Cape Town - The Good Hope Christian Centre, which was earlier criticised by the Western Cape High Court for its lack of Christian ethos in its handling of an incident where one of its volunteers fell in the church, has since said it had in fact acted with kindness.
Lorraine Marais, 79, of Crawford, was injured when she fell in the church in Ottery while she was ushering, carrying collection buckets.
Marais said when she contacted the church after receiving medical treatment and asked if it could organise a collection to help her with medical expenses, she was told: “This is a business, not a charity.”
Marais took legal action against the church, claiming it had been negligent as it had failed to ensure the stairs on which she fell were safe. There was no handrail, the stairs did not have enough traction, they were not clearly visible, and there was insufficient lighting. The incident occurred at Easter in 2009.
While Marais lost her case, Acting Judge Keith Enger criticised the church for not handling the matter with kindness. The church has since said it had in fact acted with kindness in several ways following Marais’s fall.
Among them was that they had sent pastors to her house to pray for her, her X-rays were paid for by the church and they had never made an announcement to the congregation that congregants not speak to her. The church also refutes that she was ever told that “This is a business, not a charity.”
“Mrs Marais may have a perception that we failed to meet her expectations as a church and if that is so, we are sorry,” it said.
Cape Times