Church Registration

The Pastor/Elder/Leader
NECF Member Churches
Malaysia

Dear Pastor/Elder/Leader,

Warm Christian greetings.

In response to the newspaper report last week of a pastor running an unlawful society (see below for the full article), we wish to advise our members the following:

Churches which are registered as a society can face deregistration when members lodge official complaints against them on violation of certain by-laws. When churches have been deregistered and continue to function using the same name and address, the police has the right to intervene and charge them accordingly.

As mentioned previously by us, the church needs not to be registered under the Registrar of Society and should function under the Freedom of Religion guaranteed by the Federal Constitution. See page 5 of our May/June 2004 Berita NECF for further details. (http://www.necf.org.my/view_file.cfm?fileid=36)

However, if the church is already registered as a society, we advise that extra care should be given to fulfil the bylaws of the constitution so that disgruntled members cannot fault the church on technical grounds.

Churches which are not registered should not be unduly worried about their legal status as this court case only affects those churches in the above category. However, there are other issues that you need to be aware of.

Our Secretary-General, Rev Wong Kim Kong who is on sabbatical at the moment, will address this issue in more details at the BGM on May 20. In view of the seriousness of the matter, you are strongly encouraged to attend that briefing. Kindly refer to the attached for the letter which has already been sent to you.

Yours in Christ,



Patrick Cheng
Executive Secretary
(Leadership Development)
c.c. Secretary-General
© 1995-2005 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd (Co No 10894-D)


The Star Online > Courts
Friday April 7, 2006
Pastor charged with running illegal society
By CHRISTINA KOH
IPOH: A church pastor was charged in a magistrate’s court here with running an unlawful society and getting funds for his Lim Garden church without permission.
However, Menon Manasa A.J. George, 41, declined to give his plea each time a court interpreter read out the charges in Tamil.
The court had to stand down twice after Menon pleaded for time, saying his lawyers, who were driving in from Kuala Lumpur, had yet to arrive.
He was charged with running Pertubuhan Persaudaraan Kristian Thaveethin Kudaram (Tabernacle of David) at Jalan Ng Weng Hup, Lim Garden, from Jan 28 to Feb 28, and with illegally procuring funds for the church at the same time and place.
When Menon persisted in waiting for his counsel, magistrate Teoh Chin Chong fixed Sept 6 for hearing and imposed bail of RM6,000 for both charges.
The courtroom was packed with the pastor’s followers and supporters who had to be silenced by court policemen when they murmured, “Yes, yes, yes,” after Teoh fixed the hearing date.
As early as 8am, some 200 of the followers staged a protest outside the lower courts.
The crowd, who held placards that read “Please release our apostle” and “Our pastor is being victimised,” dispersed after Ipoh district police chief Asst Comm Che Sab Hanafiah had a word with assistant pastor John Sentosan.
When lawyers M. Manoharan, A. Sivanesan, R. Kengadharan and R. Prabhakaran finally arrived around noon, Manoharan submitted before Teoh that the charges were unconstitutional.
“We ask that the court fix bail at RM1 or no bail at all,” he said, adding that Menon had a right to his lawyers and had not been able to enter his plea.
However, Teoh said the court had already fixed bail and maintained the hearing date of Sept 6.
Last year, the pastor claimed trial in another magistrate’s court here to threatening a housewife and her husband with death if she failed to withdraw a police report alleging that he raped her.
Menon posted bail at the end of the day.
Asst Superintendent Abd Shukor Mohd Kassim, from the Registrar of Societies in Putrajaya, prosecuted.
© 1995-2005 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd (Co No 10894-D)