Grounds for removal of Bishop Albert Vun

Extracts of a paper on the Removal of Bishop now:- 4. Major faults identified 4.1 As acting Dean in All Saints Cathedral ASC, Bishop Albert Vun started to bring a team from St Patrick Church Tawau to replace the former serving team in ASC. ASC is the mother church of the Anglican Church of Sabah with 100 years of tradition. The Diocese of Sabah was established in 1962. 4.2 The ADOS is guided by a Constitution and I have yet to sight such Constitution. The ASC has its own constitution as updated and drawn up by the Rt Rev. Datuk Yong Ping Chung on 3 October, 1996. A copy of the Constitution of ASC CASC is attached. According to the CASC, the Bishop has the overriding power to veto whatever that is decided by ASC. So Bishop AVCF as Bishop and Dean as dual roles do find conflict to arise. When parishioners want to lodge any complaint of the Dean of ASC to the Bishop, nothing would happen as the same person hold both positions. Hence a range of abuses of power have been observed. 4.3 Bishop AVCF is seen to have also misapplied the clause VIII IC in the CASC by allowing any clergy to serve in the Parochial Church Council PCC where elections are held to elect 3 People Warden, Honorary Secretary, Honorary Treasurer and ten ordinary members. The Chairman of the PCC is the Dean while the Deputy Chairman is the Dean’s warden appointed by the Dean. When the clergy and office workers serve on the PCC, the elected ones could be outnumbered by the appointed ones by the Dean cum Bishop. It was reported that many decisions at the PCC was prior decided by the Chairman/Dean at any PCC meetings. So it was deemed to be one-man –show. 4.4 The Bishop as sole registered trustee has been dealing in many land and properties transactions with questionable handling of such deals such as land and properties were sold at low prices without proper procedures applied while purchases of assets were done at high prices. Such deals lack transparency although done at the level of the Bishop office with the guidance or lack of that by the Standing Committee. Such documents are not exhibited for the purpose to get support from all the parishioners. The financial accounts of the ADOS are not available to any church members. The financial accounts of the ASC also lack quality/quantity in information. Extracts of the comments of the land deal in Likas of 13.86 acres with suspicion of malpractice are attached. 4.5 The Kokol Retreat Centre KRC and its implementation costing some RM5 million has been questioned as to its justification, legality and the availability of the Occupation Certificate yet to be exhibited. KRC is subject to landslides giving rise to safety of the building. 4.6 Staff and human resources management has been under spotlight after some 13 senior priests had largely left offices abruptly possibly due to mishandling of the human relationship. Even a senior priest had brought his flock of up to 800 to form their own independent church in suburban Kota Kinabalu. 4.7 Closure of the ASC kindergarten without proper notice and suddenly causing much inconvenience to the teachers and the parents who had to look elsewhere for the children education mid way in the year. 4.8 Excessive wastage of church funds, and various extravagant expenditures not justified in the context of a church where massive funds come from the contributions of the members. 4.9 The decision to go ahead with the construction of the Celebration Centre in the ASC ground costing an initial outlay of RM30m without proper consultation with the members of the ASC. Initial funding/handling of this proposed project has raised many questions especially when adequate fund is not at hand to implement it. 4.10 The AGM 2011 and 2012 at ASC has been mishandled by the Chairman/Dean in many aspects after the ASC had incurred deficit of more than RM500,000 in both years. At AGM 2011, the Chairman snatched the microphone from the Honorary Treasurer when she wanted to present her report. The Chairman AVCF did not appear to chair the AGM 2012 where there were many deficiency in the minutes and reports as presented. Many questions and comments from the floor were not addressed by the illegal Chairman (not properly authorized by the Chairman) and the Deputy chairman was redundant. 4.11 At the AGM 2012 on 1st April 2012, there were two motions which had been voted by the congregation and members. Both resolutions were ignored by the Chairman/Bishop/Dean (3 in 1) especially the first resolution with two third majority to replace the Acting dean/Dean was overruled by the Bishop in his prerogative to do as he chooses as per CASC. The election process was subject to rigging as detected. 4.12 While efforts to resolve this crisis aka BISHOPGATE within the church environment as some interprete it that way, all such approaches appear to be futile as Bishop/Acting Dean/Dean/Chairman is seen to be non reconcilable and instead use the pulpit and the Sunday ASC weekly bulletins to counter attack parishioners and congregation as evident in the Sunday ASC weekly bulletins of 15, 22, and 29 April, 2012. (copies are attached here). 4.13 The overseas trips of the Bishop and the money given to him must be properly reported and income accounted for in the church accounts. Cases of CBT can be considered. 4.14 The hope of the Ecclasiatical Court within the APSEA is still not at the horizon despite several appeals from various quarters since this explosive blog emerged on 23 October, 2011. [check all these out in the blog]