Power-play in the church

Olinda Woodroffe stood up for the media’s right to report on what is happening in the community. Pictures / Geoff Dale

"Don't," growls the Samoan man, gesturing as he steps up to the microphone. The Herald photographer lowers his camera to a fierce tirade in Samoan as we eye the exits. We don't need a translator to realise we are not welcome.

Angrily pointing in our direction, he's apparently asking: "Who are they? Who's paying them? And who's paying you?"

From the table at the front of the Samani Pulepule centre in Mangere, Samoan lawyer Olinda Woodroffe answers first in Samoan and then in English. "These are Herald reporters. They have a right to report on what is happening in the community and I encourage transparency." This only partly mollifies the speaker.

Pastor Samani Pulepule takes the microphone to address the 60 or so pastors and members of the New Zealand Samoan Assemblies of God (AOG) in the hall that bears his name. The respect he garners is palpable. The angry man returns to his seat, head bowed.

Later we learn that the Samoan superintendent said he had nothing to hide. His words are something like: "We have to serve our Lord in the right way. We have to live in a clean, open life and do the right thing." Is this a veiled warning to some of the ministers?

Doing the right thing, some say, involves the 83 Samoan AOG churches (about 9000 members) forming a self-governing group within the New Zealand AOG movement - necessary, it seems, to stop some Samoan pastors abusing their positions of power.

Woodroffe is at the meeting at the behest of the AOG Samoan Committee to lend her legal knowledge and explain why the Samoan churches need a constitution with clearer rules and procedures - especially for ordaining and disciplining ministers.

It's a hard sell. A pastor asks why there can't be a committee to discuss this matter instead of presenting the new constitution document as a fait accompli.

The feisty Woodroffe hits back, asking where the pastor has been for the past three years. The proposal has been extensively canvassed.

Others are concerned how the move will affect the relationship with the wider AOG movement. Another asks why two members of an elected executive board are required to be trustees of each individual church trust. "Why can't each church choose its own trustees?"

Woodroffe replies bluntly. "It's a model to stop fraud." But it is more than that. Some believe the self-governance move is more about an assertion of independence from palagi.

One of the issues which brought matters to a head is the case of Oselise Falefata-Scanlan, the former minister of the Mt Wellington Samoan Assembly of God who was stripped of his pastor's credentials in March 2003, having allegedly confessed to "sexual sin with women of his congregation".

The censure was to be for a minimum of two years with the possibility of "restoration and accountability". But only if the AOG governing body, the Executive Presbytery, and the Samoan Committee witnessed "the fruit of repentance at work", something both say has not happened.

The matter is the subject of a complaint to the police of unlawful sexual connection, made 2 1/2 years ago by a member of the Mt Wellington congregation but yet to be fully investigated. Falefata-Scanlan remained in the church manse for most of his two-year censure.

A lawyer who represented Falefata-Scanlan, Tua Saseve, said the pastor strongly denied allegations of sexual offending. He also said there was a dispute over the alleged confession of "sexual sin".

"I understand Pastor Scanlan said he was under some pressure to sign that document," said Saseve. "He was given an ultimatum and was pressured into signing it."

SASEVE agreed the situation in Mt Wellington was messy. One group backed Falefata-Scanlan; another backed an alternative pastor. Both factions claimed they had the majority.

The Samoan Committee says the case is a prime example of why they need better disciplinary rules. "Even though they [the Executive Presbytery] took away his credentials, the Samoan church can't do anything about it and he [Falefata-Scanlan] continues to do whatever he likes," says committee treasurer Pastor Taula Perry Young.

The lack of action prompted the Samoan Committee to take court action at their own expense. But even after a judicial agreement in November, in which Falefata-Scanlan was paid a $100,000 golden handshake and agreed to leave the manse, the house is still occupied by Falefata-Scanlan's supporters.

Woodroffe says another court hearing is set down for next month to get back the manse for the church and retrieve the church's frozen bank accounts. Police say the manse dispute is a civil matter.

"If other ministers see him [Falefata-Scanlan] get away with things like this they will repeat it," says Young. "We've got to get the rules sorted out."

There are many ways to explain what is going on - power struggle, political infighting, a cultural clash.

Another view is that the Samoans are exerting their independence, throwing off the yoke of their palagi missionary masters.

"We just want our own constitution," says pastor Penani Si'ulepa, secretary of the Samoan Committee. "I don't know why they don't want us to do that. They make something simple hard."

Young agrees. "The Samoan people want to handle their own governance in their own way - in keeping with the law of the land."

The AOG governing body is headed by general superintendent Pastor Ken Harrison, who says the Samoan proposal goes against the "ethos of who we are as Assemblies of God".

Harrison emphasises that the 263 AOG churches of about 32,000 members are a "movement" rather than a denomination. "We don't have a hierarchy as such where the executive can command and each church has to obey. Each church is autonomous ... We agree to a doctrinal statement which is our statement of faith. We function out of relationship and a dialogue together and collective decisions are made at a biennial general council of all credentialled ministers and a representative from each church."

It's a distinction the Samoan Committee sees as semantic games. "There will be no change on the spiritual side at all - it's just the administration of the churches," Young says.

"The palagi way is more like you're running your own ship. But accountability is most important. If we are accountable here then we learn how to be accountable on the spiritual side."

Harrison disagrees. A separate constitution will mean the Samoan Committee will become the controlling body over the Samoan churches as a hierarchy "in total violation of what we are as a movement", and force the Samoan churches to decide "whether they want to go with this and form a denomination of their own or stay within the AOG and have the freedom and boundaries they presently enjoy".

Si'ulepa says the Samoan churches do not want to form a breakaway group, that they still adhere to the same articles of Pentecostal faith, and that they want to remain in partnership with AOG New Zealand.

It's a power struggle that's about to come to a head. Woodroffe says she has the 15 signatures - including that of Pulepule and other Samoan pastors - necessary to form an incorporated society.

"What the Samoan Committee has done is to say to AOG New Zealand: 'We are going ahead, but we invite you to give us your blessing and work with us because we share the same beliefs and the same God'."

Harrison and Samoan Pastor Iliafi Esera, the assistant superintendent, both say the Executive Presbytery was not at fault in the Falefata-Scanlan case and that the Samoan Committee caused most of the delays.

They are critical, too, of the Samoan proposal to have two executive members as trustees of each church trust - arguing that church property can be protected by simply getting each congregation to agree to adding a clause to the trust deed to prevent pastors taking church property with them if they withdraw from the movement.

Harrison rejects suggestions that the movement is mostly worried about losing the 3 per cent monthly "offering" each church voluntarily makes to the national office, should the Samoan churches decide to run their own affairs.

In 2003, total "administration contributions" to the national office were $326,135. Harrison says the Samoan component of that was only $32,000.

The Samoan Committee believes it has 80 per cent support from the Samoan churches for the change. At the Auckland meeting, most favoured the proposal. Esera says the support is not widespread.

WOODROFFE tells the meeting that with the passing of the Charities Bill on April 13, all churches wanting tax-exempt charitable status will be required to be more transparent.

Ministry of Economic Development business law acting chief adviser Geoff Connor says: "The purpose of the Charities Act is public accountability in exchange for public money - that public money being the tax exemption."

By next March, charitable entities will be required to be listed on a public register and file financial statements.

Woodroffe says the act provides added impetus for the Samoan churches to put their houses in order. But she emphasises that moral accountability is just as important as financial accountability.

The new constitution will include a clause requiring that "any office-holder of the fellowship becoming aware of sexual abuse, or abuse of children by another member of the fellowship or local church shall report it to the police".

Such a clause may have helped the Mt Wellington church.

It may also have been helpful in the mainly palagi Takapuna AOG church, where sexual abuse allegations involving Pastor Wayne Hughes came to light last month.

It is clear that greater accountability would be welcome by many Samoan congregations. A member of a Samoan church says: "We bring the money we have to serve our Lord, but it looks like it is not serving the Lord, it is serving the minister."