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Botswana: Church Group Loses Appeal
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
17 March 2008
Posted to the web 17 March 2008
By Lekopanye Mooketsi
Attempts to stop the appointment of a female priest at the Dutch Reformed Church in Mochudi through the courts have come to naught.
Reverend Mmonie Kgosiemang's detractors now have little room to manouvre after the Court of Appeal dismissed their case. Although he is a relieved man, the administrator of the Dutch Reformed Church, Eskiah Mooketsi does not see any need to celebrate. He said the matter should never have gone to court in the first place. "The church should be an ambassador of reconciliation. I regret that the matter went to court. As a church, we should have explored every opportunity to reconcile and work in peace," he said.
"It is not an easy thing to go to court. It entails money. The peace that we used to enjoy is no more. The money that was used for the case should have been channelled into social services. We should be realistic. We have challenges like poverty that we should be addressing."
Like before, Mooketsi extends the olive branch to members of the 'concerned group'. He said they would always be welcome to re-join the congregation. He said some of them are back. "I think the other people should come to church and we should continue where we left to make the church relevant to the communities that we serve.
"We should never allow such things to happen again. When we are not able to interpret the constitution, we should find other means to resolve the matter than go to court."
Mooketsi said the case affected the activities of the church. He said he was employed to run development projects but he spent considerable time dealing with the case.
"It was a draw back for the church. We left other projects that we were working on to attend to the case."
He feels a positive development is that the church has spoken for a woman. "For the first time in the history of Christianity, the church has never spoken so clearly for women's rights. It has never happened that the church stood against all odds and said we support a woman's right," he said.
"Assuming we said this woman will not be a priest and she took us to court, we could be in trouble," he added.
He said the country's Constitution is clear that there should be no discrimination based on gender.
"I think we should be ambassadors of peace and reconciliation because Jesus Christ was an ambassador for reconciliation. If we go for peace, more people will join the church. They will see the church's relevance," he said.
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One of the original members of the concerned group, Janet Motlhatlhedi, said they went back to church last month and they got a good welcome. She said she withdrew from the concerned group after the other members insisted on filing an appeal.
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