A London preacher is continuing to urge his followers to buy a fake coronavirus cure consisting of oil and red yarn, despite his church being under investigation as a result.
The Charity Commission and Southwark Council both started probing Camberwell’s Kingdom Church in early April after Southwark News reported it was promoting so-called coronavirus “plague protection kits” for £91.
Customers were advised to cover themselves in the “divine plague protection oil” and wear the red yarn three times a day, by Bishop Climate Irungu Wiseman — who claims to be a prophet able to perform miracles.
After posing as a customer, the BBC today reported that the church, which has previously been fined £7,500 for annoying neighbours with loud 3am “demon-banishing” services, was continuing to sell the product as “divine cleansing oil”.
A Kingdom Church employee reportedly told the BBC that they had sold nearly 2,000 bottles, insisting: “We are helping the nation. We are convinced this cures coronavirus.”
It is one of a number of “healing” oils and “miracle” products promoted on the church’s social media page in the past 48 hours and sold on Bishop Climate’s website.
Shortly after the article’s publication, Prophet Climate Ministries — which appears to be part of Kingdom Church — redirected visitors from its website to a video rebuttal, recorded by Bishop Climate as he travelled first class on an LNER train and posted to Youtube.
A prompt message tells visitors to watch the video, claims the product has cured a woman of “all her symptoms” and then urges viewers to buy the product, with a link to a page where it is sold.
In the recording, the preacher strongly denies “misleading” people and claims to have more than 10 testimonies from those who had recovered “100 per cent” after using his product, which says he created with cedar wood and hyssop after reading about them in the Bible.
He called the “vendetta” against his purported cure “demonic” and said he was helping the government to save lives, which he felt driven to do as a prophet with healing powers.
The video includes an alleged testimony from a lady who introduces herself as Sharon, but whom a commenter refers to as “sister Jackie”, which is precluded by a statement saying: “These testimonies were sent freely by our partners.
“None of them were asked or forced to send it. Bishop Climate Ministries never forces anyone to buy our product.”
Bishop Climate frequently encourages his followers to donate to him, which he calls “sowing sacrificial seeds of faith”, often in order to overcome “demons”, “spirits” or “witchcraft” that he insists are plaguing them.
His latest blog post, of which there appear to be hundreds, says: “When I was praying for you I saw a demon standing by your bedside, that even while you were sleeping, it was judging you with failure, it was judging you with bad luck. That’s why we must do something now.”
“You must sow your seed of £44 according to Isaiah 4:4. Number 4 is the number of balance and this April is the fourth month of the year,” he later adds, clarifying it is “quicker and safer” to pay with card over the phone.
While donations were previously said to go towards the church’s expansion, the most recent post, dated 23 April, says every donation goes towards their efforts to deliver food and essentials to the elderly and vulnerable during the pandemic.
The church, which is a charitable entity, appears keen to highlight the distinction between itself and Prophet Climate Ministries.
However, the church’s Facebook page posts daily links to the blog, promoting “miracle salt”, “holy water” and a “miracle cloth” all within the past two days.
The top line of the address label on an image used to promote a bottle of “divine healing anointed oil” reads ”Bishop Climate Ministries and the Kingdom Church; Miracle House”, with the same Camberwell address below.
Bishop Climate’s blog post on 20 March now begins with a disclaimer stating the opinions on the website are not those of Kingdom Church. It is not clear whether or not this was included upon initial publication.
Southwark Council said it was aware of Bishop Climate’s video and the BBC report, and said its investigation is ongoing.
“It is wrong for anyone to exploit people’s fears at this time of high anxiety and we encourage people to report any issues like this to London Trading Standards,” said Councillor Victoria Mills, cabinet member for finance, performance and Brexit.
“This particular issue is already under investigation by our teams. There are many scams relating to Covid-19, and the council will be working hard to support consumers to be on guard for bogus test kits, cures and treatments and other financial scams.”
The Charity Commission also said it continues “to examine serious concerns about Kingdom Church GB.
“We have an ongoing regulatory compliance case to assess these concerns, including about potential conflicts of interest, and the charity’s involvement in the sale of false COVID-19 protection devices,” a spokesperson said.
“We are liaising as appropriate with other agencies. Charity can and should lead the way in taking public expectations seriously and charity leaders should demonstrate high standards of conduct and behaviour.”
