An old-timer motor mechanic and indigene of Ute-Okpu in Ika North East Local Government Area, Mr. Francis Osemeke has frowned over the quest for money than salvation by pastors.
Mr. Osemeke while addressing newsmen during the week at his workshop situated along the Old Lagos/Asaba Road in Boji-Boji, Owa described the quest for money by some clergymen as alarming.
According to him, I am granting this interview to portray the likes of my late sister, Mrs. Grace Bienonwu and her husband, late Chief Bienonwu Boi Clement whom the church, specifically St. Micheal’s Anglican Church, Ute-Erumu in Ika North East Local Government Area they attended before their demise made us to pay heavily before accepting to perform Christian burial rites for them.
My late sister, Grace having been sick for five years before she gave up the ghost on March 25, 2020. But due to tension of COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to lay her remains to rest same day she died. But the attitude of the church she has being attending since after her marriage in 1950s towards laying her body to the mother earth had been an issues that has kept me worrying over what churches of nowadays stand to gain in the lives of the members called Christians.
Even in the sad moments of her demise, her church, St. Micheal’s Anglican Church, Ute-Erumu said a total sum of eighty thousand naira (N80,000) debt that our late sister, wife and a mother owed the church must be paid before the church can bury her . In tight corner we rally for the money and paid off her debt. But as the church demand wasn’t enough, the clergy in charge of the church also said charged a sum of twelve thousand for him to preside over the funeral service. Despite the pleading for him to forgo the money or pay later because of difficulty, he paid a deaf ear; we then fall back to the church to plea with them to lend us twelve thousand naira from the eighty thousand naira which was granted us.
I can vividly remember that when my late sister’s husband, Bienonwu died in 2018, we were also made to pay a sum of ninety-six thousand naira (N96,000). Since the unexpected experiences, my reasoning towards church and pastors as it affects members is something I am yet to draw into conclusion.
What baffles me most was that the late husband and wife were on sick bed for years before the cold hands of death snatched them. Does it mean that even on their sick bed their church still made them to pay levies?
This means that amidst the pains of sickness and death, the dead still owe the church. It’s really disheartening. After my late sister’s funeral, we held a family meeting that the church love for money was discussed. Thereafter, I wrote a later to the Anglican Bishop of Ika Diocese, Rt. Revd. Godfrey Ifeanyi Ekpenisi expressing our family’s dissatisfaction over the manner the St. Micheal’s Anglican Church, Ute-Erumu treated us and to hear from him for clarification.
I will say that Bishop Ekpenisi ignored me because despite the call and text messages to hear his conclusion over the matter but none he responded to. I have decided to express my family worries on the issue by speaking to journalists if I can get clarification from the members of the public why the dead should owe money to the church and the reason why we as Christians belong to a congregation of a name of a church.
No doubt that nowadays churches have turned into money making venture rather than the early doctrine of preaching salvation. This, despite the increasing churches had also led to increase in crime since its motive of establishing is to make money.
While condemning the neglects of pastors towards members, Mr. Osemeke said some members of the church who can hardly feed three times a day in the belief of doctrine are meant to pay 10% of their income to the church. Continuing, he enjoined the pastors and church leaders to have human feelings in taking decisions which are ungodly.
I am a member of Anglican Church, but my Christianity does support what I feel is not good before the eyes of mankind. Let us all be human for God sake, he concluded.
