This research seeks to reveal the misuse of power by some church wardens, who are in the upper echelon in the parish leadership of the Anglican Church, in the diocese of Mthatha. It also seeks to reveal that as a result of this power abuse, the clergy as well as parishioners who voted these church wardens into the parish administration suffer trauma. There are also ensuing results manifested by cracks and crevices that are created in the Anglican Church, which are signs of an unhealthy church. In the endeavour to achieve his purpose, the author has embarked in conducting a research, with affected parties. Firstly, he encounters his own experiences as an incumbent of a parish. Then he approaches a parishioner who was aspiring to be admitted into the ordained ministry of the church who suffered at the hands of the churchwardens. Lastly, he approaches an ordained minister who was an incumbent of a parish who also received ill-treatment at the hands of churchwardens, as well as other clergy of various parishes whose stories could not be accommodated in this exercise because of space. Having established that the church wardens did misuse power and exceeded their terms of reference in the exercise of their duties as shepherds of the flock of God, he embarks on devising ways to come up with positive remedies of healing this incompetent administration of lay church officials. Firstly, he seeks to curb the power the church wardens assume to have. Then he draws a church of his dreams, a healthy church, led by healthy church leaders who are not lords over God’s flock but who pastorally take care of them, and leaders who are not corrupted by power, but always conscious of the fact that they are the servants of God. This exercise demonstrates that abuse of power in any church has disastrous effects and perpetrators should be stopped, if the church which is endowed with propagating the Gospel, wishes to be effective in its mission. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Aim. To describe and compare parishioners’ and minister’s 1) existential, spiritual and religious experiences, 2) expectations and conceptions regard-ing the Church and the ecclesial activities and 3) in theological terms reflect over these experiences and conceptions. Method. A random, stratified, sample was constructed relating to parishion-ers and ministers in 24 parishes in the Stockholm bishopric, concerning men and women in the ages 25-65. The educational level of parishioners, was comparable to the average of Stockholm residents. Results. Both parishioners and ministers described several existential and spiritual/religious experiences. It was not clear if there were any differences between the two groups concerning spiritual/religious experiences. Yet, their experiences were interpreted in different ways, inasmuch that ministers more often interpreted their experiences in confessional terms. Parishioners thought that religion could be expressed in many different ways. They considered the divine services to be too rigid and distant and wished that ministers should be on their own level and not set themselves above ordinary people. The ministers could be placed on an continuum from sender orientation to receiver orientation due to their expectations and con-ceptions regarding the Church and the ecclesial activities. Sender orientation means to primarily start with the Church statement of faith. Receiver orienta-tion means, to primarily start with the parishioners from their own world-view where religion can be expressed in many different ways. The ministers presented in total 48% sender orientation descriptions and 52% receiver ori-entation. Comparable figures for the parishioners were 5% sender orientation and 95% receiver orientation. Conclusions. There seems to be a tension between, on one hand the view of a Church with an aim to meet the existential and spiritual needs of the pa-rishioners, and on the other hand a Church with a primary mission to com-municate the Christian articles of faith. If half of the ministers have a direc-tion in which parishioners have no interest and do not ask for, this might be a problem for the Church.

This study is concerned with how the black township church leadership mismanage their defunct members especially at times of funerals. In the absence of a pragmatic pastoral method of how to deal with defunct members when they die, the church has devised a church policy which adds to the already experienced pain and grief of mourners. The criteria in the policy stipulates that, if at the time of death, the member has become defunct with regard to: - Church attendance, - Dedicated giving ( tithing ), the person should be given a stoep funeral. The problem with this policy, is the manner in which it is communicated to mourners - cold and insensitive, loaded with arrogance and rigidity. Cases are not viewed on merit but mourners are being emotionally and spiritually destroyed by this practice. Stoep funerals have developed a negative stigma in the townships since everyone is aware of the punishment being meted out to the deceased. Because of their alleged dysfunctionality , defunct members gets treated like spiritual criminals by the leadership through the refusal of church funerals. Church funerals are reserved for those who are in good standing and who enjoy implacable status in the church in relation to the mentioned criteria. The priest is expected to conduct church funerals while the lay ministers are assigned to do stoep funerals. A stoep funeral is an embarrassment and it leaves mourners with feelings of rejection and shame, if not truamatization. The aim of this research is to assist the township church to journey with her defunct members in creating a model directed by scriptural truth from a perspective of African pastoral care. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Practical Theology / PhD / Unrestricted