Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe (AFM) Vice President Cossum Chiangwa has said that they passed a vote of no confidence in AFM President Aspher Madziyire because he wanted to impose a “cultic constitution.” Chiangwa also highlighted a number of issues with the draft constitution alleging that Madziyire wanted to change the Church’s constitution in order to leave his secretary Reverend Madawo in charge. In an interview with The Standard, Chiangwa said,
I have never rebelled against anyone in the church and I will never do that for anything. All that I have stood up against is the unprocedural rewriting of our church’s constitution, which risks secularising the church. Protecting the legacy of the church is not rebellion at all….the draft constitution is cultic. I have stood with more than 80% of the AFM pastors, elders, deacons and congregants to say no to the cultic constitution. Even the mother body, AFM International (AFMI), persuaded them not to impose the constitution on the church. So all those people (pastors, councillors and AFMI] cannot be called rebels. Rebels are those that are trying to change the constitution to suit their own selfish needs…the whole problem only revolves around the attempt by Reverend Madziyire and his team to smuggle a constitution that meets their selfish needs. They have ignored the constitutional way of amending our own constitution.
…The new constitution has a lot of doctrinal discrepancies, which make it totally incompatible with the AFM in Zimbabwe Church or any other member of the AFM International. It has changed the confession of our faith. It elevates prophecy to the level of God’s Word. It requires us to baptise pamapopoma (at waterfalls). It makes someone a member of the church by birth, not by repentance. I have just mentioned a few.
…The new constitution is awash with very secular concepts. One of them is the emphasis on the income an assembly can have in order to qualify to be an assembly. It has to be known that AFM has grown through leaps and bounds, not because of focus on money, but focus on souls. The Great Commission has been our call to duty, not money. The new constitution seeks to dissolve all assemblies which do not meet a certain income level regardless of the number of souls who are at the assembly. All pastors at such assemblies would be transferred to a provincial pool where they can only be assigned to evangelism duties when need arises. Pastors have interpreted that as constructive dismissal yet they have God’s call to acquit. The second secular concept is the introduction of the AFM in Zimbabwe Judiciary Authority, which will have a lower and appellate court manned by full-time judges. There is nowhere in church history where such a structure has been found in the sacred domains.
The third secular concept is the Consolidated Revenue Fund. It has to be noted that for the past 16 years AFM in Zimbabwe finances have never been audited and the leadership has blatantly refused to have the books audited. Their refusal comes against a lot of speculation that there is gross financial misappropriation. It is for that reason that congregations are resisting the move to pool resources together until financial accountability is guaranteed. So far, it is only the forensic audit which can prove that AFM has a good financial management system. Without it, no one will buy-in to the idea of centralisation of funds.
Read full interview in The Standard
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