KIGALI July 21 (Reuters) - The head of the Rwandan Roman Catholic Church testified to a village court on Thursday about attending meetings survivors say were held to plan the massacre of thousands during the 1994 genocide.

Archbishop Thadde Ntihinyurwa, a Hutu, was summoned after dozens of genocide survivors accused him of taking part in several meetings they said were held to orchestrate the slaughter of ethnic Tutsis in the southern province of Cyagungu.

Members of the Roman Catholic Church have long been accused of playing a significant role in the 1994 genocide in which extremists from the Hutu majority butchered 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 100 days.

Ntihinyurwa is the most senior church leader to appear before gacaca, village courts set up to try people suspected of involvement in the genocide.

At the hearing in Nyamasheke district where an estimated 46,000 people were hacked to death, the archbishop admitted taking part in the gatherings, but denied they had been held to organize the genocide.

"I attended these meetings in my capacity as a bishop of this province but I can assure you that the meetings were purely planning for the restoration of peace to this area," Ntihinyurwa told the court where up to 3,000 locals had gathered.

Survivors also accused him of ordering people who had sought refuge in a parish church to leave and take shelter at a soccer stadium where more than 600 people were killed by former government soldiers and Hutu militiamen days later.

Ntihinyurwa, a bishop of Cyagungu province at the time of the killings has previously denied the allegations in the media saying he had instead tried to save the Tutsis.

Focusing on confession and apology, gacaca are intended to pave the way for national reconciliation. Under gacaca, those who confess and plead guilty will have their sentences reduced.

A Belgian court convicted two Roman Catholic nuns in 2001 for aiding a mass murder of Tutsis. A Roman Catholic priest is on trial before Tanzania-based U.N. tribunal, accused of ordering the slaughter of 2,000 people who sought refuge in his church.