In what’s fast becoming a holy scandal with political overtones, a handful of ambitious clergy members under the CCAP banner have sparked national outrage and internal rebuke after making an unsanctioned, and rather desperate, visit to the PAGE House to meet the visibly waning Peter Mutharika.
Political analyst Ernest Thindwa didn’t mince words, calling out the conduct for what it is—a shameless display of disloyalty to their congregations and a thinly veiled scramble for political crumbs. According to Thindwa, these clerics have traded the pulpit for promises, and the gospel for government handouts, hoping that proximity to the DPP’s aging godfather might line their pockets in a post-election miracle that may never come.
The Nkhoma Synod, blindsided and clearly unimpressed, has publicly distanced itself from the so-called spiritual envoys. In a firm statement, the Synod clarified that out of its 267 ministers, only six were involved in the clandestine pilgrimage—five active, one retired, and one already dismissed (ironically, back in 2020). The Synod’s leadership, led by Reverend Vasco Kachipapa, condemned the use of the “CCAP Nkhoma Synod” name in what was clearly a private affair masked in ecclesiastical robes. Disciplinary action is on the way.
It gets more embarrassing. Blantyre Synod, not to be left out of the repentance queue, has also admitted to having its own wayward members who similarly breached protocol to bow at the altar of Mutharika’s fading political light. Action is reportedly underway there as well.
The so-called men of God, whose names now read more like suspects in a moral mutiny, are facing the heat—not for their political beliefs, but for dragging the sanctity of the Synod into a political theatre that reeked more of opportunism than divine calling.
In the end, the spectacle at PAGE House reveals a broader truth: even the cloth is not immune to the seduction of power. But as the Synods clean house, perhaps it’s time to ask—when faith is for sale, who’s really preaching?
