A protracted leadership dispute in the Church of Pakistan’s Diocese of Lahore triggered protests and heightened security on Jan. 25 after a court upheld an earlier ruling that declared the 2023 election of its bishop unlawful.
Police were deployed in large numbers at the Cathedral Church of the Resurrection on Sunday at the request of diocesan authorities, as parishioners arrived for worship amid fears of renewed demonstrations.
The security measures followed protests on Jan. 22 and 23 by pastors and members of the neighboring Diocese of Raiwind, who accused Bishop Nadeem Kamran of being a “fake bishop” and a “land grabber.”
The Raiwind diocese was carved out of Lahore in 1980. Its members claim ownership of certain properties they say were intended to be shared and oppose Lahore’s continued control over them.
Protesters also targeted two retired bishops who ordained Kamran, objecting to his consecration outside the Church of Pakistan’s established procedures.
Under church rules, the synod selects bishops for all eight dioceses of the Church of Pakistan, a Protestant union of Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists and Lutherans.
The Lahore diocese bypassed the synod when it elected and ordained Kamran as bishop in January 2023, after declaring itself autonomous.
The latest round of protests was prompted by a Jan. 20 ruling of the Lahore High Court, which upheld a previous order declaring Kamran’s election invalid.
A two-member bench led by Justice Ahmad Nadeem Arshad said fresh elections must be held in accordance with the Church of Pakistan’s registered constitution.
Kamran declined to comment on the dispute. Church officials, however, said the standoff has exposed deeper tensions between diocesan autonomy and the authority of the Church of Pakistan Synod, the denomination’s supreme decision-making body.
A senior church official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the conflict as “essentially a struggle over property.”
At the center of the dispute is control of the Lahore Diocesan Trust Association (LDTA), which manages more than 25,000 church properties transferred from missionary bodies in 1956.
According to a church official, the Raiwind diocese is seeking power of attorney over the LDTA, which oversees assets worth billions of rupees.
The Church of Pakistan follows a bicameral system of governance. Parish representatives form diocesan councils, while each diocese sends three members to the synod, the upper house. Bishops are elected through joint voting by the synod and the diocesan executive, the lower house.
Church leaders and ecumenical partners have expressed concern over the public nature of the dispute. Zaman Alviza Sultan, chaplain to the Bishop of Lahore, wrote on Facebook that unity cannot be achieved through “courtroom battles, slogans, or protests outside the 139-year-old Cathedral.”
“Sadly, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has become a week of Christian division, reflecting on our entire witness,” he wrote.
Father Imtiaz Nishan, assistant parish priest at St. John’s Catholic Church in Lahore, who joined an ecumenical prayer service at the cathedral hours before the Jan. 22 protest, urged the Church of Pakistan to develop “a clear strategy to prevent infighting and public humiliation.”
Police later summoned representatives of both dioceses and instructed them to keep any protests peaceful, officials said.