On March 25 of this 12 months, a gaggle of Pakistani Presbyterian church leaders gathered in one in every of their homes. There, the 20 or so people decided to bring their factions together after years of contentious division. Later, they gathered for tea and seviyan, a sweet vermicelli dessert cooked in sugar and milk or oil, at Gujranwala Theological Seminary.
There were no contracts or legal documents to mark this momentous decision. “We just talked and trusted one another,” said Reuben Qamar, the leader, or moderator, of 1 faction.
The Presbyterian Church of Pakistan (PCP) has an extended history within the country, where Christians comprise lower than 2 percent of the population. The Presbyterian mission was founded within the 1860s, and its missionaries led mass conversion movements and arrange schools and hospitals within the region. In 1961, it was declared an autonomous body and native leadership began stewarding it.
This was when the divisions began: first between the ’60s and ’70s, then within the ’90s, and more recently in 2018 and 2021, says Qamar, noting that the splits mainly occurred not due to doctrinal differences but due to power and corruption.
One major conflict arose when there was a dispute on whether a moderator could extend their term from three to 5 years. Some supported this modification, while others didn’t.
By the tip of 2023, the church was split into three factions: One led by Qamar, and two others by moderators Arif Siraj and Javed Gill, respectively. Each claimed to be the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan.
The root of the issue was discipline, says Majeed Abel, the chief secretary in Siraj’s former faction. Whenever conflicts arose, people took “refuge” in splitting and making a “parallel church” with presbyteries that sometimes consisted only of 1 member, he said.
These divisions contributed to “the weakening of the church,” and the denomination’s nearly 300 churches were left in turmoil, Qamar also said.
There were disputes within the congregations, where people demanded that their pastor be installed and one other terminated. Some of those disagreements become court cases, with pastors fighting to prove that they were the legally recognized leader of a church.
This 12 months’s pledge for unity within the PCP arose out of the Presbyterian leaders’ shared desire to fix broken bonds. But unity—and what that appears like practically—has meant various things to different people.
For some leaders, returning to the PCP’s original mission—to perform the Great Commission—was a giant motivating consider pursuing unity.
“The real mission of the church [was] being ignored. … We [were] entering into the courts against one another,” said Qamar.
What convicted him to reconcile with the opposite factions’ leaders was the passage in John 17:20–23 where Jesus says, “I pray also for many who will consider in me through their message, that every one of them could also be one, Father, just as you’re in me and I’m in you.”
“[Our] purpose is to share the gospel, to turn out to be the witness of Christ,” said Qamar. “As a church, we’ve to share the love of God with this world, and we are able to achieve these goals only with unity.”
Some leaders also felt a powerful desire to revive the PCP’s good standing nationally and internationally. “The divide brought a nasty status to the church, with the leadership being seen as power hungry,” lamented faction leader Gill.
For Gill, being one body in Christ looks like following the Presbyterian church’s structure, which states there must be a “united assembly” under one leader as “we’re ordered to have one shepherd and one flock.”
“Such divisions weaken the body of Christ, especially in Pakistan, where we already live under unfavorable conditions,” said Azhar Mushtaq, Pakistan Bible Society’s general secretary.
“The conflict affected our interaction with church leadership, making it difficult to discover the real leaders.”
At present, the leaders of different factions meet every month and are planning to go to churches across the country together to advocate for unity. They are also hoping to carry a general assembly by September, where leaders will step down from their positions and let the home appoint a single moderator over the complete Presbyterian church body.
“Despite some bitter experiences, the complete leadership is now committed to forgiveness,” Gill said. The Bible verses that led him to pursue unity with the opposite factions was 1 Corinthians 1:12–13, where some say “I follow Paul,” and others say “I follow Apollos” or “I follow Cephas.” Is Christ divided?
Reconciliation is a slow work in progress, particularly on the local church level, say lots of the leaders CT interviewed.
And there are some who oppose this move because they see one another as enemies, Qamar said.
“The presbyteries that were split … should be reconciled as well,” Abel said. While he shouldn’t be involved in ongoing reconciliation efforts, he’s “comfortable to reconcile” with the opposite groups.
“During the peace meeting, we’ve unanimously agreed to send a reconciliation commission to those presbyteries, but nobody appears to be excited about that.”
PCP pastors like Sheraz Sharif Alam and Romella Robinson echoed their leaders’ concerns. The couple, who serve in Gakhar, Gujranwala—a two-hour automotive ride north of Lahore—have firsthand experience of how the PCP’s long-lasting divisions have impacted local ministry.
The PCP’s financial woes began in 2018. One faction controlled all of the bank accounts and used up all of the investments and money for litigation purposes and for securing favors from pastors, Qamar shared. Partners resembling the US-based Outreach Foundation, which helps churches around the globe grow their capability and reach, stopped their funding due to corruption and the dearth of an accountability system. Major projects in community development and mission work are currently halted.
Pastors like Alam and Robinson don’t receive a salary. They depend on tithes and thanksgiving offerings like vegetables from their congregation to survive. The financial crunch implies that some pastors must turn to other types of work to support their families. And the PCP’s leaders haven’t said or done anything to vary the present situation, they said.
“Right now, we’re principally reconciled, but we’re individually working,” said Alam, who also serves as general secretary in Qamar’s former faction. The individuals who will likely attend the upcoming general assembly are chosen from a 2017 list of delegates, which doesn’t include those that have turn out to be pastors within the last seven years, Alam added.
Greater transparency about efforts toward reconciliation among the many factions could be useful, said Robinson. “Leaders must delegate their understanding and wisdom to the approaching generation in order that they’ll give you the chance to turn out to be good leaders in the long run,” she said.
Ongoing persecution against Christians in Pakistan may generate a deeper desire to set differences aside.
For the past two years, the country has ranked seventh on Open Doors’ World Watch List of the highest 50 countries where it’s hardest to be a Christian. In 2020 and 2021, it was in the highest five.
Last 12 months, mobs in Jaranwala plundered, vandalized, and burned down 26 churches. In May, 72-year-old Christian Lazar Masih was attacked and killed by a mob in Sargodha for allegedly committing blasphemy. In July, young believer Ehsan Shan was sentenced to death for purportedly circulating blasphemous content on TikTok.
After Masih and his family were brutally attacked, PCP leaders and members from the three factions traveled to Sargodha. The group, including Abel, Qamar, and Siraj, met Masih’s brother, also a Presbyterian. They visited the place where the attack had occurred. They spoke with social activists and other people from the local peace committee, a few of whom were Muslim, and demanded that the individuals who attacked Masih must be delivered to the courts. They campaigned for justice to be served with Christian politicians who were present, like members of the provincial assembly Ejaz Alam Augustine and Sonia Ashir.
Representatives from civic society and the federal government were “very comfortable to see us united and together in such an event,” Qamar said.
“This is the work of God, and I trust in God that the Holy Spirit will work within the church.”
Additional reporting by Asif Aqeel
