The diploma amends the Regulation of the Law on Freedom of Religion and Worship that designated the notary public as the competent entity to make this registration.
In the new wording, the registration of religious confession will now be performed by the registry office. The ministerial department responsible for the Justice and Human Rights sector then promotes the publication of the respective statutes in the Diário da República.
On Wednesday, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) Angola filed a new criminal complaint against Angolan bishops and pastors, after the 4th Notary's Office of Luanda attested as false the minutes that dismissed the board.
According to the Angolan Pastor Alberto Segunda, the UCKG became aware of a so-called extraordinary general assembly of the church, in which it was decided to dismiss and dissolve the real members of the leadership of the UCKG.
"Last July 30th, the UCKG Angola learned that these supposed minutes were published in the Official Gazette, Series III, no. 81, of July 24th, 2020," said the church's spokesman, Alberto Segunda.
In view of this, the UCKG Angola contacted the 4th Notary Office of Luanda to clarify the situation, having obtained as a response that the aforementioned minutes published in the Official Gazette were not prepared by that institution, "assuming, from the outset, that it was a notarial act forged and, in sequence, completely false".
For the UCKG Angola, this clarification and revelation are "of the utmost importance" and attest to "the seriousness of criminal acts committed by members of the Reform Commission", so the church presented, on Friday, a new criminal complaint against the signatories of the minutes.
The religious organisation reiterated at the time that they are legitimate members of its governing bodies, elected at the general assembly of December 2019, Bishop António da Silva, president, Bishop António Ferraz, vice-president, Pastor Marcos de Mello, general secretary, Kelly Marques, treasurer, and Vowels I and II, Pastor Joaquim Sandrenho and Renata da Silva, respectively.
Alberto Segunda mentioned that since November last year the UCKG has been the target of a group of dissidents and ex-pastors, who call themselves the "Reform Commission, and have manifested themselves in several acts of physical and psychological violence, disseminated on social networks and in the media that support them, with messages of incitement to violence, hatred, racial intolerance and xenophobia".
Asked about the accusations of racism, foreign currency evasion and forced vasectomy by the Angolan bishops and pastors, the vice-president of the UCKG Angola, António Ferraz, denied them, stating that Angolans and Brazilians "live in perfect communion".
