Kingdom Church
The church based in London has been fined almost £8,000 after a
series of noisy 3am sermons aimed at battling 'witchcraft' woke up its
neighbours.
Kingdom Church in Camberwell holds weekly 'healing and miracle'
services aimed at training parishioners to be 'wise to the wiles of the
devil' in the early hours of the morning.
But the preaching which goes on during the events has brought
complaints from neighbours and a £7,740 'anti-social behaviour' fine.
The church was set up in London by a Bishop Climate Irungu, who
claims God delivered him from a life of 'alcohol and drug addiction,
street fights and gang life'.
The Bishop Climate Irungu carrying out a seesion of 'deliverance'
As well as meetings on Fridays and Sundays, it holds early Saturday
morning 'deliverance services' to help its congregation 'identify
demonic attacks'.
Its website states: 'It is a well-known time that witchcraft and negative elements begin to work in the early hours of the morning.
'Programming yourself to be alert and in prayer at this time
sets you on the path to being alert and wise to the wiles of the devil.
'While the witches are busy working their witchcraft you are getting the wisdom of God concerning their demonic operations.'
A video of the service on the church's website and YouTube claims to show a woman being healed of a 'demonic rash'.
But after anger among residents of the street over noise popular, Southwark council took church leaders to court.
The poster announcing the 3am service
The church was fined £7,740 fine at Camberwell Green Magistrates
last month, after it was found guilty of two charges under Section 80 of
the Environmental Protection Act 1980.
Southwark councillor Michael Situ said: 'We would have
preferred to settle this matter out of court, but unfortunately our
attempts to work with the church leaders were ignored.
'We hope the penalty helps to remind both the leaders, and the
wider community, anti-social behaviour of any kind will not be tolerated
and wrongdoers will be made to pay one way or another.'
Bishop Climate insists the church was there before the residents and it has made every effort to cut the noise.
He told Southwark News: 'It is a big fine and we will be
appealing against it. I do not deny that we made some noise – we did.
But we have spent nearly ten thousand pounds reducing the noise. And I
was out of the country so could not go to court.
'We are based is an industrial area. But there are new flats
and they complain. The flats were meant to be offices but they became
houses. People could hear it, especially in summer when they open their
windows.'
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