Presby Church closed down indefinitely as angry members protest against 'recalcitrant' pastor

The Domeabra Trinity Congregation under the Asante Akyem Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana has been closed down indefinitely by some aggrieved members of the church.

About 250 out of the over 560 adult members of the congregation who came for the Sunday’s church service [first major service in 2021] were rather turned away by event while a few others also decided to still pray and worship in the compound.

The closure of the church which took place on Sunday morning 3rd January 2021, follows the failure by the leadership of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana to remove the resident pastor, Rev. Ebenezer Nana Mensah Kumah.

They insisted that the church building would remain tightly closed until Rev. Ebenezer Nana Mensah Kumah is sent away by their leadership.

The members of the church earlier petitioned the top leadership of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana against the Minister-in-charge, Rev. Ebenezer Nana Mensah Kumah over his autocratic and corruptible leadership.

As a result, a six (6) member Presbytery Fact-Finding Committee, constituted by the Chairperson of the Presbytery Standing Committee, Rev. Dr. Anokye Nkansah was set up to investigate the dispute between the members and Rev. Kumah.

The Committee according to the members had since come out with their findings and recommendations which confirmed almost all the issues raised against Rev. Kumah to be true and also recommended for his removal.

The members, however, expressed disappointment in the Chairman of the Presbytery Standing Committee, Rev. Dr. Anokye Nkansa for allegedly trying to push the report of a six (6) member fact-finding committee under a thick dark carpet.

According to the aggrieved members, the Chairman who guaranteed to assume pastoral responsibility after the fact-finding committee asked Rev. Kumah to step aside had rather failed to implement the recommendations in the report.

“Our Presbytery Chairman, Rev. Dr. Nkansah when confronted on why he was not acting on the recommendations of the report asked our Session members whether what Rev. Kumah has done is more grievous than murder”.

The Domeabra Trinity Congregation in the report of which a copy is available to this reporter raised several allegations of misconduct and financial misappropriation against their pastor.

According to the members, Rev. Kumah does not regard members of the Session and unilaterally collected an amount of GH¢ 60,000.00 from Mr. and Mrs. Boateng to purchase a vehicle without the consent of the Session members.

They said that Rev Kumah connived with the Treasurer of the Church and took church money to develop a store for his wife without the knowledge of the Session members.

They accused him of always raining curses on members anytime he picked a quarrel with them, or anytime a member confronted him over his misconducts.

“The Minister’s wife normally picks quarrels with the workers of the Salem Water Project which attracts crowd from outside to separate them...The latest one was on 14th November 2020 that led to the closure of the church by some members...This attracted a lot of town folks to the mission house to separate the fight”.

It indicated that the Minister on his own accord sacked the only security man the church has employed without paying him upon which the man is threatening to sue the church. The absence of the security man the report further indicated had resulted in the missing of several items including desktop computers and flat-screen TVs, which the Minister had unjustifiably refused to officially report to the Session members or the police.

The Committee’s report revealed that Rev. Ebenezer Nana Mensah Kumah had also “not accounted for the 2019 Annual Harvest proceeds; has locked up ongoing morning devotion offerings in the box and kept the key; two weeks in the month of September 2020 of the Salem Water Project is still unaccounted for by the Minister and his spouse and has also refused to pay off borrowed monies taken towards the 125th Anniversary celebration”.

It further revealed that he had inexcusably stopped the church financial committee from using computers for the church records and accounting, and mysteriously the desktop computers are now missing.

The report indicated that the Session members had made it clear that they will not allow Rev Kumah to officiate any activities in the church whilst awaiting his final removal by the leadership of the Church.

The 6-member committee in their observations emphatically stated that “The Committee sees a breach in complying with the article 9 (17(b)) of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana that states that all funds shall be administered by the Session especially where the Minister solely contracted a loan from an individual from the church to purchase a vehicle, licensed it without informing both the current Session who were sworn in on 17th October 2020 or the old Session members whose term of office ended on 10th October 2020”.

The report stated that “The Constitution permits the Session to meet once every week but the Minister ever since he assumed responsibility had not met the Session to take any official decision.

They described his administrative style as that of a one-man church and not as stated by the Presbyterian Church of Ghana’s Constitution.

It said that Rev. Ebenezer Nana Mensah Kumah does not respect the members of the Domeabra Trinity Congregation, and lacks transparency in his management of the church affairs.

The 6-member committee recommended that he steps aside and submits himself for proper counselling and that within a period of one month, he should read the handing over notes he received from his predecessor and decisions from it be implemented. He is also ordered to render 2019 financial year accounts to the congregation.

Further checks by this reporter revealed that Rev. Ebenezer Nana Mensah Kumah put up similar recalcitrant behaviour and placed his personal interest above the interest of the Presbyterian Church when he was heading the Church at Wasa Akropong.

He allegedly ordered some youth from the town to pull down the ongoing school Library, Staff common room, students’ urinal and classroom block of the RIIS Presby Model Basic School to establish his own private school.