Let's work with Gov't to bring peace to the North - Moderator

Kumasi, Jan. 5, GNA - Right Reverend Dr Yaw Frimpong-Manso, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG), has called on churches to collaborate with government to end the frequent ethnic clashes in the Northern parts of the country. He said one way to achieve this would be for the churches to intensify evangelism to reach people with Christian values such as love, forgiveness and peaceful co-existence.

Addressing the annual National Ministers' Conference in Kumasi on Tuesday, Rt. Rev. Dr Frimpong-Manso said unless the church was able to reach the North effectively, Government's efforts at bringing peace and development there would be in vain.

The four-day conference is on the theme: "Repositioning the church for growth".

Rt. Rev. Dr Frimpong-Manso cited the protracted ethnic conflict in Bawku and pointed out that what was happening in the area showed that the church had failed to reach the people with the message of love as proclaimed by Christ.

"What is happening in Bawku indicates that the church has no foothold in the North. The gospel has not permeated there as anticipated. The time has come as a church to develop a "South-North partnership project" for the development of strong Christianity in Northern Ghana and in the Northern part of the Volta Presbytery", he emphasized.

The Moderator bemoaned the dwindling membership of the church in Ghana and attributed this to lack of zeal for evangelization and limited understanding of its true identity as a reformed church.

"The church is plagued with inertia in evangelism, deteriorating structures, indiscipline, bad records keeping on our membership and other valuable documents.

"It is regrettable to realize that although we are advanced in years as a church most of our members are lacking even in their understanding of the elementary doctrines about Christ and about our church practices. It is evident from our statistics that our population as a church is very low", he added.

Rt. Rev. Dr Frimpong-Manso called on the Ministers of the Presbyterian Church to reposition themselves and rise up to build the broken walls of the church through effective evangelism.

Rev. Dr J.O.Y Mante, Chairperson of the Conference, said the church needed to take pragmatic strategies to reform some aspects of its traditions and practices.

He said the church would only grow if the leaders wanted it to grow. "If we do not desire growth it will not happen. Church growth will only happen if we the leaders of the church seriously desire it and if we really desire it, then, we have to reposition the church for it. "This means that our theology should change and be church-growth driven, our probationers' studies will have to be refocused and the liturgy in church will have to change."

Most Rev. Thomas Kwaku Mensah, Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of Kumasi, in a fraternal message, charged the clergy to lead the crusade for the common good of society and stop the creeping selfishness among Ghanaians. He said evangelism would be incomplete if it did not take into consideration the needs of those, who lacked basic necessities of life. Right Rev. Dr Yinka Sarfo, Anglican Bishop of Kumasi, urged Christians to be concerned about the environment, especially, issues of climate change and globalization. 5 Jan. 09