NYERI, Kenya, Aug 18 – The Church service at Kiamwathi PCEA in Nyeri was disrupted for hours after youthful congregants occupied and locked the Church gate protesting a move by the elders to kick out their minister .
The young congregants arrived at the Church at 7am and locked themselves inside the Church compound and started chanting slogans and waving anti- elders placards.
Hundreds of worshippers drawn from seven congregations which form the Nyeri Joy Parish who had attended a parish event of retirement of one of their elders remained stranded outside the Church compound for over five hours, hopeful that a solution would be found and service to continue as it is the norm.
The youth who had placards bearing the names of the church elders, claimed that the said Elders wanted their Reverend out of their way in order to access the church finances without a hitch.
Peter Kinyua said they had to disrupt their normal church service in order to have their voices heard that they were not ready to lose their Reverend.
“We want to tell the Elders that they will not make decisions for us. We have faith in our reverend and since she was posted here, a lot has changed and that is why they are not comfortable with her,” Kinyua said.
Kinyua said that the move they took was shameful since the Church has never demonstrated, but it was the only way to make their voices to be heard.
” It is shameful to disrupt church service but that is the only way to be heard. If we stayed at home, they could have thought all is well,” he said.
The youth claimed the elders wrote a letter to the presbytery demanding for her removal from the parish without informing them,a move that was not well received by the young congregants and the church at large.
Cecilia Waweru a congregant of Gitathi-ini congregation said that they have to address the challenge at hand before it escalates and that they are not going to allow a few people to destroy their church.
The youth had to be addressed by the Nyeri presbytery moderator Patrick Kimathi and the Nyeri Joy Parish Reverend Lucy Kiriungi for over three hours and convinced them to allow the Parish event that was to take place to continue and later address all the issues they had highlighted.
“I want to assure the youth and the Church that we have listened to all their grievances and they will be addressed. We also want to assure you that your reverend is not going anywhere and she will not be victimized by anyone,” she said.
The service started at noon after an agreement was met between the youth and the moderator to solve all their complaints amicably.
They however threatened to continue blocking church services in all congregations every Sunday untill all the elders involved are removed from office.
