Hackney Church guilty of serious financial misconduct

[Louloubelle]

Looks like religion is an easy way to make a fast buck!

LR Hubbard was right

Kingsway International Christian Centre in Waterden Road, Hackney Wick, paid its senior pastor, Matthew Ashimolowo, hundreds of thousands of pounds, along with free accommodation and a car.

It spent £120,000 on a birthday party while £80,000 was used to buy a Mercedes.

Mr Ashimolowo was also allowed to use the church's Visa card to buy a timeshare apartment in Florida for £13,000.

The church is a registered charity and lists the "relief of poverty" among its aims. It also claims to be the fastest-growing church in Europe with 10,000 members - a far cry from its humble beginnings with a congregation of 300 in 1992.

In 2001 its income was £7.3 million.


more here
http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/con...=newshkyg&itemid=WeED12 Oct 2005 15:35:35:117

 

[marty21]

they also offered to build a stadium for the olympics as they are being ousted from their place, they would then use the stadium afterwards...lotta money going there, nice that he has a nice car and that

 

[detective-boy]

The church is a registered charity and lists the "relief of poverty" among its aims.

It seems to have relieved Pastor Ashimolowo's poverty ... what's your problem?

 

[liberty]

It makes my blood boil I'm lost for words

 

[PacificOcean]

As I am guessing from their locations their congregations aren't exactly in the top 2% of the countries earners - How has the church managed to make £7m?

Fool ------> Money

 

[Louloubelle]

As I am guessing from their locations their congregations aren't exactly in the top 2% of the countries earners - How has the church managed to make £7m?

Fool ------> Money

I think a lot of vulnerable, ill and traumatised people are attracted to charismatic evangelical pastors

they're not neccessarly fools, these pastors can be very seductive in their appeal

read more about Matthew Ashimolowo here, on the church's website

http://www.kicc.org.uk/cgi-bin/SoftCart.100.exe/scstore/sitepages/main.html?E+scstore

a more in depth look at the story here

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1814723,00.html

a mystery worshipper (a variation on mystery shopper ) had this to say

http://ship-of-fools.com/Mystery/mws_05/reports/1023.html

 

[PacificOcean]

I think a lot of vulnerable, ill and traumatised people are attracted to charismatic evangelical pastors

they're not neccessarly fools, these pastors can be very seductive in their appeal

read more about Matthew Ashimolowo here, on the church's website

http://www.kicc.org.uk/cgi-bin/SoftCart.100.exe/scstore/sitepages/main.html?E+scstore

a more in depth look at the story here

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1814723,00.html

a mystery worshipper (a variation on mystery shopper ) had this to say

http://ship-of-fools.com/Mystery/mws_05/reports/1023.html

What the hell was the mystery worshipper on about regarding a cruise liner?

I take your point that a lot of these people are vunerable rather than fools and that when you are low, you will clutch to any straws.

 

[Louloubelle]

What the hell was the mystery worshipper on about regarding a cruise liner?

I wondered that

I think the service had a theme of a ship in which the congregation would be saved

it's a common theme of many NRMs although usually it's a spaceship. It was even a theme in the cult that Homer Simpson joined IMMIC

from Noah's ark to various other ancient myths the concept ship that saves the righteous from a great flood is a bit of a universal myth that resonates with people's inconscious

I think NOI have a myth about a spaceship too. It's gonna sve the faithful and leave the rest of us stranded

 

[lang rabbie]

The Charity Commission seem to be feeble in investigating various dodgy pastors over the years. None of their investigations seems to have led to criminal charges for abuse of trusteeship.

 

[DaveCinzano]

The Charity Commission seem to be feeble in investigating various dodgy pastors over the years. None of their investigations seems to have led to criminal charges for abuse of trusteeship.

the lord moves in mysterious ways indeed

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

I think the Church of England, as an institution that is, is just as bad.

Makes me sick how they take collections off elderly parishioners who are trying to get by on meagre pensions when the church is obsenely wealthy. They should be *giving* to those little old ladies in their congregations, not taking money *from* them.

NB: This is no slur on clerics in the CofE, they certainly don't whizz round in Mercedes, they live on a very miserly stipend. The stipend doesn't go far, especially not in London.

 

[catch]

NB: This is no slur on clerics in the CofE, they certainly don't whizz round in Mercedes, they live on a very miserly stipend. The stipend doesn't go far, especially not in London.

They mess local vicars around quite a lot, apart from the shit wages.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

They mess local vicars around quite a lot, apart from the shit wages.

Yeah, I know, lots of reorganisations and merging parishes, making one vicar cover two churches and pushing out the 'redundant' one, just to cut costs, which again is obsene when the church is so rich.

 

[catch]

Good examples, keeping staffing levels in parishes the same even though the population has quintupled in size is another.

 

[Velouria]

What the hell was the mystery worshipper on about regarding a cruise liner?

Arr! I think the clue to the nautical link may be in the website's name (ship-of-fools)

 

[Louloubelle]

from links from that ship of fools site's fruitcake zone here

http://ship-of-fools.com/Fruitcake/index.html

afterlife telegrams here
http://www.afterlifetelegrams.com/AFTERLIFE/

swinging xtians here
http://www.libchrist.com/

 

[Giles]

There was a similar scandal at an evangelical "Church" near me, here in Kilburn, a couple of years back.

They opened this huge church in a former music venue (used to be the "Kilburn National Club") and for a while they seemed to be doing hugely well. They had a fleet of brand new minibuses that brought people there from all over the place twice a week.

I supose the clue should have been the high-spec, brand-new Mercedes always parked outside with the personalised plae "C1 VCC" (they were called Victory Christian Centre).

Then it shut down, amid financial scandal, and a few months later the senior pastor/preacher/whatever you call hem got jailed for taking sexual advantage of the prettier women in his "flock", and he had also used all the donations to fund a lavish lifestyle.

Article about VCC scandal

Some of these places are verging on cults....

Giles..

 

[peppery]

A colleague of mine used to go to the KICC. He had a print out blutacked on the wall next to him which had a Cross = and a tick sign under that was a Crossed out cross = and the deaths head symbol on a cherry bomb. He was a very strange man.

 

[Pot-Bellied Pig]

Its' a strange set-up all round. The Caribbean community are quite straight forward, mostly RC with a lot now involved with US style evangelical churchs. Those who trace there origins to West Africa seem to go for very small almost private church's with a radical type of religion. Some of these I suspect to have almost taints of witchcraft, a mix of christianity and West African tribal beliefs. I have been into one ' church ' which had bowls of chicken blood, chicken feathers and other stuff which looked like masks and carvings of animals. I also saw a large picture of a black Jesus and a bible. I suspect that some of the more recent public child abuse scandals may have their roots in these types of religion. Still, there are still balck magic cults in the UK that are equally far out I suppose. I do remember one call , years ago , to a female screaming in a building. When I went inside they were preforming a exorcisim on her and holding her down on the floor ! Maybe I should get SS involved , She needs a few demons throwing out !

 

[detective-boy]

Some of these places are verging on cults....

N.

Not L.

 

[Louloubelle]

I think that any religious leader, especially in independent churches or temples, has the potential to exploit their followers.

Re afican religions that are sometimes mixed with xtianity, these are the dominant religions in some parts of the world and in many instances provide the kind of support and care for vulnerable, sickand elderly people that some of the better xtian churches do.

It is important to understand the difference between the true african religions that have been practiced covertly since slavery days by adapting the outward appearances of xtianity (almost always catholicism) and to pentacostal and other xtian groups who include elements of african religion within their worship.

santatia, voodoo / vodoun (various spellings) are african religions in xtian dress

http://www.religioustolerance.org/voodoo.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/santeri.htm

these religions are practuced by approx 100 million people worldwide and are recognised as religions by the constitutions of the United States and Canada

these religions are widely practiced in europe as well as north and south america, at the moment voodoo is big in paris with equal numbers of black and white people serving the loa.

these religions include animal sacrifice, sacred drumming and possession by ancestral spirits as central themes, and this is possibly why they have been seen as frightening and evil by people who don't understand them.

In these religions followers have as much responsibility to their dead ancestors as they do towards their living children. The ancestor spirits are always hungry and must be fed, the blood sacrifices are a way of feeding them. They do not include human sacrifices and have nothing whatsoever to do with muti. Sacrifices are a loving act, a way of nurturing lost loved ones in the same way that one would lovingly feed a child and to neglect to feed the ancestral spirits (the loa) would be on a par with child neglect in the minds of the initiates.

The churches discussed earlier in this thread have more in common with the corporate american evangelical churches, in that they make giving to the church a central theme of worship, so, of course the churches become very rich. Elements of african religion have been adopted by the evangelical and pentacostal movments, there's lots of singing, loud music and some churches will include speaking in tongues (which has resonances with the african practice of ancestor possession), also prophecy and deliverance (exorcism).

Pentacostal and evangelical churches see witchcraft as something evil and a creation of the devil, to the extent that harry potter books are seen as a dangeous force in the world. The word witchcraft means something very different to people attending pentacostal or evangelical churches then it does to western pagans. So you could visit a pentacostal church where the congregation is mostly british caribbean, the pastor would deliver a serom on the evils of witchcraft as members of the congregation started to speak in tongues and describe prophetic visions. It's understandable that onlookers can feel confused about what is going on.

 

[Louloubelle]

Its' a strange set-up all round. The Caribbean community are quite straight forward, mostly RC with a lot now involved with US style evangelical churchs. Those who trace there origins to West Africa seem to go for very small almost private church's with a radical type of religion. Some of these I suspect to have almost taints of witchcraft, a mix of christianity and West African tribal beliefs. I have been into one ' church ' which had bowls of chicken blood, chicken feathers and other stuff which looked like masks and carvings of animals. I also saw a large picture of a black Jesus and a bible. I suspect that some of the more recent public child abuse scandals may have their roots in these types of religion. Still, there are still balck magic cults in the UK that are equally far out I suppose. I do remember one call , years ago , to a female screaming in a building. When I went inside they were preforming a exorcisim on her and holding her down on the floor ! Maybe I should get SS involved , She needs a few demons throwing out !

You'll find ancient icons and images of a black maddona and black jesus in old churches all over the world, most being in europe and russia, and the most celebrated being at Chartres Cathedral

if you saw bowls of chicken blood then you were most certainly in the presence of a true african religion and the bowls of chicken blood were food for the loa.

You walked in on the ancestor's dinner time, I hope you were polite as befitted the occasion

you are completely wrong re your assumptions of child abuse

they have all occured at evangelical / pentacostal churches like the The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, where a little Anna Climbie was 'exorcised' before her aunt murdered her

http://www.rickross.com/reference/universal/universal17.html

also this horrific case had nothing to do with Santeria or Voodoo, the women concerned were xtians
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4607435.stm