PCEA to elect new moderator as Githii’s term ends

By Wahome Thuku

Outgoing Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) Moderator David Githii will be replaced today (Tuesday).

A new moderator would be installed during the 19th PCEA General Assembly, which begins this morning at St Andrews Church in Nairobi.

Also to be elected is a new secretary-general and other national leaders.

More 2,000 church ministers and lay leaders from all parts of the country will attend the General Assembly that is held every three years.

The assembly will also discuss various issues affecting the Church and country, among them famine and the prevailing political crisis.

Mixed legacy

A moderator is normally elected for a renewable term of three years.

Reverend Githii, who was first elected in April 2003, leaves behind a legacy of both reform and controversy in the Church. He has endeavoured to give the church an identity independent of the Scottish missionaries who set it up in last century.

The former teacher-turned theologian, Githii would be remembered for his vigorous campaign against what he termed as intrusion by Satanism into the church and in the country’s leadership.

In 2004, he waged a campaign to remove what he regarded as satanic symbols in some PCEA sanctuaries.

The campaign, supported by some of former moderators and other clergy led to the removal of historical artefacts from walls, metal grills, doors and windows of St Andrew, Thogoto churches in Kikuyu, Kiambu, Tumutumu and Chogoria in Meru.