A church split by the dead

Fridays have lately become important and sombre days in Kisii town. This follows a ban on burials on Sundays by Seventh Day Adventist Church on the grounds that it forces faithful to work on Saturday, which is a day for rest. The leadership says holding funerals on Sunday overshadows the Sabbath (Saturday), contrary to the church’s teachings.

The move has not gone down well with some clergy and faithful who say the decision is not backed by the doctrine.

The debate has moved beyond the scriptures and drawn parallels between traditional and Christian practices.

Traditionally, the dead are supposed to be accorded respect, especially during burial. It is deemed disrespectful to miss the burial of a kin. This is the reason faithful prefer to bury the dead on Sunday. Besides, it affords those living far time to travel and pay their last respects.

Former Karachuonyo MP and staunch SDA member Phoebe Asiyo fired the first salvo at a Friday burial of Pastor Mathayo Wandiga recently.

"We know our traditions and beliefs as SDAs. Attempts to change rules to hold burials on Fridays or Mondays is like forcing the flock to recognise Sunday as a holy day, which is against our teachings regarding the Sabbath,’’ said Asiyo.

By criticising the policy, which the church says was adopted in 2003 at the General Conference, Asiyo voiced concerns of many faithful who feel the move was autocratic.

Adherence to rule

So far, only top church officials — pastors, deacons and deaconesses — adhere to the rule. Most faithful engage the services of church elders when pastors fail to show up for burials. The directive has also ignited a silent campaign from other churches, particularly the Catholics, urging their faithful not to bury their dead on Saturdays.

Father Joseph Obanyi of Catholic Diocese of Kisii says the church’s faithful have been urged to be considerate while planning burials.

"We have a mutual understanding locally for the sake of our Adventist brothers that no burials should be conducted on Saturdays," said Obanyi.

Obanyi, who is also the Vicar General, says it is also against the church’s policy to bury on Sundays.

"This issue can be brought to rest if our Adventist brothers acted in good faith as we have done," says Obanyi, who is the second in command in the diocese after Bishop Mairura Okemwa.

Former Gor Mahia chairman Erastus Okul says burying the dead on weekdays would bar many people who are employed or in business from attending.

This view is dispelled by the SDA hierarchy, which maintains that followers must bury their dead on weekdays to avoid breaking the Sabbath law.

The Executive Director of Kenya Lake Field, the Adventist umbrella body in Nyanza, Pastor Duncan Mumbo, says Sunday burials desecrate the Sabbath because the bereaved are forced to prepare on Saturday.

"People would be forced to move bodies from the mortuary on Saturday and work on that day as they prepare to bury the next day," says Mumbo.

The seventh day of the week (Saturday), he says, is a gift and privilege that believers must welcome with joy and gratitude and "our own pleasure, words, business, thoughts and endeavours’’ should find no place in the observance of the Lord’s day.

Pastor Tom Ogal, who is in charge of public communications and media relations in Nyanza, says families are free to choose days when they bury their dead as long as it does not interfere with the Sabbath.

"The thing is, we will not miss heaven because we hold burials on Sunday. But we will miss it if we disobey the Sabbath. If funerals were held on Sunday, many faithful would miss church the previous day. This attracts a disciplinary action, including ex-communication," says Ogal.

Burial manual

He says pastors have been given a manual and advised not to attend burials on Saturday or even preside over those that take place on Sunday if they are convinced the relatives worked on Saturday.

South Kenya SDA Conference Executive Secretary Pastor Jonathan Mangi says the church has no policy on the day of burial.

He notes that attending burials on Saturdays is a personal choice.

"We believe in total rest on Sabbath and this is a policy issue," Mangi, who is custodian of church policy, told The Standard on Saturday.

He accuses Sunday worshippers of being antagonistic in their approach to the issue of which day to hold burials saying they are out on a revenge mission.

"They have no scriptures to back their arguments yet ours is Biblically supported," he says.

Without formal talks between the two religious bodies in Kisii to resolve the issue and give respective faithful the way forward, the controversy is not likely to end any time soon.