Churches asked to partner government to enhance development

The First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, has asked the church to continue to partner government to enhance the development and growth of the nation.

She said the church had been a strong partner especially in the areas of health and education, adding: "Many of us are the product of the morals and virtues instilled in us by the church."

Mrs Akufo-Addo said this in a speech read on her behalf at the Third Episcopal Conference of African Bishops, on the theme: "Positioning Orthodox Anglican Communion for Greatness".

She said people currently lived in troubling times, where morality, values and integrity were gradually becoming scarce commodities and, therefore, tasked the church to rise up to its responsibilities.

“The time has come for the church to partner more with the Government and other stakeholders to help shape Ghana in particular and Africa in general,” she said.

She called on the leaders of the church to empower women and children, focus on reducing maternal mortality and improve upon the health of children as well as provide avenues to increase the economic contributions of women.

The First Lady said as Christian women it was their responsibility to educate themselves and encourage one another as they contributed their quota to the national development agenda.

Mrs Akufo-Addo said the responsibility of leadership was to demonstrate love to all, irrespective of their political, ethnic, social or religious backgrounds, and called on Anglican Church to lead a national crusade of love, forgiveness, togetherness, tolerance and hard work.

She later donated 5,000 Ghana cedis towards the Conference.

Most Reverend Christopher Izegbua Umane, the Archbishop of the Orthodox Anglican Church of Nigeria and President of the Episcopal Conference of African Bishops, noted with concern that many members of the Orthodox Church were not able to make sacrifices as Jesus Christ did more than 2000 years ago.

He called on Christians to contribute to the growth of the church and the nation and improve on their ways of doing things.

He urged the leaders to eschew laziness and rise up to the challenge by organising vigils, evangelistic programmes, retreats and crusades to win more souls for Christ.

Most Rev. Umane called for unity, love and tranquility among the leadership of the Church, adding: "We come together to form one body of Christ so there should be peace among men of God, for that is what Christ stood for".

The Primate of the Orthodox Anglican Communion World Wide, Most Rev. Thomas Edward Gordon, said the Orthodox Church would continue to respect the ancient land marks and proclaim Christ not just in word but in sacraments.

Mr Sani Mohammed, in a solidarity message from the Zongo Chief, said Islam and Christianity were all from the Abrahamic route and shared so many things in common.

He prayed for continuous cordial relationship between Muslim and Christian communities to enhance peace and development.