A Sermon from a Parliamentary Chair

A GNA Colour by Samuel Osei-Frempong

Accra, Jan.18, GNA - One rule that visitors to the Chamber of Parliament must observe is: "You can be seen but must not be heard" but a plumb daring Lady defied it on Tuesday.


After the Speaker had entered the Chamber and all was calm, a strong female voice poured ecclesiastical words from the public gallery admonishing members to straighten their ways. Her sermon did not last long before the ushers carrying out a secular duty hauled her out.


But she had begun a day in which matters of the spirit would over shadow the mundane.


So she found an ally in the Member for Ablekuma South, Ms Theresa A. Tagoe who preached feminism and neo-theological theories and assumptions.


She had used a statement calling for more seats for women as a pulpit for her sermon.

"Adam was a lazy man because when he was in the Garden he did not take good care of the beautiful things around him." When asked to explain what she meant by laziness, she said Adam slept a lot.


"But when Eve came around, he did not sleep for three days as he preferred to stay awake because of the woman." Several interventions from Members did not stop this outspoken woman from postulating.


Some went along with her in their bid to prove her wrong while others grinned and cheered.


"When Jesus was crucified, all the men ran away and when he resurrected he appeared to women because all the men were asleep." It had always been the convention in Christendom that when a Preacher speaks from the pulpit no one talks back but this time around a Member spoke back: "All the woes of the world came from women." Mr Begyina Sakyi-Hughes, the new Speaker, looked on meekly, dreading going against religious injunctions.


Tuesday marked the last day of the first meeting of the new Parliament. There is an admonition to all believers that "in the last days many shall come in my name" even in such places like Parliament.