Church donations are biblical, Bishop says as he faults ACK, Catholic churches

Church and Clergy Association of Kenya chairman Hudson Ndeda said that when people give offerings to churches they give to God, therefore no one should criticize or judge them. [File, Standard]

Church and Clergy Association of Kenya chairman Hudson Ndeda has faulted the Catholic and ACK churches for their rejection of the presidents' donations to church terming it as corruption.

In the recent past, a section of the church and the presidency have been at loggerheads, particularly on the issue of donations that were publicly declared on the church altar, where the church leaders have been vocal on this issue of rejecting the donations.

In a statement, Ndeda highlighted that the church cannot achieve much of what it has without donations as it is essentially a non-profit organization, urging that the church has been benefiting from donations and gifts since the days of Jesus Christ.

"In Luke chapter 8 the bible records that Jesus Christ and his disciples received financial support from wealthy women during their time. It therefore follows that donations are imperative for the advancement of the work of the gospel," read the statement.

Ndeda said that he suspects that there is someone who is playing politics with the issue of politicians donating to churches, citing that for a president to go to church and announce publicly that he is donating to church, he must be appraised and invited.

"It is therefore not in good faith for the Catholic and ACK churches to come out guns blazing to publicly renounce the said donations," he added.

He said that when people give offerings to churches they give to God therefore no one should criticize or judge them.

He added that if they had information that the said donations were of illicit gain, they would have addressed the presidency formally and with godly reverence without eliciting political and public emotions.

"If we were to sieve every offering that comes to church, many would not be received. We don't know the source of income of all our members some may be corrupt as well or earning from questionable sources," read the statement.

Ndeda urged the church to be on the fore front against political gimmicks and theatrics on the altar of God and asked politicians to attend church services just like other believers, and if donations have to be given it should be done in a godly way.

"I call upon churches and leaders to the altar of God seeing that we are entering the political season come 2025, we are closer to 2027 going by the mindset of the politics in this country," read the stamen.