PHOTO: Church leaders who strongly oppose election of Baptist cleric Samuel Reeves as new LCC President
By Augustine Octavius, augustineoctavius@gmail.com
A group of Christian clerics under the banner of the National Pastoral Network for Peace has called for the nullification of the election of the Reverend Dr. Samuel Reeves as President-elect of the Liberia Council of Churches (LCC).
Rev. Reeves, who is Pastor of the Providence Baptist Church and Head of the Liberian Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention, is the Vice Standard Bearer of the opposition Movement for Economic Empowerment and he ran as running mate to Dr. Mills Jones in the 2017 presidential election.
Last weekend, the Rev. Reeves was elected as President of the LCC replacing Bishop Kortu Brown.
Others elected were Reverend Samuel Quire, who is also the Bishop of the Liberia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, as First Vice President; and Reverend Sanjee Stapler , , the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Liberia, Second Vice President.
But the group of Christian clerics says he is an active politician and is not fit to head the Liberia Council of Churches at this time.
Addressing a press conference in Monrovia this week, the spokesman of the network, Bishop Justice Nyansiea, disclosed that Reverend Reeves should resign and give the position to the LCC Secretary General, Christopher Toe to act as interim President.
According to him, Rev. creates a dark cloud on the neutrality of the Liberia Council Churches if he is allowed to serve on the LCC leadership.
Rev. Reeves is a political actor
“Based on this prevailing conditions,” Bishop Nyansiea went on, Rev. Reeves as a political actor automatically disqualifies him from assuming the position as President for the Liberia Council of Churches.”
Rev. Reeves (first from right) and the other corps of new LCC officers after their election last weekend
He explained that the LCC is the mother body for all Liberian Christians irrespective of their socio-economic, political and religious convictions.
Bishop Nyansiea maintained that the LCC as a “mother body of Christians in Liberia, should be able to play the role of twin mother whenever it will deal with national political issues and as such political neutrality should be the hallmark for those assuming leadership at all levels of the council.”
The National Pastoral Network for Peace claimed that to impose an active politician, who contested as Vice Standard Bearer of MOVEE in the 2017 presidential elections on a political party that is still making frantic efforts for the highest seat in the land, is an affront on the church.
“As such,” he explained, “the result of the election which brought Reverend Reeves as President-elect of the Liberia Council of Churches is questionable to the independence in decision making and undermining the judgment and integrity of the council.”
Bishop Nyansiea maintained that the constitution of the LCC since 1922 has not provided a full participation of all church organization in Liberia except for what they termed “mainline churches.”
According to him, the issue of non-political and non partisan participation was ignored by the election committee of the LCC because there was no vetting committee to scrutinize the candidates and their political affiliation.
Bishop Nyensiea pointed out that in the past years, the leadership of the LCC has micro-managed the process of membership and participation while its activities were characterized by favoritism, sectionalism, and class system are visible with its rank and file.
Class system and segregation
The National Pastoral Network for Peace is therefore calling on the Liberia Council of Churches to return to status quo and render the election as a human error and refrain, renounced and move away from all divisive class system and segregation.
Since the elections of Rev. Reeves as President of the LCC, there has been many mixed reaction from the public as it regards the role of the council in peace making in the country.