Metro

Wednesday November 18, 2009

Crisis rocks Calvary Church

By CHARLES FERNANDEZ and STUART MICHAEL


THE Calvary church in Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur, is rocked with controversy over alleged mismanagement of funds.

A group of church members, who call themselves the Truth, Transparency and Good Governance Group (TTG), is demanding for accountability and transparency over the use of church funds from the Calvary Church’s Board of Deacons (BOD) led by senior pastor (SP) Rev. Tan Sri Prince Guneratnam.

A member of the TTG, which is said to be supported by 300 church members, had also lodged a police report over the matter at the Brickfields police station early this year.

The feud between the two groups has now even gone onto cyberspace with both sides trading accusations over various issues.

The disagreement, among others, includes the rising construction costs of the Calvary Convention Centre at Bukit Jalil, alleged transfer of substantial funds from the church into the accounts of a personal ministry headed by the SP without members’ knowledge, poor financial management, claims of nepotism, and the sacking of a well-respected deacon for speaking out.

The spat, which began 19 months ago, was said to be the main cause for the dwindling congregation at the church.

There were attempts by mediators to get both groups to resolve their dispute for the betterment of the church, but it never materialised.

Futuristic: An artist impression of space ship-like Calvary Convention Centre , a project by Malaysian architect Datuk Dr Ken Yeang.

A check with the Registrar of Societies (ROS) revealed that the Calvary Church in Damansara Heights is not registered with the body. However, a ROS spokesman said all church accounts should be made available for scrutiny by church members at all times.

A Council of Churches Malaysia spokesman said the church being a religious body, there was no reason for a spat, as they were all required to follow high ethical standards.

“It’s public money. In this case, the church members have a right to know how their money is being spent. It is a practice for all religious bodies to make available the accounts for scrutiny. Apart from the Catholic Church, there is a retirement age for deacons/pastors. The church cannot have someone on their payroll for life,” said the spokesman when asked to comment on church accounts and retirement age.

The disagreement over the lack of transparency over church funds led to the resignation of Dr Lum Siew Heng, who had been a deacon for 11 years, from the BOD in November last year.

Following this, the TTG wanted the rest of the deacons, including the SP, to emulate Dr Lum and resign so that the church could continue to move forward.

“The SP is the voice of the church; he is the head of the deacons and what he says has a significant influence on the rest of the board of deacons,” said a TTG spokesman.

The TTG claims that while the whole church waits in anticipation for a conclusion to the 19-month saga that has caused much hurt, confusion, strife and division in the church, another threat looms on the horizon: financial disaster can erupt in the event of the failure of the Calvary Convention Centre (CCC) in Bukit Jalil.

The CCC, the TTG claims, has been dogged by controversy right from the beginning. The project was supposed to cost RM50mil, excluding land cost, but this has now ballooned to RM150mil.

Although the project started with much hope for a new beginning for the Calvary Church, work on the project subsequently took a bad turn.

The project, which was scheduled to have been completed by October this year, is now left temporarily abandoned due to the stoppage of work by the main contractor since April this year. Two Sundays ago, the pastors announced that the church had issued a Notice of Default to the main contractor,

“The church commenced the project, knowing right from the start that there were not enough funds to complete it. Despite selling some properties and obtaining a bank loan, the church still has to continue raising a lot of funds to finish this extravagant project.”

The escalation of construction and material costs has added to the financial woes and the congregation are concerned that the church will not be able to raise enough money to pay for the construction.

Questions are also being asked on the RM9mil Calvaryland project, a large welfare home designed for orphans, the homeless and single mothers in Sungei Pelek. The home, which was built to house at least 200 people, is almost empty with only four residents.

When met to get his side of the story pertaining to the claims made by the TTG, Rev. Guneratnam said he was fully aware of the allegations made against him and the BOD.

“Yes, I am aware of all the accusations and I know who those people are. They have even made police reports but this is not the way to solve a church problem. A church problem should be contained within the sanctity of the church and not be made available for public consumption,” Guneratnam said.

Guneratnam said everything was done above board and he had even invited the TTG to sit and discuss the issues for the benefit of the church.

However, a recent effort by two Christian leaders to mediate between the two groups failed because the SP and his deacons could not make it on the agreed date.

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