for the increasing membership. Witnesses said that the problems got worse around 2009 after the congregation had just finished clearing the mortgage for the church, and boiled over in October 2015 when the pastor made an offensive statement towards the end of a church service. "The pastor said he was the pastor, Chairman, the CEO and Bishop of the church in response to questions that people were asking regarding rumors of a new pastor he had located in Kenya to succeed him," said George Kamau, a long time member of the church council. "He said he would die for the church and that anyone with a question should ask him directly," added the father of three while testifying on Thursday evening. However, during an earlier testimony on Tuesday, Karanja, one of the founding members, told the court that the All Saints Church never had a constitution or by laws when they started it in 2001. He also had already submitted a sworn affidavit with the injuction motion filed to bring up the case. Karanja testified that at the,the church only had about 5 members and that their main concern was to find and recruit others to join them.
"We were very few, maybe about 5 people. No one was even thinking about a constitution as we all trusted the pastor to lead us the right way. Our goal was to just find more members to join us. We did not think about a constitution until we saw one in 2006.We even never had articles of association," Karanja told the court. The court heard that the pastor also arbitrarily appointed close family members and die hard supporters to serve in the board of directors of the All Saints Community church Inc., registered as a nonprofit corporation under the Secretary of State for Massachusetts. According to filings in the Secretaty of State website, the officials of the church were last updated in 2012. It was also alleged that the Rev. Thanji maintained a tight control of the church council, appointing those he wanted to serve in it, and often frustrating those who expressed a different opinion from his wishes, thus forcing them to quit, only to replace them with die hard supporters. According to Richu, a smaller building constructed behind the main church as a Children's Learning Center after the church mortage was paid up, was named Canon Thanji building only after it was officially opened, but officially referred to as the Children's learning center on the purchase documents. "The church council decided to name it The Canon Thanji Building to honor the work that the pastor has done for the church for such a long time, over 45 years. He was also the founder of this church," he added. However, while indicating that there would be nothing wrong with christening the building after Rev. Thanji to honor his long service in the ministry and as the founder of the All Saints church, members interviewed by Ajabu Africa News maintained that it would have been nice if they were consulted before such a decision was made. The suing group also said that since the constitution dispute boiled over in the fall of 2015, many of them had been prevented from renewing their membership. Most who had submitted their renewal forms and a $10 membership renewal fee had checks returned, with the excuse that they had missed the membership renewal deadline date.
However, the Richu denied that members were prevented from renew their membership for any other reason other than the close of the registration period. "We decided to close the membership period for 2016 so that we can first of all deal with all these problems that came up. Everybody was given notice to renew their membership but they did not," he told the court. During earlier testimony, the opposing group denied boycotting the church, maintaining that they continued to put their tithes and offerings into a special escrow account, waiting to give it all to the church when the dispute was resolved. Before Richu took the hot seat, two defense witnesses, John Bret Giathi and Leonard Kimani, told the court that there was a pervasive culture in the church where things were arbitrarily decided on by the pastor and a small clique of supporters without bothering to bring it to a vote either in a committee, a subcommittee, or even the to general congregation. Giathi, who joined the church in 2004 and volunteered to serve in the church council and chairman of the development committee for many years, got emotional when he recounted the effort and dedication that the committee put in to ensure that the church purchased a main sanctuary building through organizing multiple fundraisers, as well as personal contributions. He said that as a result of the selfless dedication, the church was able to pay up the entire mortgage in 3 years instead of the 10 years issued for. A father of two boys, Giathi added that once the mortgage was paid up in 2009, the pastor suggested they build a smaller building behind main church since the church had seen a rapid increase of young children as membership kept rising. He said that the Development Committee took over the mantle of building the children center with zeal, although they had started experiencing problems with the pastor after the mortgage was completed. "Once we completed the mortgage, the pastor became a different person and he would become very difficult to deal with," Giathi said under direct questioning from attorney Hale. He added that at some point during the construction, the pastor fired David Maina, a very good, capable and royal church member who had been overseeing the said construction for no fee,only to bring in another paid overseer without consulting the committee nor notifying Maina in advance.Soon after, "The projected budget of constructing the building started increasing rapidly," he revealed.
Giathi said that the pastor also arbitrarily created the position of a Church Chancellor to serve as a legal advisor, and brought in Caroline Muiruri--a Kenyan law graduate in the region, to fill the post. He added that the new Chancellor was not an existing church member before the appointment--but was a niece to Richard Richu,the Peoples' Warden. "We were doing all this work so that our children can get a nice place to be for Sunday service and not even for our own personal benefit. I feel very bad for all the things that have happened and caused all this tension in the church. My kids now keep asking me why there is no more fun in the church these days. Now all the work we did is going to waste because of one person. Just one person who is not willing to listen to anyone else and is looking out for his own gain, and won't even allow us to vote on anything," Giathi's voice cracked as he fought back tears with the judge staring at him intensely. "You mean you have never voted in the church?" the judge asked Giathi. "Yes your honor," Giathi replied. "You have never heard calls for Ayes for those who agree and Nays for those opposing?" "No. Never, in fact, I am hearing that from you right now sir," said Giathi leaving the judge in total consternation. Questioned on how the pastor reacted when a person disagreed with him during church council meetings, Giathi said the pastor would become hostile to that person from that point onwards. "He does not take it kindly. He would become very hostile. He will ignore you and sometimes not even say hi to you when you meet in the church." Taking over the witness stand after Giathi, Leonard Kimani, the second and last defense witness of the day said that he was forced to resign from the church council around December 2015 when he felt that he could not be an effective representative of the congregation due to the intimidating and hostile culture promoted in the church council. He got emotional when asked why he chose to resign, accidentally knocking down the witness stand microphone as he tried to pull himself together and temporarily pausing the testimony as the court orderly set the microphone back up. Kimani apologized profusely to the judge, causing a light moment. "I was in the council to be their voice, but I was not effective, because of the culture in the council itself. The pastor was driving the culture," Kimani said, his voice breaking as he fought back tears. The father of one narrated the serious disagreement within a subcommittee appointed to lead search efforts to obtain a new successor to Rev. Thanji who had announced his retirement during a church service. He said that when the pastor announced his upcoming retirement, a "Pastor Search Committee" started inquiring around the Kenyan community in New England for a suitable and qualified pastor to take over, as there were many clergymen of Kenyan decent in the region. Unfortunately, Kimani continued, Rev. Thanji frustrated and thwarted the effort when he took a 3 month trip to Kenya and, together with Canon Mwaniki of the St. James Attleboro church, interviewed and selected a certain pastor Eliud Mwangi from the Thika Diocese to fill the position. He said that upon his return to Boston, the pastor told the committee that he had already found a suitable pastor to replace him. Kimani added that Rev. Thanji did not give the committee an opportunity to vote for the new pastor he had allegedly found, and became extremely hostile when they suggested to him that even if that pastor were to come to serve the church, he would work under the current assistant pastor, Rev. Dorcas Albrecht who is of Kenyan decent. Responding to tough cross examination from attorney Macklaughlin, Kimani rejected the contention that that one of the main qualifications for a suitable pastor to succeed Rev. Thanji was the ability to speak the ethnic Kikuyu language as suggested by the pastor. He maintained that for him,a major qualification is a pastor who can effectively communicate and interact with his young American born child who can hardly speak the ethnic Kikuyu language. He added that Rev. Thanji did not take it kindly the Pastor's search Committee suggestion that the new pastor he was planning to bring from Kenya serve under the current Kenyan assistant pastor for a while until the church is able to compare them and figure out who would be the main pastor. Pressed on why the search committee had not yet put forward any name for a candidate to fill the slot, Kimani said that the committee was still in the search process when the pastor interrupted and the constitutional crisis deepened. Before the court adjourned, George Gichimu, testifying for the defense said that he was responsible for assembling the church minutes between 2007 and 2008, but saved them in a hard drive maintained by his predecessor, David Maina. Gichimu is the current church secretary. He denied knowledge that the pastor had announced his plans to retire around February 2015. Gichimu added that he was extremely busy with school at the time and could have missed the announcement if at all it was made. The unfolding All Saints Community church saga has caused a discomfort among other Kenyan community churches in New England, with many parishioners starting to question the composition of their organizational structures in relation to the voting culture in their churches during important decision that have in the past seen massive funds and properties lost when churches collapse following similar wrangles witnessed at the Quincy church. The hearing continues on Tuesday morning at 9am as the court continued to determine if there was a valid controlling document for the church as it weighs whether to get involved to solve the dispute or stay away as per the First Amendment of the US Constitution. The First Amendment limits courts' involvement in the affairs of hierarchical religious organizations unless there is a property dispute. To view the organizational structure of your church if registered in Massachusetts,click here, enter your church name and hit search database on the Secretary of State website(http://corp.sec.state.ma.us/corpweb/CorpSearch/CorpSearch.aspx)
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Source:
AJABU AFRICA NEWS
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