12/01/2008 19:01 - (SA)
Rhema boss Ray McCauley may commit same 'sin' again
Cecil Motsepe
A SECOND divorce seems imminent for Rhema Bible Church leader Pastor Ray McCauley (57).
The widely publicised marriage between McCauley and his wife Zelda seems to have hit rock bottom and the couple have separated.
Sources say Zelda has instructed her lawyer, Kevin Hacker, to institute divorce proceedings against the wide-chested pastor.
Hacker and McCauley’s lawyer, Billy Gundelfinger, were this week locked in meetings to map a way forward.
Rhema Church and McCauley’s spokesperson Vusi Mona is not giving away much.
“I can confirm that Pastor McCauley and his wife are having marital problems and have temporarily separated.
“We must emphasise that Pastor McCauley and the Rhema Bible Church do not believe in divorce. To this end there are attempts to work on a reconciliation and McCauley is a willing party to those attempts,” says Mona.
In 2000, when he was going through a divorce from his first wife, McCauley said he did not believe in divorce and called it a sin.
Both lawyers refuse to divulge details of the divorce but Gundelfinger says the charismatic church leader wants to “pursue counselling in order to effect reconciliation”.
Though McCauley has not yet been served with a summons it is understood that his estranged wife remains adamant about the divorce.
One of the problems seems to be Zelda’s relationship with the church’s elders.
Sources say the elders have been briefed about the problem and are reportedly in favour of McCauley going back to his first wife, should the divorce go ahead.
McCauley was divorced by his first wife, Lyndie, in 2000. Within a couple of months he married Zelda. Lyndie is now living in Florida, US.
According to controversial pastor Dr Agrippa Khathide of the Apostolic Faith Mission of SA, rumours of the divorce have been doing the rounds in religious circles and “everyone had been hoping it was not true”.
“Divorce for anyone is unfortunate because it is a violation of that one-flesh reality that God wanted. You cannot share a life with someone for some time and remain unscathed when you divorce,” says Kathide, who uses sexually explicit sermons to save troubled marriages.
“A church is a custodian of good values and to see its leaders divorcing might bring pessimism among members.”
Khathide, who describes the affair as an attack on marriage, believes it would be preferable for McCauley to go back to his first wife should the divorce go ahead.
“There are no guarantees. Should he marry another woman it might become an unending circle of marriage and divorce. If he goes back to his first wife it will bring healing to many marriages,” says Khathide, the author of Bone of my Bones, a book tackling marriage problems.
The Church is expected to announce the pastor’s separation from his wife to Rhema’s approximately 40 000 worshippers this morning.
Subscribe to the print edition of City Press
|
