A new book with explosive claims of the unholy struggles behind the pulpit, which left several casualties and rocked the Anglican church and its senior leadership, goes on sale at bookstores throughout the country from 10 November.
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa -vs- Livingstone Lubabalo Ngewu is an insider account of the battle for justice in the holiest of places by the son of a priest, accountant and committed church member, Dr Tau Kabelo Herbert Motsepe, a member of The Motsepe Royal House from
Ga-Mmakau.
Canon Livingstone Ngewu became the Dean of the Parish of St Alban’s Cathedral in Pretoria at the beginning of 2007. Three years later, his persecution began when he opposed the unfair dismissal of a young priest, resulting in trumped-up charges against him.
The 372-page dossier details an insider account of how Livingstone Lubabalo Ngewu was driven out of the church to his death on trumped-up charges because he dared to defy the Diocesan bishop over the dismissal of that young priest.
Retired Bishop Johannes Thomas Seoka had been accused of abuse of office for his treatment of Ngewu, and several others in the ministry, amid
further allegations of using church funds to litigate against its congregants, and in court documents, details of a R500 000 loan from the church account for a home in Centurion.
“This book has been written with passion and love for a man who was selfless and magnanimous in his approach to life. The Church was let
down by its leadership, starting with the Archbishop of Cape Town, Dr Thabo Cecil Makgoba, and the Synod of Bishops,” says Dr Motsepe.
The Bishop was subsequently cleared of theft regarding the loan, but his manipulative manner in dealing with men and women of the cloth who disagreed with him is detailed in a riveting style.
“It would have been easy for the Archbishop (Makgoba) to travel to Pretoria during the infant stages of the problem before it festered into
a real fire that could not be contained. The Archbishop was close to Bishop Jo and Dean Ngewu; hence his intervention would have been
correctly placed. When the Synod of Bishops took decisions, I would argue that they also looked at their interests rather than the interests of the Church at large,” adds Dr Motsepe.
He adds that the statement of common cause facts that both parties agreed to during the litigation of Bishop Jo against the Cathedral representatives essentially threw the Synod of Bishops under the bus because that document served as the incontrovertible truth.
“I have written this book from the heart through my own eyes as a witness to the last five years of the life of the Very Reverend Canon Livingstone Lubabalo Ngewu, the Dean of Pretoria. The chapter created spiritual and emotional strife within the Church. After many years of
experiencing internal struggles and strife about this episode of my life, I hope that with its conclusion, I will once more be able to fulfil my calling in life,” writes Dr Motsepe.
He adds that this book also serves as an invitation to those who believe that they have alternative facts to document them. If that is not the
platform they would like to pursue, I shall be willing and able to vigorously defend it with all my might and the force that accompanies my
name, person and identity in any platform of their choice. The Anglican Church of Southern Africa -vs- Livingstone Lubabalo Ngewu 350 This was
indeed the incontrovertible truth. We have always been freed because we knew the indisputable fact,” he adds.
Both parties to the discord should have avoided meeting in court after submitting that statement of common cause facts to the court. The question that lingered throughout the entire conflict was palpable: how can one man be so untouchable as to destroy the image of the Church?
Throughout Motsepe’s account, details emerged of the withdrawal of Episcopal and sacramental services, labelling people as devils and possessed, and bringing armed bodyguards to Church, all when Churchmembers legitimately questioned certain decisions taken by the leader.
“Who polices the police themselves and who holds the leadership of the Church accountable when the Archbishop, the Synod of Bishops and the
Canons, as well as the rules of the Diocese, have been rendered ineffective and useless?”
Motsepe says the book offers lessons for the Church in the 21st century. It seems as if the current crop of leadership cannot discern and imagine the future of its parishioners and the universe they operate in. “It has always been said that a pre-requisite for an ordination requires the Bishop to identify the Holy Spirit in a person. What happens if the Bishop has mistaken the evil spirit for the Holy Spirit? What does that say about the future of the Church? It seems as if the Diocesan of Pretoria misunderstood the source, context and substance of his power: firstly, that his power had been derived from God, and it required humanity and its pleasures to manifest into actions.”
In his book, Motsepe says a human being imposed upon himself the status of God and expected his fellow human beings to react differently – and
when they differed from his approach, he threatened to excommunicate them. When that did not succeed, he took them to court.
“Perhaps had the opposite occurred, had the parishioners taken Bishop Jo to court, the narrative he could in all probability have assumed may
have been to label the entire episode as the devil having taken him to court.”
After the first batch of charges against Ngewu were dropped, the second list of allegations was delivered on 9 February 2012; upon receiving it, the Dean had a massive heart attack and died.
Livingstone Lubabalo Ngewu has been immortalised at the Cathedral Parish of St Alban’s The Martyr through a garden of remembrance named after him
and, equally, through a memorial stone, like most of his predecessors who died in office, installed in the Church.
“Although he had hoped to die a martyr, it was not to be because that threshold is too steep to reach – but in our hearts, he will remain a martyr. Perhaps through Dean Ngewu’s life and teachings, the Anglican Church will regroup and reconfigure itself to realise that it can survive only through placing the concept of common righteousness at the centre of its existence,” suggests Dr Motsepe.
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa -vs- Livingstone Lubabalo Ngewu is on sale at R320.00
