E.P church sued

Members of the group that sued the two churches in a pose during a recent conference to warn heads of EPCG from sharing the said properties

A Group calling itself the Defenders of the Faith within the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ghana (EPCG) has sued the leadership of the church and the Global Evangelical Church (GEC).

The suit filed at the High Court on August 19, 2015 by lawyer of the plaintiffs, Anthony Desewu of Desewu Law Consult, cited the Moderator, the Clerk, the Presbyter Executive of the EPCG as well as the Registered Trustees of the Global Evangelical Church, Accra as the defendants.

It follows a recent stern warning by the Group that any attempt by the leadership of EPCG to share properties of the church with its rival, the GEC, could lead to bloody fights between members of the two churches which have, for nearly three decades, been at deadlock with each other over doctrinal and constitutional differences.

The plaintiffs are praying the court that an order declaring any purported sharing and disposal of any of the properties of EPCG to the Global Evangelical Church at the instance of the Moderator, the Clerk of the General Assembly and the Presbyter Executive to be regarded as illegal, null and void.

They (plaintiffs) are seeking as well an order for the recovery of all properties belonging to the EPCG which have been unlawfully given by the Moderator, Right Rev. Dr Seth Agidi, the Clerk, the Presbyter Executive and their agents, to the GEC, particularly the chapels at Dzelukope, Keta, Anloga, Dabala, Akatsi, Teshie-Nungua and Obuasi.

Furthermore, they are praying the court for a perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, their (defendants’) agents from dealing with the properties of EPCG in any manner whatsoever leading to the ceding of any of the properties of EPCG to the Global Evangelical Church.

According to the statement of claim, the plaintiffs, including Presbyters Emmanuel Danku, Innocent Papa Gobah, among others, are members of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana and by the Constitution of the EPCG, are all members of the General Assembly of the church.

The statement of claim said the defendants are the Executive Officers of the General Assembly of the EPCG who are stationed at the National Headquarters at Ho in the Volta Region and by the Constitution of the EPCG, they themselves, cannot make binding decisions in the name of the EPCG and, or, the General Assembly of the EPCG.

It said the fourth defendants in the case are the legal representatives of the Global Evangelical Church which is a breakaway faction of the EPCG.

Properties

The properties in question include chapels, lands, schools, pastors’ residences and others spread across the country which were handed over to the E.P. Church by the Germans.

The Global Evangelical Church split from the EP Church in the 1980s over constitutional and doctrinal differences. The EP Church is Presbyterian by doctrine while the GEC has a Pentecostal form of worship.