The 7th of April 2023 was the day of celebration of Good Friday, considered by Christians as the day on which Jesus Christ, understood as the carnal son of God, died on the cross. This precedes Easter by two days, which will take place on 09.04, Easter Sunday. In Angola, the phenomenon of religious proliferation is not new, it has been gaining alarming proportions, as congregations have become, most of them, authentic supermarkets of faith, which make the exploitation of poor believers a way of life.
By Elias Muhongo
A Evangelical Mission of Angola, founded in 1898, recognized by the State of the Republic of Angola, on January 24, 1987, through Executive Decree No. ) comes to denounce the secretary general, reverend, Estanislau Barros of the Evangelical Church of Angola (IEA) of the crimes of fraud, forgery of documents, alteration of statutes and embezzlement of public funds, intended for the church.
“These accusations are the result of an investigation and supported by the fact that they tamper with a Statute whose validity is until 2025” .
With this conduct, the general secretary disobeyed “the clause of article 110.º (Temporal limits): The General Assembly may revise the present statutes and Internal Regulations, following TEN YEARS from their entry into force”, or any alteration of the current Statute constitutes a serious violation, subject to sanction in the light of internal ecclesiastical procedures, asserts the complainant.
The decisions of the church’s general assemblies are mandatory “and, if consciously violated, can lead to the removal of their author, especially if he is a reverend with high functions, since the alteration of documents constitutes, even in the light of criminal law, a offense liable to criminal prosecution”.
On the other hand, it becomes even more serious because, even if the material limits were respected, by the vice-president and reverend, without competence to sign and change governing documents.
Another complaint relates to an alleged doctrinal deviation on the part of the “general secretary, Estanislau Barros, in preaching a doctrine that has nothing to do with the biblical teachings that have always guided the congregation: The Evangelical Church of Angola (IEA) is an institution of the Baptist branch that faithfully accepts and follows Biblical Doctrine.” (Observance of the Holy Bible and the Doctrine of Jesus Christ) and there are videos that bought the bad practices of the secretary general, ”he said.
“Moreover, the Angolan government is colluding, as it delivered a financial donation to help build the mission of the church that were destroyed during the war and the secretary general, without notifying the IEA Church, received the money from CICA, putting his company Isabelinha, in the field of education, to do a work in Nzeto, province of Zaire, without the knowledge of the church, which does not know the destinations and amounts of the values and purpose of the project that he himself invented,” argues the, too, pastor, Oliveira Pinheiro.
Despite not being a new phenomenon in Angola, the proliferation of churches, sects and congregations has taken on alarming proportions since the 1980s, coming from African, Asian and Brazilian countries, many of which emerged following breaking with the initial leaderships, coming preach, in Angola where they find fertile ground for illicit enrichment.
It should be recalled that in October 2018, the executive of President João Lourenço decided to extinguish the ecumenical platforms in the country, whose creation dates from June 2015, to “normalize the exercise of freedom of religion, belief and worship” provided for in the Constitution. In the previous legislation, it was defined that, to organize religious practice, there were six ecumenical platforms – Council for Revival in Angola (CIRA), Union of Churches of Espírito Santo (UIESA), Angolan Christian Forum (FCA), Alliance of African Churches ( AIA), Christian Coalition Church (ICCA) and National Convention of Christian Churches in Angola (CONICA).
According to the document, over the last 40 years, there have been at least 49 splits in recognized churches, although only 15 have been officially accepted by the Ministry of Culture, which oversees religion in Angola. A 2004 law made official recognition of new churches in Angola unfeasible, which led to the creation, on the sidelines, of 24 para-ecclesiastical organizations. The diagnosis also includes a study on the growing phenomenon of children being accused of witchcraft practices, which reached its peak following the first large flow of information and news on the issue in 2000, when a report was published on the situation in three Angolan provinces: Luanda, Uíge and Zaire.
“It was found that children accused of witchcraft are, in general, the most fragile and marginalized people within vulnerable families. The observed cases demonstrate that there are groups of children exposed to a greater risk of being accused, both in the family and community context”, the document reads.
The peace that Angola regained in 2002 favored the proliferation of churches and sects or religious movements, commonly recognized as churches, thus constituting a social phenomenon that is now marking the country in a more evident and alarming way.
Folha 8 and TV8 contacted the general secretary, Estanislau Barros, on March 19, 2023, but he was allegedly unavailable in Portugal for medical treatment and that, upon his return, he would make statements to the competent contradictory. Unfortunately, already in the country, he was unable to fulfill the initially agreed upon following several messages and calls.
At the insistence of F8/TV8, the Reverend Daniel Vela and the head of the Institutional Communication and Press Office, of the Evangelical Church of Angola, who laconically said that because his term of office is at the end, the eldest, Estanislau Barros, as he will not renew the mandate, does not respond to the denouncements, leaving “everything in the hands of God”, he concluded.
Subtitle. Angolan Pastor and Theologian Oliveira Pinheiro (left) and General Secretary Estanislau Barros