Is PG Planning His Escape??

During his opening address at the recent AGM of Calvary Church , Senior Pastor Prince Guneratnam (PG) shared on his desire to go into full-time evangelism.

He claimed that since his bible school days in the Bible College of Malaysia (BCM), his desire had always been to become an evangelist. He expressed his hope that God will give him “some years to go into full-time evangelistic work”. This is the clearest hint yet, of things to come!

To be fair, PG’s revelation of his desire is not totally new. He has said it before many years ago. Those were the days when Calvary Church was the richest and fastest-growing church in Malaysia. Despite his talk of going into full-time evangelism then, he did not leave.

With high pay-checks for him and his wife and generous self-granted perks like free education for both his children in the United States, business class travels, exclusive gym club membership and the like, he would be mad to give it all up, right?

Besides, there is this vision from God to build a grand 5,000-seating Church, remember? Who else will be able to accomplish this vision for God? He had to stay.

After all, the poor and the lost will always be there and besides, there’s Pastor Ah Chong, Pastor Aru and the many other graduates from BCM every year! Yes, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are many also!

Coming back to PG’s calling, to prove the seriousness of his desire to eventually go into full-time evangelism, he even set up Calvary International Ministry (CIM) to be the vehicle to fund his evangelistic ministry.

Of course, as things turned out, it was discovered several years later that he was, with the assistance of the Church Mission Director, happily transferring Church funds and Missions offerings into CIM’s Bank account, without the knowledge of the Members, of course. This modus operandi is quite similar to that of his good buddy in Singapore, Pastor Kong Hee.

If not for the exposure by the TTG group, the pilferage would have continued to this day. If not for the efforts of these concerned members, the pilfered funds would not have been recovered and PG may very well end up like Pastor Kong Hee. PG must be quietly thanking God for the TTG group!

Today, the situation in Calvary Church is totally different. With all the cash gone into the building of the wasteful Calvary Convention Centre, Bukit Jalil (CCC) and with the offerings not coming in as much as what PG had wished for, the Church is plunging swiftly into massive debts.

Once the entire RM43 million Bank loan for the construction of the CCC is fully drawn down, the interest alone (assuming only an interest rate of 6% per annum) will come up to RM2.58 million per year or RM215,000 per month. The principal loan repayment over 10 years amounts to RM4.3 million per year or RM358,000 per month.

To raise a surplus cash amount (after church expenses) of RM6.88 million a year or RM573,000 a month to service the banks is no laughing matter. And this is excluding the costs of maintaining the mammoth building and assuming that no further borrowings is required, which is highly unlikely and assuming the interest rate does not go up. Calvary Church certainly appears to be heading for a financial catastrophe. In a scenario like this, PG will be mad to stay on, right?

PG may have declared that he has been called to build the CCC but to be fair, he has never declared that he will stay to clear the debts or sort out the mess that he has created.

How can he stay? He has been called to be an evangelist, remember? Jesus is coming soon, don’t you know? And there are so many poor lost souls out there to be saved and somebody’s got to do it!

Click on the audio clip to hear PG’s story.

PG Continues to Hoodwink the World

This year’s World Assemblies of God Fellowship Conference was held in Chennai, India, recently. Pastor Prince Guneratnam (PG) was one of the conference speakers. Before preaching his sermon at one of the services, he gave the audience a video presentation of the Calvary Convention Centre (CCC) and shared his vision of the CCC with the crowd. Some of the comments he made were as follows:



1. The favour of God has been on Calvary Church…..I’m experiencing growth.


(Comment: Presumably he meant the church is experiencing growth but everyone in Calvary Church and many in the Christian community in Malaysia know that Calvary is not growing. The attendance has dropped much from the peak of more than 3,000 to less than 2,000 now since the church crisis started. Their Ampang satellite church has closed down since early this year and attendance at the main Damansara church continue to drop, so much so that they have resorted to closing the rear portion of the sanctuary and spacing out the pews.)


2. I’m seeing God do some very marvelous things in Malaysia.


(Comment: This is admittedly true. Other than Calvary Church, God is certainly moving among the churches in this land. Many are experiencing tremendous growth both numerically and spiritually.)


3. God has confirmed through prophesies and as visitors come, they have confirmed those prophesies.

(Comment: He failed to mention that these prophesies regarding Calvary were given some 15 to 20 years ago and they were in respect of another site in Sri Hartamas which never materialized. PG’s vision and those prophesies came to naught.)


4. They (presumably he meant invited preachers) have described Calvary Church as a fountain-head church.


(Comment: It was Rev Dick Eastman who said this about Calvary about 20 years ago. Back then, Calvary indeed was a growing church. Back then, PG was still a reasonably good shepherd who had not succumbed to pride, ambition and living a lavish lifestyle. Back then, he wasn’t a Datuk or a Tan Sri. Today, he is not the same person and today he cannot continue to declare or imply that Calvary is a fountain-head church as it is untruthful.)


5. To look for a piece of land between 4 to 5 acres in the city was almost an impossible task but when we put our faith and trust in God, God is able to do the impossible.


(Comment: PG made the above statements to imply that the hand of God was on the search for the CCC land. In so doing, he gave the impression that the CCC land is in the city of Kuala Lumpur, which is obviously untrue. The CCC land in Bukit Jalil may be on the fringe of the Federal Territory but it is certainly not in the city of Kuala Lumpur.)


6. God is faithful and men are liars.


(Comment: This is about the most honest statement that he has made and it’s ironical that he said this after telling half-truths and lies.)




Click on the sound clip to listen:

The following biodata on PG was extracted from the conference website : World Assemblies of God Celebrations


Prince Guneratnam

Rev.Tan Sri Datuk (Dr) Prince Guneratnam, Founder & President of Calvary International Ministries, is recognized as an outstanding Christian leader worldwide. Since 1966 he has been in the ministry and has served as the senior pastor of Calvary Church in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is the vice chairman of WAGF, the secretary of the Pentecostal World Fellowship and general superintendent - emeritus of the Assemblies of God, Malaysia.


In spite of Calvary International Ministries (CIM), having been de-registered by NECF, PG continues to promote CIM internationally. When he spoke at a Christian conference in Singapore last year, he was still introduced as the CIM Founder and President. Albeit CIM’s de-registration in Malaysia, it still remains alive and kicking outside the country, probably as an unregistered entity.

Click here to read : CIM to be de-registered


Although CIM’s bank accounts in Malaysia have been closed as a result of the de-registration, its bank accounts in the USA and Singapore probably remains active. The offshore banks would not know of its legal status unless they are informed.


It is therefore, not inconceivable, that his love offerings from his international preaching engagements continue to be banked into CIM’s offshore accounts. The obvious danger is that contributions to the CCC Building fund from unsuspecting overseas churches and donors may be channeled to CIM as CIM carries the “Calvary” name.


Although PG has always represented and promoted CIM in all his introduction biodata in conferences, he has never declared in printed and electronic media like the above that CIM is his personal ministry. Who will then know that CIM has no linkage whatsoever to Calvary Church? Besides carrying the “Calvary” name, remember it also shares the same address as Calvary Church.

Todate, other than Pastor Robert Lim’s church and Pastor Cho-Yonggi’s church and 1 or 2 small churches, no other churches or Christian organizations outside Malaysia have made any contribution towards the CCC Building Fund in spite of Calvary Church, having previously, supported countless other churches worldwide in their building programmes and in spite of PG constantly sharing his vision and burden wherever he preaches. This fact has always puzzled the church members.

What's in the Audit Report on CIM?

What exactly is in the audit report on CIM prepared by the auditor, Ferrier Hodgson for the last EGM?

All that was explained to the members was that there were no impropriety in the CIM accounts. Any auditor will also arrive at that finding because CIM is a personal ministry of PG. A personal ministry is exactly that - personal. All entrepreneurs or sole proprietors of businesses can also tell you that their auditors will not question their personal usage of funds because the business belongs to them personally. It is their tax agent who takes the audited accounts and re-compute the figures for tax submission purposes. In this process, personal expenses are excluded from the accounts because non-business related expenses are not tax deductible. This aspect, however, will not be seen in the case of CIM as it proclaims to be non-profit or religious in nature and therefore, not subject to tax. (The recent de-registration of CIM as a member of NECF may have implications on its tax-free status).

So what Ferrier Hodgson said is not surprising. There can not be anything improper in the accounts of CIM in the eyes of an auditor because it is a personal ministry account. When the four members saw the CIM accounts on 21 June 2008 (read the 5th Update posted in this blog), their main concern was on the unauthorized transfer of funds from our Church Missions Fund to CIM and CARED. Their concern arose from the fact that this was a situation of a conflict of interest because PG is the Senior Pastor of the Church, the Head of the Missions Committee, the Chairman of the Board of Deacons and the Founder, Permanent Director and President of CIM and CARED. To top it all, none of the transfer of funds over the years was made known to the members of the Church, much less, approved by them, which should be the case in view of the amounts involved and the conflict of interest.

But was Ferrier Hodgson given the material facts and asked to check on the fund transfers and the Church/Missions accounts? No one knows what was the scope given to the said auditors. Auditors can only audit and give an opinion based on the scope given to them. From the clarifications by Ferrier Hodgson at the EGM, it would appear that they have been commissioned to just conduct an audit into CIM. Although no fault of theirs, are they not barking at the wrong tree?

To recap, below is the summary of accounts of CIM/CARED:-

It is to be noted that subsequently, after the EGM, CARED together with the balance cash was transferred back to the Church as an extended ministry. In late November 2008, PG announced that the balance cash in CIM will also be returned (he used a softer word "released" in some services) to the Church. This event took place soon after CIM was de-registered from the membership roll of NECF. We believe the bank, where CIM's account was kept and which got wind of the status of CIM, had some influence on the sudden change of heart by PG not to hold on to the funds, which he was adamant about keeping, all the while. (Read the post on 4 December 2008).

Now why is this CIM matter being brought out again?

After the EGM, Sister Liza, on 29 August 2008, wrote to the deacons for a copy of Ferrier Hodgson’s report. The deacons promptly rejected her request. Another Calvarite (Joe) wrote in to see the report and was asked to refer to the Missions Director. We cannot comment if that member got to see the report or was it followed through.

Disappointed, Sister Liza together with Bro KC and Bro Francis, engaged a legal firm of another Calvarite to officially request for a copy of the auditor’s report as well as the lawyer, KK Wong’s report on 6 November 2008.

The deacons replied on 13 November 2008 that “the CIM Board has consented to allow CIM information contained in the Reports to be viewed by Calvary Church members” and that the 3 members can make arrangements to view the Reports at Calvary Church’s premises. The letter went on to say that the Reports are highly confidential and before the 3 members can view the Reports, they “shall provide a written undertaking to the BOD that your clients (the 3 members) shall not disclose the Reports to any third party or the public”. The deacons did not clarify if “any third party” includes fellow church members.

We wonder who paid the auditors' fees - CIM or Calvary Church? If Calvary Church had paid for the auditor’s report and KK Wong has waived his fees for his report, should not all members be given free access to both reports? In fact, should not the reports be printed and given to the members as only summaries of the reports were verbally given to the members at the EGM?

For the record, the 3 members has not gotten to view the reports as they were not agreeable to sign the undertaking to keep quiet. They do not wish to be a party to hiding facts or the real truth of the matter, if indeed there were areas of concern in the reports.

The question that still bugs us is, why there is a need for any member to sign a “gag” undertaking, before being allowed to view the reports? Why can’t PG and the deacons be transparent?

WHAT IS THERE TO HIDE??

CIM RETURNS CHURCH MONEY

In a “surprising” turn of events, Calvary International Ministries, the personal ministry of Pastor Prince Guneratnam, announced last Saturday that it is returning all the balance money in its bank account amounting to RM1.05 million back to the Missions Dept of Calvary Church. The amount was the balance remaining from the RM1.3 million that was transferred from the Missions Dept to CIM between 2002 and 2007 without the knowledge or approval of the church members. This “change of heart” is a complete turnaround of the adamant attitude that we saw in Pastor Prince during the recent EGM.

The members were informed for the first time during the recent EGM in August 2008 that the Board of Deacons had previously ratified and endorsed the monetary gift to CIM. Members were riled by the total lack of transparency and proper governance in the whole saga which had led to a split in the church. Our God is a faithful God and once again, He has answered our prayers. He has heard the cries of all those who have stood up for truth and transparency.

The deacons have also at last Saturday’s closed door meetings for church leaders, announced the following:-

1. CARED, which is a subsidiary of CIM has been transferred to our Church as an extended ministry. All the balance money in CARED’s bank account amounting to about RM400,000 has been transferred to a new CARED bank account under the Church. This money is the balance remaining from the RM576,961 that was transferred from the Missions Dept to CIM/CARED without members’ approval or knowledge in 2006 and 2007.

2. A Constitutional Review committee comprising of Bro Philip Tan, Sis Bernadette, Sis Helen Gan, Bro Dennis Xavier, and Bro Ong Keng Hock has been formed to undertake the review of the sections of our Church Constitution relating to financial provisions and nomination process for nomination committee, deacons and auditors. This committee does not have any representation from the TTG Group. The limited scope of the review has conveniently left out the main concern of all the Church members which relates to the office and authority of the Senior Pastor. This exclusion of one of the real issues confronting the church has already gotten a stamp of failure on the whole exercise from the start. It is certainly not what the members want.

3. The formation of the Financial Governance Committee is also another joke. The committee comprises Deacon Edward Rajasingam, Deacon Han, Bro Lee Tuck Heng (ex-church auditor), Bro Tam Kok Meng (present church auditor), Bro Au Weng Sang and Bro Ding Lai Hong. With the inclusion of 2 deacons and the previous church auditor, all of whom had been ignorant or overlooked the many accounting issues as well as the unauthorized transfer of funds from missions Dept to CIM, we wonder how effective this committee can be?


Both Senior Pastor and Sis Petrina shared at Saturday’s meeting. Here are some NOTE WORTHY STATEMENTS made by them during the meeting.

He said:

#1.… the church celebrated my 30 years celebration and in that celebration, we launched CIM and that is how CIM came to be … The church gave a gift of RM30,000-00 and everybody was glad and happy. …

#2.…Before that was known as Sr Pastor’s Overseas Travel and 30 years in celebration then gave it a name called CIM – it was a personal ministry. Personal in a sense it wasn’t Pas. Steven doing it, it wasn’t Pas. Peter doing it. It was me that was doing it so that’s where it was said that it was to be a personal ministry of Pas. Prince Guneratnam.

#3.…And also when it (CIM) was formed, it was also expressed that it will come a time…when the church gets big enough, …The Lord wants to move me into full-time to evangelistic … Then I will move into evangelistic … I will be changing my job, changing my role, changing my position, no more pastoring, now as an evangelist. You don’t call that retirement. You don’t retire. Just change of job. It’s changing your responsibility so CIM gave my overseas missionary ministry a structure, a structure to what I was doing.

#4.… CIM will release to Calvary Church all existing funds in CIM books, at this stage, a total sum of RM1,055,550-68, which means CIM now has a zero balance. So we’re going to return all that sum of money.

#5.… Money has never been our issue.


She said:

#6.… As Sr Pastor has said, “to give structure to a ministry that has been well accepted internationally and after 30 years. …. giving it a structure will help in the funding from people like Dr Cho and Pastors and many friends, from Japan …and people gave at the launch. This was in September 2002.

#7.… In 2003, we bought land for the CCC, … CCC then became our top priority. We must put CIM aside and not talk about CIM and people supporting this ministry, because we want everyone, including our friends, our contacts, to support CCC and we want to raise funds for CIM will be after CCC has been built…our desire was to channel all funds for CCC… and as some of you know, our good friend Dr. Cho gave two million and it could come to CIM…Pas. Robert and church also gave two million and some others…

#8.…So you say, “How did Missions get involved in giving to the seed fund?” Missions has always supported SP overseas ministry and God in the meantime, blessed our Missions and Faith Promise abundantly and since the Church has EXCESS fund, more money. After meeting all the commitment, there was still MORE money left from (for?) missions and since CIM is a missionary endeavor to missionary in nature, evangelistic crusade, a certain amount was appointed to CIM seed fund. Missions money can only be used for Missions.

#9.… Missions money has never been brought back to the church to be said whether it can be appointed or not. …So certain amount of money was given to CIM approved by the Missions Board as well as the Deacons. It was not something that we transfer. It was never like this. So that’s why Sr Pastor and I were very comfortable to receive this amount of money given to CIM because it was for ministry. …It was for crusades and fall in line with the criteria of money given to missions. ... And since we give hundreds to thousands….you heard, four million and we don’t come back to church for approval to give money for …Dr. Guynes ministry or for Peter Wagner who built the Prayer Tower….the Indian Pastor, David Mohan….

#10.… it never dawn on us and at the same time, you must know, Sr Pastor and I, all we know is ministry. We have not come from the secular world. I know nothing about CBT and I know nothing about this transfer of funds. Our thinking has always been spiritual. … so we accept it very gratefully and happily, as we put CCC first and not put the ministry that was personal, …and God in turn gave back to CIM …

#11.… When this perception was created, this misinterpretation, we immediately thought of giving back the money.

#12.... the Board Of Deacons never thought about having to come back to the church for approval, whether the amount can be given to the SP’s ministry/CIM. Maybe we took for granted that everybody would be so happy that we can support the SP’s ministry so and since we never have to come back to the church at large to say whether this money can be given or not. It was already designated for missions, so you know, that was it.

#13.…First of all, we needed to clear the allegations that it was CBT and pastor has said how the Board was brought in and it, that has been cleared. Now after the EGM, now we will return the money and it has been given back … because of certain allegations, it has become ugly and since God is always our source and if it will bring about peace and settlement, we are very happy.

#14.…Why call it Calvary International Ministry and since this is a personal ministry, why don’t call it Prince Guneratnam Ministry?... For all of you who know pastor, even a little, you know that Sr Pastor is a very reserved, shy person. He doesn’t talk about himself, neither does he talk about our family…. By nature he is always reserve…and so giving it Prince Guneratnam Ministry will bring a lot of attention to himself and he doesn’t want that. So that is the reason.

#15… Another reason why we call it Calvary International Ministry - our love and our recognition of Calvary Church. We are so much a part of Calvary Church. We have given the best of our years…35 years…Calvary Church will always be apart of us even when we go to heaven, I believe, when we die lah ah and we will, I hope, be apart of some of you. It was recognition affection that we call it Calvary International Ministry.

#16.… It was never meant to deceive people to give money to us using Calvary’s name. By the way, people give money to individuals they can trust. They don’t give to church name and say ……

#17.… Every sen has been accounted for by the Certified independent audit, accountant. All money has been returned. There is zero balance. The matter is considered closed, I hope.

Well, now that all the balance money in CIM has been transferred back to the Church Missions Dept (whether voluntarily or involuntarily, we leave it to you to decide), we sincerely hope that Pastor Prince and his dear wife will do the next right thing and that is, accept full responsibility for the crisis that the church is in and change job to do what has been in their hearts all these years and become evangelists.

God Bless.

CIM to be De-Registered by NECF (revised with additional comments 17-11-08)

Calvary International Ministries (CIM), the personal ministry of our Senior Pastor (SP), Rev Prince Guneratnam is to be de-registered by the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF) Malaysia as it does NOT meet the membership conditions of NECF’s constitution.

CIM was established on 8 September 2002 as a personal ministry of SP. It was and has never been a part of Calvary Church. It is definitely not an extended ministry of Calvary Church and does not come under the covering of our church. Hitherto, it has derived its legitimacy by being registered as a member of NECF.

At the church AGM in March this year, when Sis Liza posed several questions on CIM, SP has vehemently defended his personal ministry and declared that no-one has the right to question this ministry. At the recent EGM, a lawyer was brought in to establish the fact that CIM is a personal ministry and therefore, the RM1.9m that was transferred from the church missions fund to CIM over the last several years, cannot be claimed back by the church despite the fact that members’ approval has not been sought.

After the AGM, the TTG members investigated and discovered that the constitution of NECF does not allow the registration of personal ministries as a member. On 20 May 2008, Bro KC wrote to NECF for answers to several questions among which are to check if NECF is providing spiritual covering for CIM and if CIM is registered with them as personal ministry. Bro KC did not receive any reply from NECF but Bro Hong Meng, following up on Bro KC’s letter, was verbally informed by an official there that they had, all this while, thought that CIM was a part of Calvary Church and on that assumption, NECF had accepted CIM as a member. We wonder what was the basis for that assumption. If it is because of a document or representation given by CIM or Calvary Church at the time of application, then it can be inferred that a misrepresentation had taken place. If no such misrepresentation had been made, then NECF may have been careless in approving CIM's membership in 2003. We doubt that NECF was careless and we believe that they were somehow "misled" or "misinformed". It may be interesting to note that SP was the Chairman of NECF when CIM became a member. As the Chairman, SP should know the NECF membership criteria and the ineligibility of CIM to be a member of NECF.

Check out the July-Aug 2003 NECF newsletter at this website: http://www.necf.org.my/index.cfm?&menuid=21. This fact of SP's Chairmanship in NECF and the announcement of CIM's membership are published in the newsletter. There is also an interesting article in the newsletter by SP on the moral integrity of the church leaders.

On 21 August 2008, Bro Hong Meng wrote to NECF to find out their plans now that it is an established fact that CIM is not part of Calvary Church. On 9 October 2008, NECF replied that “CIM does not meet the membership conditions of our (NECF) constitution and our (NECF) membership roll will be rectified accordingly”. We believe the de-registration of CIM as a member of NECF is in the due process or already done. Here, we must salute NECF for their “bravery” to take such affirmative steps to put things right.

The question that springs to mind now is what will likely happen to CIM? We are fearful that the balance money of almost RM1 million in CIM might be swiftly spent or taken out by SP. We are not so concerned with the RM400,000 left in CARED as the Board of Deacons, at the EGM, has stated that CARED and presumably, the money remaining therein, will become an extended ministry of the church. There were no plans to transfer CIM to church as an extended ministry. We understood then that SP had objected to this. In fact, when another member (the simple housewife) appealed to SP at the EGM to give all the balance RM1 million to the CCC building fund, SP had stood his ground and would not release the money.

Now, with this change in circumstances and if the money is still in CIM, it is quite likely that SP will have no choice but to move CIM to church as an extended ministry. This is the only way, CIM can be legitimate. It is the only way for CIM to maintain a bank account to hold its funds. It is the only way for CIM to continue as SP’s channel to raise money to fund his extensive traveling to attend seminars and conferences around the world. (In church circles, for preaching invitations, usually, the host church pays for the travel costs and usually, with love offering thrown in as well). It is the only way, CIM can be deemed as a religious organization to avoid becoming taxable as otherwise, all offerings and gifts received by CIM will become taxable.

DO NOT BE SURPRISED if this option of becoming an extended ministry of the church is taken by SP because we see it as the ONLY OPTION available to him. In plain language, he has NO CHOICE.

Of course, even after it is moved to church as an extended ministry, several questions still remain to be answered, which are:

1. The balance RM1 million in CIM may be liable to tax as it was accumulated during the period when it was “misrepresented” as a Christian organization under NECF. In fact, the entire RM1.9 million which was transferred from church to CIM may be taxable. It will be interesting if the taxman get wind of this.

2. What were the documents given to the banks for the opening of the bank accounts of CIM and CARED? If they were NECF membership documents and now that CIM is de-registered, will the balance money in the banks be frozen? If the banks return the money, who will the bank return the money to?

3. If misrepresentation has been made to NECF which resulted in CIM being accepted as a member, can criminal proceedings be instituted against the perpetrator? This is because, besides Calvary Church, some individuals and other churches may have given gifts to CIM in the belief that it is a legitimate Christian organisation under the umbrella of NECF.

Whatever unfolds over the next few days or weeks, we hope our dear SP and the Board of Deacons are well prepared to deal with the issues which may arise. Things seem to be heating up. Just to let you know, 2 Calvarites have boldly stepped forward and have informed us, in no uncertain terms, that they are prepared and ready to go to the authorities. All they are waiting for is our signal. Unbeknown to them, that has put a very heavy burden on the TTG “committee”. We are prayerfully, waiting on the Lord. Let’s all pray that it does not come to that.

God Bless.

Detailed Account of CIM Travel Expenses

The TTG had a meeting recently and realised that the Chart on " CIM TRAVELLING EXPENSES" posted on 1st November 2008 may have led to some misinterpretation as the Chart actually showed the consolidated amount for travelling expenses incurred from 2002 to 2007.

Since the amounts shown has attracted so much interest among the readers, we feel that it is only proper to show the full details of the Travel Expenses incurred on a yearly basis. This is to avoid any unnecessary speculation and assumption by readers.

We sincerely apologise if the consolidated chart has caused any misunderstandings and misinterpretation to the readers.

Below is the revised Chart prepared by Bro Siew Chyuan. All the figures were extracted from the CIM audited accounts which he has personally viewed together with 3 other TTG members.

CT

***********************************************************

Siew Chyuan said...


For the benefit of all bloggers/readers, I have just re-looked at the CIM audited a/cs (as copied by me) & shared with Bro. Hong Meng (HM). I now realised that in an effort to fit all the figures onto the blog, HM had left out the 5 columns (for the years 2003 to 2007) & shown only the last column which is the total column.

Thus, I wish to clarify to all bloggers/readers that the RM 75,786 spent on USA – Global Pastors Network was actually incurred over 2 years (RM 33,428 in 2005 & RM 42,358 in 2006) & not in 1 year.

Similarly, the figure of RM 37,174 for Korea – Church Growth Int. Conference was spent over 3 years (RM 10,654 in 2005, RM 16,870 in 2006 & RM 9,650 in 2007).

Other than the above mentioned 2 figures, I confirm that all the other figures were incurred in 1 year only, as follows:

From Designated Fund 2007 – RM 15,467 to RM 693,2006 – RM 27,838 to RM 1,328,2005 – RM 16,957 & RM 55,731,2004 – RM 12,986 to RM 3,141, and2003 – RM 1,263 to RM 387 From General Fund2007 – RM 11,521, and2006 – RM 3,330.The total amount of RM 477,625 spent on Meetings & Conferences on a per year basis is as follows:2003 – RM 48,509,2004 – RM 111,259,2005 – RM 116,988,2006 – RM 124,968 and2007 – RM 75,901.

(Click on the CHART to view a larger picture. Click on "BACK" at the top left hand corner, to return to this page)




Btw, as have been mentioned by most bloggers/readers, let’s leave SP’s children & grandchildren out of all this mess – OK?

In His Majesty's Service

Post EGM - CIM Traveling Expenses

CIM Travelling Expenses

At the EGM a deacon explained in detail the various expenses paid out from CIM. He emphasized that more than 90% of the expenditures had been to cover the cost of international ministry engagements in line with the charter of CIM “mainly to enable our Senior Pastor and Sister Petrina to preach or minister to the needs of people as part of CIM evangelism ministry.”

Below is a list of their travelling expenses extracted from the audited accounts from inception till year ended 2007.

(Click on the Chart to Enlarge. To return to this page, Click "BACK" on the left hand corner)



For your information.

Hong Meng
6th October 2008

Post EGM - Independent Auditor and Lawyer - Really? by HM

The recent EGM saw an “independent” forensic auditor and an “independent” criminal lawyer telling the gathered Calvarites that there had been no misdeed in the transactions between Calvary International Ministries (CIM) and the Church. Yes, it was probably true that none of the deacons knew these professionals before the assignments. Yes, the lawyer did the job pro bono, i.e. foc. But were they really independent?

The concerned Calvarites had asked for the establishment of an independent Truth Committee. To be independent it was suggested that both sides of the divide nominate two members with the necessary skills and competencies for the assignment. The four of them would then appoint an independent chairman acceptable to both sides. The chairman would be a prominent Calvarite whose stature and integrity would be beyond reproach. This would ensure credibility and acceptability to all Calvarites regardless of their stand on the issues.

For some reasons known only to them the Board refused to involve the concerned Calvarites. The Board did it all by themselves. It is my opinion that in so doing the independence of these professional had been compromised.

They selected the professionals. They made the appointments. The Board briefed them on the background and the issues. The terms of reference for the assignments were given by the Board. More seriously the professionals worked off documents and records provided them by the Board.

They were responsible only to the Board and not the members. They presented their reports only to the Board and agreed with the Board the presentation strategies for the EGM. Moreover their assignments required them to report on transactions which involved the Board collectively as well as some individual members of the Board involved in CIM and the Missions Department.

In the case of the auditor, he was also paid by the Board. Not only were the concerned Calvarites kept out of the appointment and reporting process, until today we do not know the terms of reference for the two assignments. Neither do we know what documents and records were made available to them.

This is most critical as the report from the lawyer was based entirely on the documents and records provided. An additional piece of document or the removal of another could make all the difference. He also explained that he did not interview anyone nor did any investigation to determine the validity of the documents or what the documents say was true. In that case was truth adequately established? Could truth be established purely through whatever documents the Board chose to provide him with?

As his opinion was based purely on the documents he was given, it was admitted that based on the same documents another lawyer could well have another opinion. That is why there are court cases; lawyers with different opinions. Then the judge would have to decide which opinion is legally more valid and acceptable.

In this case, Calvarites were called to be the judge. But they were asked to judge based on only one opinion. Would the Board give us exactly the same documents for us to obtain an “independent” opinion from another lawyer?

The auditor reported only on the accounts of CIM. It would appear he did not look at the transactions from the side of the Missions Department. It is this side that we are really concerned about. In effect he could be barking up the wrong tree. The queried transactions emanated from the Missions Department. By the time the transactions ended in CIM they were already outside of the Church governance processes.

Finally both the reports are not made available to us. What are in these reports that the Board do not wish us to see? Even the report from the Royal Commission on VK Lingam was made available to the public. We can pay for the photocopying but the Board must not deny us access to the very reports that are supposed to exonerate them of any wrong doing.

The verbal presentations by their appointed professionals at the well orchestrated EGM could not be accepted as the broom sweeping clean the mess. Yes they were independent in terms of their professional standing. But were they independent in terms of their appointment and reporting? Could their opinions be in anyway skewed towards the purposes for the EGM?

You be the judge.

WHM
22nd September 2008

2 Sen Worth of Opinion by DK

This comment was posted by one of our readers. We post it here with permission.

Dear Administrator,
I give permission to have my comments posted as you see fit. However, I want to stress this and appreciate if you would add it to my comments - that I am not against BOD or any of the pastors and neither am I part of the TT team.

I am a Calvarite who has been and is still concerned with what has been brewing over these past months in our church, particularly the matter of the CIM, CARED and Missions accounts. Due to unavoidable work commitments, I missed the AGM but decided that I would attend the EGM, hoping that the BOD and Snr Ps would clear the air and the queries that I wanted answers to.

Sadly, this did not happen. What I saw was really a use of the legal law and financial law on the members - to prove that no "technical mis-handling of funds" had occured. Using such tools available is fine but I wonder if the BOD realise what they were telling the members? Being told that any money that I give to God is "absolute gift" is perfectly fine - if GOD is directly handling the money because HE is perfect and I trust HIM with my life.

However, hearing this from a church, governed by mortals with limitations - is like telling me that once I give the money, then whoever receives it can do what he, she or they want with it. I believe this - "In GOD, we trust; others, show me clean hands, hearts and minds!" I can't accept this legal information because we are human beings and we must be accountable to those who give especially in financial matters - for too many servants of God have fallen by the wayside when they gave in to the temptation of money.

In fact, at BCM, where I studied my first degree, our lecturers - most of them pastors, have always told us to always practise accountability and if it was possible, do not decide on money matters - let that be handled by those who are professionally trained to do what is right and have controls that show you are constantly practising accountability and transparency.

Next, at BCM when I learned the subject Church and Law and later about Church Management, my lecturers have constantly reminded us that we should always pay attention to the Spirit of the Law and not the Letter of the Law. You may have the law on yourside but as Christians, we have a higher calling. We need to look at the Integrity issue of the entire matter. If not, how does that make us different from the people who do what is right legally or financially, but do not know Christ?

I believe displaying high integrity in attitude, behavior and actions is the one expression that shows everyone - we belong to Christ. And that is what I had hoped that the TT group would have brought up that night. I guess that a member or two did try - but they were not direct enough.

What I want to know is this:

a) CIM - It is a personal ministry of Sr Ps and at its launch, we were told about the RM30K seed money. How come the BOD can inform us of this but giving RM200K - is not informed to the members? Does the BOD consider that RM200K is so small a figure ( mind you - an average person does not earn that much in a single year! ) that it should not be tabled at the AGM? And it is kept quiet for 6 years? Ironic, don't you think that RM30K is announced by RM200K is kept silent? Why? Do the BOD realise that omission(failure to speak the truth) is also a wrong? Have not one of them ever checked their hearts and spirits in the past 6 years - each time they authorised the payments?

b) CIM - Before CIM was formed, disbursements of all designated funds were through the Missions Dept and they had been doing this for many years. I can't reconcile the fact that once CIM came into the picture, the Missions Dept lost its capacity to do what they have been doing for the past decades? So, why the switch? What purpose does it serve? Saying that they have the same objectives will render that one of them - Missions Dept or CIM as obselete?

c)CIM - BOD said that all designated funds given, even though from CARED or CIM - recipients were told, the gift was from Calvary Church - my question, why the roundabout way of doing something? Why not go direct? What was the objective for doing this?

d) CIM - I find the matter of the "seed fund" a very strange matter. Personally, Sr Ps and Ps Peter have told BCM students year in and year out that we are called by God and that we live by faith. That when we are called to do what we destined to do, we depend on God and HE will provide for us. We have been told that we are not to look to the church and depend on it to support us. The money that is given from faith promise to support us is minimal so that we might learn to live by faith.

So, my question - why is there a need for such a large "seed" fund? Sr Ps says that we need money to do ministry - correct - then should the way be - to pray and God will provide. Sr Ps could come before us anytime with the burden that God put in his heart, and I believe that Calvarites would respond generously. Honestly, I struggled with great mental "dissonance" when I heard Sr Ps's reply because what he has said to BCM students and what he doing for CIM is entirely different.

And since Ps Wirachai Kowae's name was mentioned at the EGM, let me say that his ministry - Compassion of Christ - is so different from what our BOD have done for CIM. Compassion of Christ survives on its own - of course, Romyen Church, the BOD with the ok of its members, does give support -but much of the funds for ministry comes from Ps Wirachai's sharing of his vision to those he meets and the books that he writes and sells. And I have great respect for PS Wirachai because he has many times, brought out his own money to fund the ministry of Compassion of Christ than to look to Romyen. Many times, he tells me that God never fails.

e) The accounts show that much money in CIM was used for travelling - it did not have details but quite a substantial sum was shown. I may be wrong but as far as I know, when one is invited as a speaker to crusades, the chances are that your air-ticket is paid by the organisation that invites you. The same go for accomodation, though food and etc could be another matter. If the church that invites you is small, then, yeah, being more financially able, you, the speaker would pay for some of the expenses or so. Many times, however, when you speak and pay your airfare, there is a high possibility that the church would take an offering for you to help meet your expenses. Usually, when one speaks, it is often for a few churches too.

So, my question - why the high expense account for travelling overseas? It is fine with me if the money was used to build churches, to build orphanages, etc - but I was really surprised to see "travelling" as the large expense on the account.

f) Monies in CIM and CARED - I think that saying the money is an absolute gift and even vouching that it will be used for ministry is not good enough. Why? The money was given away in "secrecy" simply because of the failure of the BOD to check with the members if the members were ok with gift.

So, in principle - it is a tainted gift - faulty in the name of integrity. The monies should all be returned to the Church accounts. Then, the BOD can table this with the members - so that a consensus is reached and the gift is given openly. But this was not said nor did the BOD push for it at the EGM. To me, this matter has not been resolved.

There is a need for the BOD to regain their level of integrity with the members, like me and if I am not wrong - many similar ones. No one should call for your resignations - but seriously ask yourself, in all that you have done in respect of CIM, CARED and MISSIONS - have you done your duly best to protect the interests of the members who have put you there?

If you were an ordinary member, would you approve of what you have done? If you have doubts, then perhaps, you need to apologise and take that decision to vacate your seat, so that others who will do protect the interests of the members can occupy that seat.

Sr Ps too needs to regain his integrity and it starts with returning the money from CIM and CARED. For me, right now, my pastor has a "money" issue. I am really sorry but I can't help but see him as clinging on to a gift, one that are not supported by members. Even if there just be 800 or 2000 voices against this gift - is that not already the shrieking siren of bells for a servant of God that all is not right?

If Sr Ps believes that GOD will supply all his needs and walks the talk, then I hope that Sr Ps will let this money go. Hasn't Sis Petrina said many times at the altar? - Only when you let go of what you are holding, when you open your palms and look to God, can God fill your hands with more than you can hold!

That is my 2sens worth. Thank you and I apologise sincerely, if my words have been unduly harsh.

Dkay

September 16, 2008 3:03 AM

5th Update to CC Members (4.07.08)

Dear Calvarites,

Thank you for your prayers and your words of encouragement which we receive through the mail every now and then. We know you have prayed because as we ploughed on for greater transparency, accountability and good governance in our church, the Lord has led us step by step to uncover things that we believe God wants us to know, so that corrective action can be taken to restore our church back into His sovereign will and purpose.

However, with more discoveries, our hearts are saddened and now we bear the burden of “knowing too much to remain quiet”. We, the undersigned (and Bro Siew Chyuan who is away on business) were given the opportunity to see the audited accounts of Calvary International Ministry (CIM) on 21 June 2008. We went, without any expectation to achieve much but what we saw that day shocked us to our bones. Therein, lies our dilemma. Before the accounts were shown to us, the four of us were asked by one of the deacons not to disclose what we will see. All four of us have been struggling within our spirits since that day as we were torn between telling the truth to our fellow Calvarites or keeping mum and allow our deacons to “sweep things under the carpet”. We were “lashed” out at by our fellow members when we refused to tell it all. Our silence infuriated one member who posed a question to us, saying that ‘If we see our neighbour raping his daughter, will we just keep quiet and pray about it”. We realise that sooner or later, we have to make a judgment call and to do what is morally right. And that is the reason for this update.

We wish to clarify here that we were not allowed to take back the CIM accounts or make any photocopy but were graciously allowed by the deacons to take notes and hand-copied what we could during the two hour meeting. Just for your info, Bro Hong Meng, independent of us, had earlier requested to review the audited CIM accounts, the bank statements and other records but was turned down.


I. CALVARY INTERNATIONAL MINISTRY (CIM)

What do we know about CIM? We know that it is a personal ministry of Senior Pastor Guneratnam. Some of us may remember that it was set up in 2002 with a gift of RM30,000 from Calvary Church to celebrate his 30th anniversary in Calvary Church. We were told that CIM would help Senior Pastor fulfill his calling as an evangelist. Other than that we know nothing about CIM or its activities as it is a personal ministry and not part of Calvary Church.

After the last AGM, where questions were raised on CIM, two sisters were allowed to look at its very confidential Charter. The Charter stated that it is the ministry of Senior Pastor who is the Founder of CIM. He holds the position of President while Sister Petrina is the Vice-President. Both are permanent directors of CIM. To the best of our knowledge, the present directors of CIM are Senior Pastor Prince Guneratnam, Sister Petrina Guneratnam, Jim Guneratnam, Pastor Peter Ong and Aric Low

II. THE ACCOUNTS OF CIM.

We were shown the audited accounts of CIM for the years 2002 to 2007. A summary of the funds which were transferred from the Mission Dept to CIM is set below:-


FUNDS TRANSFERRED FROM CHURCH MISSIONS DEPT (TOTAL: 1,309,546)


The following observations were made from our review and analysis of the CIM audited accounts which did not have much detailed information. We were not shown the general ledger, cash book, payment vouchers or supporting invoices.

1. CIM total income from 2002 till end 2007 amounted to RM1,489,913. Of this, about RM1.31 million came from Calvary Church.
2. During this period, CIM paid out RM477,625 on Meetings & Conferences Expenses which was essentially President’s Travel. Incidentally, nearly all the trips were to attend conferences and meetings. Whether these trips could be classified as evangelism (which is the aim and purpose for the set-up of CIM), we will leave it to your own judgment.
3. At the end of 2007, CIM had a total of RM993,224.

The questions on our minds which only the deacons can answer are:

1. We were only told of the initial gift of RM30,000-00 but not the subsequent RM1.28 million. Why was the Church not informed of the other amounts?
2. What is the justification for the subsequent RM200,000 per year allocation when the average spent per year for Senior Pastor’s travelling was less than RM100,000 per year?
3. Why can't the Church pay for Senior Pastor’s travelling if the trips are justified and necessary for the fulfilment of his duties of the Church? Why must it be hidden in CIM outside the purview of the members?
4. Did the deacons know and approve of all these additional giving?
5. If yes, then why did they approve when this is a personal ministry of Senior Pastor and not part of Calvary Church?
6. If not, what did they do when they knew?
7. At our meeting with the deacons on 31st May, 2008, we were told that our Missions Department gave a total of RM1,098,916 to CIM from 2002 to end 2007. This figure is correct if we exclude the designated fund amount of RM210,630 given to CIM during the years. Why did the deacons give us the wrong figure? Or is it that they did not know?


III. CARE RELIEF & DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (CARED)

We discovered another shocking thing. In 2006 another RM427,757 was transferred from the Missions Department to CIM to finance the setting up of a sub-ministry called Care Relief & Development Agency (CARED) within CIM. Apparently this agency has its own bank account. We are not sure if the deacons ARE aware of the existence of this agency until very recently. It is highly possible that this transfer was never approved by the deacons. As we are not allowed to see the board minutes, we do not know for sure. Needless to say, the congregation would not have heard of this agency. This is part of Senior Pastor’s personal ministry. It is not part of Calvary Church.

In summary, 2006 and 2007, RM149,204-00 which was received as income in the designated fund of CIM, plus RM427,757 from Missions Dept was transferred to CARED account as follows:

FUNDS TRANSFERRED FROM CHURCH MISSIONS DEPT (TOTAL: 576,961 )



From the above it can be seen that out of a total of RM576,961 which was transferred from the Missions Dept to this new ministry, only RM157,457 was given out during the years 2006-2007. The cash at bank and fixed deposit remaining in the account as at end 2007 is RM431,734 inclusive of interest earned.

Of the total designated offering received of RM149,204, only RM64,494 was given out, leaving a balance of RM84,710 ** which was not paid out by the end of 2007. This includes the RM41,627-00 received from Calvary Church for Indonesia Earthquake Relief.


The questions we need to ask are:

1. Why were all these missionary/designated offerings from Calvary Church paid over to CIM instead of being given directly to the designated recipients?
2. Why are designated offerings amounting to RM84K from 2006 still unpaid?
3. Why is CIM withholding the RM41K from Calvary Church from reaching the victims of the Indonesian Earthquake which happened in 2006?
4. Does this imply that our Missions Department is telling the Church that our offerings had been paid over to the designated recipients when in actual fact, it had only been paid over to CIM and CIM was still sitting on it? And earning interest on it while the victims are suffering out there?


IV. OTHER FACTS OF INTEREST

1. Senior Pastor Prince Guneratnam is the only Senior Pastor of Calvary Church, Chief Executive of Calvary Church, Chairman of its Board of Deacons, Head of its Missions Department, an ex-officio member of all committees, sub-committees and departments in the Church, a cheque signatory to all bank accounts of the Church and at the same time, the President of his personal ministry which is called Calvary International Ministry.

2. The CIM audited accounts were signed by Senior Pastor Guneratnam and Pastor Peter.

3. Senior Pastor and Pastor Peter are cheque signatories for our Missions Department.

4. Both Senior Pastor and Pastor Peter are directors of CIM.

5. From 2002 - 2007, a total of close to RM1.9 million has been transferred from Missions Dept to CIM and CARED.

6. At the end of 2007, CIM together with CARED had a total of RM1.4 million in hand made up of cash and bank balances of RM119,394 and fixed deposits of RM1,306,247.

7. The above transfer of funds from the Church or Missions Dept to CIM is without the approval of the members and is obviously a conflict of interest. We are not well-versed with the law but this certainly is a situation that will interest the authorities.


CONCLUSION

Brother and sisters, now you too know what we have discovered. Our next pressing question is: What do we do with this discovery? What would Jesus do if He is here today?



God Bless!


His willing servants,
KC, Teng & Liza

3rd Update - Healing & Reconcilation by HM

To: Calvary Church Board of Deacons
cc: Associate Pastors of the Church
The Auditors
Datuk K C Lim
From: Wong Hong Meng
Date: 21st May 2008

HEALING AND RECONCILATION

I was asked recently how I was feeling after the AGM and whether what happened at the AGM was what I expected. Well, I felt relieved and happy that Calvary Church was progressing towards greater transparency and accountability. There shall be greater compliance with financial reporting standards to the members. Our annual report containing the accounts therein would be more complete and hopefully more informative. Church governance would improve. This is good and necessary. It is the right thing to do; to be transparent and accountable, especially for a Church of Jesus Christ. However, I was deeply saddened that this was achieved at such a tremendous cost. We now have a divided church. The members and the congregation are now divided and there is disunity and disharmony. But this could easily have been avoided. There were at least three distinct opportunities to avoid disunity and disharmony.

The first opportunity was when my memo of 27th December 2007 to the Treasurer and the Auditors was discussed at the Board. The Board could have recognized the oversight in not giving the accounts of the extended ministries to the members. As I was told at the April 2007 meeting that these accounts were audited and presented to the Board, it would have been quite a simple matter to have them photocopied and attached to the main accounts and all would have been well. (I now know that was only a half-truth. Only half of the 10 extended ministries were audited. I am still puzzled as to why I was allowed by the three deacons and the secretary of the Missions Committee present at that meeting to go away believing a half-truth.) Instead, leaders from the Church were told at the 1st March 2008 meeting that the extended ministries were not accountable to the members. This came as a complete shock to some of the leaders.

The second opportunity was when Bro Lee Tuck Hing met with the Deacons before the AGM. I was given to understand that he advised that the accounts must be presented. The authority of our Auditor, a partner of PwC, could have been accepted and respected. Since there was not enough time to produce the accounts, the AGM could have been told that the Board acknowledged the shortcoming, as advised by the Auditor, and that this shortcoming would be made good as soon as possible after the AGM. I believe the members would have accepted this explanation and would have the patience to wait for the accounts. Instead, the members were told early in the discussion at the AGM that the reason why the accounts of the extended ministries were not given, was that they did not belong to the Church. If they did belong to the Church the accounts would be given. The Board chose to reject the advice of our Auditor. The position of non-accountability of the extended ministries was reinforced. More seriously it was reaffirmed that as far as the Board was concerned the extended ministries did not belong to the Church.

The third opportunity was when Bro Lee Tuck Hing told the AGM that his technical partner at PwC had advised that all the accounts must be presented and approved by the AGM. This advice again could have been accepted. It could have been announced at the AGM itself that based on this advice from an authority of authorities the mistake would be rectified as soon as possible. The members would have accepted the delay even at this late stage. Instead, a vote was called for hoping that the vote would negate not only my opinion and that of Bro Lee Tuck Hing but also that of the technical partner of PwC. This was not to be. Enough of the members were adequately fair-minded to realize that the accounts must be presented. They voted for transparency and accountability. This was the defining moment. The congregation was immediately divided - “For” and “Against”. It was this vote that divided the Church.

This whole episode was started by my two questions at the 2006 AGM. But questions do not cause division. It is the lack of answers that divides. Till now there remained unanswered questions. If the extended ministries did not belong to the Church then to whom did they belong? The assertion that they were intended to be separate cannot be accepted because it immediately begs the next question. What possible benefit could accrue to Calvary Church by having them separate and independent? Were there any tax benefits? Any improvements in operation? Any cost savings? If there was no benefit to Calvary Church then who can possibly benefit from this separation and independence?

Even after this divisive and irrelevant vote (please see below), this family of God that is Calvary Church could have been brought back into unity and harmony. The result of the vote could have been accepted with grace and everyone embraced in the arms of love and unity. Instead another vote was called for to humiliate those who dared attend the so-called illegal meetings (please see below). The wedge of division was driven deeper.

The week after the AGM saw further actions to exact retribution from those who had raised issues and dared question the authority of the Board, to marginalize them from the rest of the congregation. I was told that I had been “excused” from serving communion. No reason was given to me but subsequently I was told by other brothers who suffered the same fate that the Board decided to implement the policy that only leaders can serve communion. This proved only to be an “axe-of-convenience” as some who were not leaders were subsequently reinstated. On what basis I do not know. The disunity was further reinforced as these arbitrary actions became the fodder for gossip and speculation.

In all my discourse both written and verbal I had remained focused on the issues. I had not been personal at all. I spoke out against no one. I wanted the issues resolved. I had no personal axe to grind. But I was attacked personally at the AGM, in attempts to discredit and humiliate me. Some members refused to smile at me now when I greet them. I was even labelled as Judas Iscariot. The effect of disunity and division is felt personally. Jesus says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” and “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” It was righteous to clamour for transparency and accountability. It was righteous to insist that the accounts presented for approval by the members be complete. It was righteous to seek for the return of ownership of the extended ministries to the Church. It was righteous to help other members understand what was going on with the extended ministries. Some may call me thick-skinned. But I do not mind being thick-skinned for the Lord. His grace is sufficient for me. I will continue to serve God and the people. I still come to Church appropriately dressed to serve at the altar. I will continue to pray with and for those at the altar. That is, until I am “excused” from doing so.

The discussion and discourse on the extended ministries had surfaced other issues of concern to the members. Insinuations, allegations, speculations, suspicions, and even false accusations became rife. The obstinate refusal to accept the advice of our Auditor and that of the technical partner of PwC to present the accounts in full only served to fuel the possibility that there was indeed something to hide. The allegations and accusations suddenly become more real, more plausible. I had always maintained that I did not in anyway suspect that there was anything wrong with the accounts. I just wanted ownership and accountability to be established. This expression of confidence from me would now not be so easily accepted by the others.

I urge the Board to bring healing and reconciliation to this hurting Church. Let’s rebuke and correct each other in love. Not out of hurt, bitterness, unforgiveness or revenge. We are family. We do not cast out family members who do not see eye to eye with us. We love them. We must do whatever is necessary to bring back into the fold even just one who is lost. It is apparent to all that Calvary Church is now a divided church. This cannot be pleasing to the Lord. The Holy Spirit is grieved. A process of healing and reconciliation must be initiated. The divide must not be allowed to deepen or the wound to turn necrotic.

Let’s act to bring about healing and reconciliation. From Nelson Mandela and South Africa we learned that healing and reconciliation can only come about based on truth. This great leader instead of taking revenge on his enemies chose to set up the Truth Commission. With the truth established comes closure. Restoration, healing and reconciliation would then follow. Therefore I urge the Board to consider setting up an Independent Committee on Church Governance (“ICCG”) or, if you like, a Truth Committee. This committee would be given wide powers of audit, investigation, enquiry and discovery to surface the truth of all the issues confronting the Church and its members. It would then discuss its findings with the Board for appropriate actions, if any, to be agreed upon. The Committee itself would not have the power to act. The findings and agreed actions would then be presented to the members of the Church for approval.

Just imagine, if the Committee can come up with a statement stating that all is well, that all the allegations and accusations are not true, unfounded, or without basis or false or misinterpreted, this would most certainly clear the deck. All the members would be satisfied and the Church can then move on in full confidence without any of these issues hanging in the back ground. The Committee must have credibility and the full confidence from both sides of the divide. As such the Committee must be independent of the Board, the pastors and the staff of the Church. Therefore I would suggest that Datuk KC Lim and another person recommended by him be appointed from one side of the divide. The Board will appoint two persons of their choice. The four appointees together will then appoint an independent chairman, making up a committee of five. All members of the Committee must be well versed and have adequate experience in organizational governance.

This Committee is necessary as other issues would now need to be resolved. For example, I was just informed from Datuk KC Lim’s enquiry that an annual allocation of RM200,000 or RM100,000 every six months had been made from the Missions Department to Calvary International Ministry (“CIM”) for the last few years. I remembered that CIM was set up with an initial contribution from the Missions Department as a gift to Senior Pastor on one of those celebratory occasions some years ago. This was to facilitate the fulfilment of his calling as an evangelist. The initial gift (I think it was only RM30,000) was informed to the Church but I am sure most members are not aware of the continuing very substantial annual allocations. There had been no indication or information in the annual report or any other report including the six-monthly missions report. Neither was this made known in the budget presented at each Faith Promise Sunday. In fact one of the members of the Missions Committee was adamant that the allocation from the Missions Department to CIM was far less than the RM200,000 per annum mentioned. Perhaps he too did not know. In my memo to the Church Treasurer of 27th December 2007 I mentioned that I recognised that CIM was not included as an extended ministry. It was a personal ministry of Senior Pastor. It does not belong to the Church. But I did ask the Board to look into its legal status vis-à-vis Calvary Church. Since such substantial amounts had been allocated to CIM with no accountability to the members of the Church this exercise has become more urgent. The question of potential conflict of interest as raised by Sis Liza Low at the AGM must be addressed. All the more so as Senior Pastor is the chairman of the Board of Deacons to which the Missions Committee is supposedly accountable to. All the questions I asked at my April 2007 meeting of the extended ministries must now be asked of CIM.

The AGM was given the impression that all missions giving were supervised by the Missions Committee and the Missions Committee was responsible to the Board. Is this really so? Did the Board approve each and every such contribution of RM100,000 every six months to CIM? Did the Board look at the accounts of this external ministry to ensure that financial accountability had been exercised by the owners of this ministry? This is a serious accountability issue. Did the Church Treasurer know what is going on in CIM? Are the accounts of CIM available to the Board? Being an independent external ministry, it would be receiving contributions and donations from other sources. Did any of the donors not realize that this ministry is not part of Calvary Church? Does CIM have any legal status in its own right? Or does it draw its legal existence from Calvary Church? In that case its bank account was probably set up using Calvary Church’s constitution. If so then the Board would have every right to have access to the bank statements and the accounts, if it chooses to do so. This ministry bears the name Calvary. It is very conceivable for a donor to make a cheque or bank draft payable to CIM and to think that he was making a donation to Calvary Church, perhaps even to the Calvary Convention Centre. This ambiguity must be sorted out. And only an independent committee can do this. The deacons and the pastors are interested parties and are not in the position to be objective and impartial. This does not imply, in anyway, that there is any wrong doing, intentional or otherwise. It could just be a case of lack of proper reporting and accountability. The independent committee would be able to provide the necessary information in an unbiased and factual manner. This is just one of the issues the truth of which must be established. I appeal to the Board to seek out the truth as the truth shall set all of us free.

Earlier in this memo I mentioned that the vote on the accounts of the extended ministries was irrelevant and that the “teh tarik” sessions were deemed illegal by the Board. I now submit my input on these two points.

I told a pastor recently that I was amazed that 232 people in the Church voted for the Church not to comply with the requirement of the law. He said that was not what he voted on. That was the trouble. People did not know what they voted on. They just stood up when told to do so. This pastor was under the impression that Bro Lee Tuck Hing had suggested a number of ways to deal with the problem and one of the ways was to maintain the status quo. I corrected him. Bro Lee, quoting his technical partner, said that the full accounts, including the auxiliary ministries and the outreaches must be presented for approval. But there were two ways this could be done; either on a consolidated basis or as separate sets of accounts; one for the Church, one for the Missions Department, etc. He recommended that we do it as separate sets because it would be less laborious and more meaningful. This we can vote on; whether to do it on a consolidated basis or through separate sets of accounts. But we cannot vote not to comply with the requirements of the law. You may well ask me what law. If this issue is before the court, the court would seek to establish if our accounts are in compliance with the standards and recommendations of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants. The advice of the technical partner of PwC cannot be ignored. Therefore even if the majority of the members voted for the status quo and for the accounts not to be presented, it only requires one single member to report this failing to the authorities. A majority of the members is not needed for a complaint to be filed. Just one single member will do. Please also note that the ACA does not now require a formal complaint to start an investigation. As long as they have adequate information of a wrong doing they can investigate. The wrong doing could be an abuse of powers, corruption, misappropriation of funds or a criminal breach of trust. Please do not allow this to happen. Even if no wrong doing is uncovered, the investigation would do untold damage to the Church and the Kingdom of God.

The Board had held that our “teh tarik” sessions were illegal meetings. The fact that we could have requisitioned for an EGM was quoted as the basis why the meeting must be held in Church. An EGM could be requisitioned by the members if we had wanted to make some decisions on behalf of the Church. Our meetings did no such thing. We made no decision on behalf of the Church. We passed no resolution. We merely discussed some issues so that we can participate in the AGM better informed. Would it be illegal for me to meet with a few friends from the Church to talk about what is going on in Church? As a result of what had happened and is happening I am sure many such meetings are going on now.

On the topic of illegality, the way the vote on the accounts was taken was probably illegal. Our constitution in Article VIII of the By-Laws states that:

All elections in the Church shall be conducted by secret ballots.
Every other business including appointments or questions arising at a General, Board of Deacons, departmental or committee meeting shall be decided by a show of hands or any other means agreed thereat.

The AGM did not approve or agree that the vote can be taken by the members standing up. The vote was therefore illegal and flawed. More importantly this could mean that the vote taken to approve the RM150 million for the CCC was also illegal and flawed. The same method was applied without the agreement of the meeting. The Board may wish to seek legal advice on whether Board members may be held personally liable, jointly and severally, if they had acted on a flawed decision, a decision not properly approved by the members at general meeting. Perhaps the Board may want to rectify this at the next available opportunity. In any case the Board would need further approval from the members as the total project cost would now exceed the RM150 million.

A word of caution on the RM35 million project financing loan from the little information I gleaned at the AGM. The Board saw it fit not to seek the approval of the members at general meeting; perhaps relying on the fact that the Constitution appears to be silent on this matter. I sincerely hope it is not out of fear that the members will not approve. If there is no event of default then the Board may not have to face the consequences of this unnecessarily bold move. If the loan is secured, an event of default will give the Bank the right to realize their collateral. If the collateral is immovable properties (which will then be in jeopardy of being force-sold), the approval of the members at general meeting would be required. Since the members had not approved for the immovable properties to be charged, the members can take out an injunction to block the transfer because the provision of our Constitution had not been complied with. The Bank may then seek redress from members of the Board, jointly and severally, because the Bank had relied on the representation of the Board in granting the loan. The members would probably refuse to reimburse your legal expenses as the transaction was never approved by them in the first place. If the trustees had signed charge documents over to the bank, again without the members’ approval, the trustees may be held liable for breach of trust. Please get your lawyers to look at all the legal implications on the Church, its members, the Trustees and the Board. It is always better to do things properly. Of course, if the loan is not secured on immovable properties this issue would not arise.


I fully appreciate the hard work and sacrifices made by each and everyone on the Board in serving the Lord, the congregation and the Church. It can be thankless, frustrating and not at all easy. But you have been called. You have been chosen. And you must remain faithful to this calling. And God shall provide you with the wisdom, knowledge and courage that you would need. The Board is called to governance. As Christians, especially Christian leaders, you are accountable to the Lord for your calling. I pray that you will do so as unto the Lord.

Please reply to me in writing within a reasonable time, say 14 days, on my request for the setting up of the ICCG or Truth Committee. If the Board agrees to do so I can help draft the terms of reference for the Committee. If the Board rejects my request please let me know why. If I do not hear from you with 14 days, I will assume my request for the setting up of the ICCG or Truth Committee has been rejected by the Board.

Thanking you once again.

Yours in Christ,
Signed:
Wong Hong Meng