Calvary calm on convention centre crisis

PUBLIC RELATIONS   BRAND IMAGE   CRISIS

• Calvary Church deals with PR crisis passively
• Could be the right strategy
  
• Has written to the Star to set record straight
  

Malaysia - One of Malaysia's most influential if not biggest churches, Calvary will not react strongly to recent allegations in the press about mismanagement of funds - a strategy at least one PR expert feels could work.

"Keeping quiet is a wise approach since the focus should be completely on the establishment's members [donors/contributors], solely to whom Calvary is accountable instead of the general public," Karthi Palanisamy, managing director of Crush Communications said.

Calvary believes situations arising within the church should be handled internally as opposed to having dirty laundry aired publicly.

Steven Kum, associate pastor of Calvary tells A+M this is the right strategy to pursue in order to restore the brand's image.

"Our people are most important and though this media bickering is saddening, we will continue to fulfill our calling which is to reach out to our community and do our best to serve where there is genuine need," he said.

The spat began over a year ago and turned into controversy when the media picked up on a group of church members, who call themselves the Truth, Transparency and Good Governance Group (TTG), demanding accountability and transparency over the use of church funds.

It seems the main cause of contention, and drop in congregation numbers, is the management of construction costs of the futuristic looking Calvary Convention Centre (CCC).

"Calvary has not held back money in terms of CCC's building expenses. Also, Calvaryland, our large welfare home ministers to over 20 inmates, not 4," Kum said.

Peter Ong, a fellow associate pastor confirmed the Calvary Convention Center (CCC) project has not been abandoned, instead has been temporarily put on hold.

Although Crush's Palanisamy supports Calvary's passive or at least non-aggressive approach to dealing with the crisis, he also thinks that calling a press conference to dispute all allegations and placing audited accounts online would be constructive.

As part of its plan to repair its brand image, Calvary has written a letter to the Star to set the record straight on what the church considers the facts of the story.

It has no plans to pursue any legal action.

"The proof of the pudding is in the eating," Calvary's Kum said. 

Calvary Church under the leadership of Rev. Datuk Prince Guneratnam has a congregation of 3000 to 3500 (comprising 4 locations) and was established in 1968.

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