St James CCAP congregation locks up moderator’s office
Tension has ensued between the Administrative Session at St James congregation of the CCAP Synod of Blantyre and its moderator Reverend Edina Navaya, with the former locking up Navaya’s office and giving her just two weeks to vacate the church premises.
An inside source claimed in an interview that for some time, the moderator has been “insulting members of the church and demanding more money from its coffers”.
“In fact we were planning to chase her out this week by packing her belongings and take them with her to the synod headquarters but we decided to give contact and dialogue a chance by engaging the presbytery on the matter and yesterday [Monday] we had a meeting with them where we tabled our concerns,” said the source.
He said despites several attempts by Navaya who is also the Synod’s Deputy Moderator to change the decision through apologies, the Session stood its ground, insisting that she be transferred from the church.
“The presbytery legal affairs committee present at the session meeting on Monday warned us that if we insist on having the said moderator transferred, it will take time to find a replacement, but we agreed that we would rather have no moderator than having someone who always insults us,” he said.
According to the source, Navaya will no longer operate as a moderator at the church as she is waiting for logistical issues for her transfer.
Among the seven members of the presbytery legal committee present at the meeting were Reverend Baxton Maulidi, Presbytery Clerk and Synod spokesperson and Moderator of St Michael and All Angels, Reverend Masauko Mbolembole.
Maulidi confirmed the development, but said the Presbytery is working on resolving the matter.
“There are few misunderstandings and we are in a process of resolving the matter. This issue is an in house and it is unfortunate that it has been shared to the media,” he said.
Reverend Navaya declined to comment on the matter, saying the Presbytery was better placed to comment on the issue.
