A Seventh Day Adventist pastor in Karonga, Malawi, has been asked to leave immediately due to concerns over his “anointing ministry.”
Church elders claim Pastor MSJ Moyo conducted private, intimate anointing sessions with members, including wives of church members, without their husbands’ knowledge.
Moyo defended his actions, citing church protocol and presidential endorsement. However, the Director of the North Malawi SDA Conference refuted these claims, stating that anointing should be done in the presence of elders, with oil applied to the forehead.
The incident has sparked outrage, with some marriages reportedly at risk. Church leaders have called for Moyo’s removal to protect the church’s reputation and ensure his safety.
“He has been conducting this even to wives of members in the absence and acknowledgement of their husbands. Some of these wives, their marriages are in danger. Some wives have been shielded by us the elders to avoid marriage breakages once their husbands come to know about these developments,”so adds the letter.
Moyo, however, through a questioning by the elders admitted conducting the annointing saying that it “is a church system and it is written in the Ministers Bible and that even the President [of the SDA Church in North Malawi] Dr W.C Mwale and Pastor Banda, the Director also do the same.”
“The pastor changed the statement that the president and the Director anointed his late father and not his late sister as he said before the elder’s team who were sent to ask him. He claimed that the sister was undressed and anointed. As we asked the Director on ‘How’ should the anointing be done? The Director explained that in the minister’s handbook is stated that the anointing is done in the presence of elders and you apply oil on the forehead, and the oil runs down.
“If there is need to apply the whole body, it is a man, should be anointed by fellow men. If it is a woman, the pastor only prays and then deaconesses anoint the fellow woman in the absentia of the pastor. But with our pastor, it was quite different. He anointed ladies himself, in a room of just two people and touching their private parts,” reads the elders’ report.
