Angola: Court orders closure of all UCKG temples

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Angola: Court orders closure of all UCKG temples

1:01 CAT | 21 Sep 2020

File photo: Diário Online Brazil

The Angolan justice department has ordered the closure and seizure of all the temples of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) in Angola, and the sealing is being done gradually, a police source told Lusa.

“By order of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, all UCKG temples in Angola are seized and closed, but the sealing process is being done gradually,” said the source, adding that there are 211 temples in the Angolan capital, Luanda, alone.

The UCKG in Angola on Sunday said it was surprised with the order to close four of its temples during the service, saying that none of them was in any of the seven buildings seized by the Attorney General’s Office in August and classified the police operation as disproportionate and excessive.

This is the first weekend that religious cults are resumed in Luanda since March when a state of emergency was declared in Angola due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement sent to Lusa, the UCKG said that it was surprised by the arrival of police at the temples of Kilamba, Estalagem, Km 30 and Samba to close them, although the officers did not have any mandate or supporting documentation.

The UCKG claimed that the police acted in a truculent and excessive manner, curtailing the members and faithful who, at the time, were exercising their right to freedom of worship and stressed that there was no legal impediment or judicial mandate to prevent worship in those temples because they were not arrested or sealed by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).

In August, the Angolan PGR seized seven UCKG temples in Luanda (Alvalade, Maculusso, Morro Bento, Patriota, Benfica, Cazenga and Viana), as part of a criminal case for alleged crimes of criminal association, tax fraud and illegal export of capital.

In the same communiqué, the UCKG highlighted that some bishops and pastors were taken to a police station without knowing the real reason for such an act b ut were released after making statements.

According to the UCKG, the officers only informed that there was a guideline that the temples should not be open and, therefore, they would be in disobedience.

The UCKG has been involved in several controversies in Angola after a group of dissidents withdrew from the Brazilian leadership in November last year.

Tensions escalated in June with the takeover of temples by the reformist wing, meanwhile formed in a Commission for the Reform of Angolan Pastors, with an exchange of mutual accusations of illicit acts.

The Angolans, led by Bishop Valente Bezerra, said that the decision to break with the Brazilian representation in Angola headed by Bishop Honorilton Gonçalves, faithful to the founder Edir Macedo, was due to practices contrary to religion, such as the demand for the practice of vasectomy, chemical castration, racism practices, social discrimination, abuse of authority, in addition to the evasion of foreign currency outside the country.

The allegations are denied by the UCKG Angola, which in turn accuses dissidents of xenophobic attacks and aggressions to shepherds and has also brought legal proceedings against the dissidents.

The UCKG Angola has previously accused the Angolan judicial authorities of having made illegal seizures and attempted to attack religious freedom.

At this moment, several judicial processes related to the UCKG Angola are in progress in the Angolan courts.

Source: Lusa