Cape Town - Presiding bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA), the Rev Purity Malinga, has apologised to the LGBTQIA+ community for a statement issued from the pulpit by one of the church’s pastors.
The Rev Thembelani Nolingo of the Southern Africa Methodist Church had delivered a sermon, saying that Satan was behind the growing number of visible LGBTQIA+ people.
In a video clip shared widely on social media, the pastor warned his congregation at the Mdantsane South Circuit, near East London, last Sunday to be wary of alarmingly suspicious incidents of individuals “becoming a different gender”.
He said: “It really is alarming that this high rate of LGBTQIA+ people seems to be happening too much. What’s more concerning is it happens under the influence of alcohol and drugs. So I am sticking to my point that we are too relaxed about this.”
The video clip of the sermon sparked anger from LGBTQIA+ members of the church and others who complained to the MCSA about the pastor’s words.
Responding to the sermon, MCSA Reverend Malinga released a statement: “We recognise that these views contribute to the often violent and dehumanising victimisation of members of the LGBTQIA+ community and as a church we strongly denounce the derogatory and disparaging nature of these sentiments.”
She said the church has been engaged in multi-phased “and often difficult deliberations concerning the full inclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community” and that the MCSA’s doctrinal position was that it sought to be “a community of love, rather than rejection or exclusion”.
Following the statement, Nolingo sent a letter addressed to Malinga, the LGBTQIA+ community and all Methodists in which he said he regretted the things he said in the sermon and that he was remorseful.
“I wish to offer my unconditional apology to the LGBTQIA+ community, the MCSA as a whole and the general public at large. It was not my intention to hurt or undermine anyone and I am very sorry that I did.”
Commenting on the apology, which was also shared on Facebook, Health and Wellness MEC Nomafrench Mbombo wrote that it was a “lesson for all others who use (the) pulpit for hatred towards any humans, be it as a form of racism, sexism, misogyny, LGBTQIA+ etc.”