ORANGE FARM, South Africa -- Dressed in a red robe and a gold-trimmed bishop's miter, the clergyman pours whiskey into his cupped hand and anoints the forehead of the man sitting before him.
"You are hereby invested as a minister. ... This is a double tot," he says of the remaining whiskey in the chalice. He hands it to the new minister, who downs it.
"Hallelujah!" shout the congregation members who break out in singing and dancing, swigging from bottles of beer.
Welcome to Gabola Church, which celebrates the drinking of alcohol. The South African church was started eight months ago and has found an enthusiastic following.
"We are a church for those who have been rejected by other churches because they drink alcohol," Gabola's founder and self-declared pope, Tsietsi Makiti, said. "Gabola Church is established to redeem the people who are rejected, who are regarded as sinners. We drink for deliverance. We are drinking for the Holy Ghost to come into us."
Others in South Africa are infuriated by Gabola, saying it is not a church at all.
"Gabola has nothing to do with the word of God. Those are not church services," said Archbishop Modiri Patrick Shole, director of the South African Union Council of Independent Churches. "They are using the Bible to promote taverns and drinking liquor. It is blasphemous. It is heresy and totally against the doctrines." He said his organization intends to see that authorities close Gabola for breaking municipal regulations that say churches should not be near bars.
Gabola is not a member of the mainstream South African Council of Churches, which said it has no comment about it. Gabola is not affiliated with any other denominations.
About 80 percent of South Africa's 56 million people profess to be Christian. In addition to Catholic and Protestant denominations, there are small independent ones with unusual practices like handling snakes. One pastor recently was found guilty of assault for spraying Doom, a popular insecticide, into worshippers' faces, which was supposed to chase away evil spirits.
A Section on 04/22/2018