Regular worship and congregational activities were halted when members of the congregation and church leadership wrangled over women preaching in the pulpit at the Bangwe Seventh-day Adventist Church
Regular worship and congregational activities were halted when members of the congregation and church leadership wrangled over women preaching in the pulpit at the Bangwe Seventh-day Adventist Church, fifteen kilometers from the center of Blantyre, the capital city of Malawi.
Worship services were disrupted when Mrs. P.A. Neniwa, Women’s Ministry director for the region, was not allowed to address the congregation. “There is no scripture in the Bible that authorizes women to preach,” stated one church elder. According to reports from the Malawi Adventist Church, subsequent meetings with the local congregation “degenerated into rivalry between the pastor and the members,” and the church administrators initially suspended services for two weeks. The incident received media attention in the country and throughout Africa.
In an uncompromising move, the Bangwe and Nimiyango church congregations, which together other smaller companies in the area number approximately 1,000 members, separated from the denomination. “The uncompromising members are still meeting in the church that was closed,” states Ken Bilima, communication director for the Malawi Seventh-day Adventist Church. “They broke into the [Bangwe] church and removed the old locks and put in six new locks.” Bilima says that the Bangwe and Nimiyango assets remain the property of the denomination.
A smaller, 200-member congregation, which supported a greater involvement of women in the ministry of the church, is worshiping at a local government school located near the Bangwe church.
In an official statement on April 16, the Malawi Union of Seventh-day Adventists announced “the disbandment of Bangwe and Nimiyango Seventh-day Adventist Churches,” stating that all efforts to redeem and reconcile the churches failed, that the two churches have continued to bar women from participating in the church ministry, and that the churches introduced teaching which “openly rebelled against the Seventh-day Adventist Church.”
“The Church’s position regarding the matter of women preaching from the pulpit is clear,” says Pardon Mwansa, president of the Eastern Africa Division (EAD) of the Church with headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe. “Women are as free to share the gospel from the pulpit as are their male counterparts,” he added. The Malawi Adventist Church is part of the EAD territory.
Although not referencing any details of the Bangwe situation, Mwansa said that “the church does not condone violence as a means to handle differences. A more appealing approach is that of talking matters over as brothers and sisters.”
The Panafrican News Agency referred in its report on the situation to a survey published by the Weekend Nation on July 15 which showed that most churches in Malawi are reluctant to have women share the pulpit with their male counterparts. According to the paper, while most churches have indicated a willingness to elevate the position of women in churches, conservative congregations and church leaders are wary of the efforts.
The Weekend Nation cites the Bangwe Church situation as the most recent example of the issues occupying the Malawi Christian community. Three years ago, the paper reports, women of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian held mass demonstrations in the streets of Blantyre to protest the discrimination of women in the church.
There are more than 175,000 Seventh-day Adventists in the country worshiping in more than 1,700 congregations throughout the country.
