St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church elevated

The Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, Most Rev Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, has elevated the St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church Adentan to a parish and installed Very Rev Fr Anthony Opong as the parish priest.

By the elevation the St. John the Evangelist has four out-stations under its care and these are St. Cecilia Catholic Church, Frafraha, Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Catholic Church, Teiman, St. Ephraim Catholic Church, Danfa and St. John of God Catholic Church, Amrahia.

The Very Rev Fr Francis Adoboli, the Vicar General, performed the elevation and installation ceremony.

Very rev. Fr. Adoboli called on Christian leaders to put the needs of their members first and ensure that their needs were well catered for before their own needs.

He said as leaders “we must ensure the spiritual growth of members by shepherding, sanctifying, teaching and determining pastoral needs of the parish and attend to them”.

He urged the new parish priest to make himself available to the parish community, visit families, share parishioners’ anxiety and grief as well as have special responsibility to the poor and those facing special difficulties.

Very Rev. Fr. Adoboli also appealed to Very Rev. Fr. Opong to promote prayers , have a particular interest in building the faith of the youth and the parish as a whole to ensure the spiritual growth of the parish.

He also urged the parishioners to give their parish Priest all the needed support to ensure the growth of the parish.

Very Rev. Fr. Opong, who also celebrated 15 years of priesthood, thanked God for the many blessings bestowed on them as a parish and was grateful to all who assisted him in diverse ways.

He also thanked the parishioners for their generosity and kind support which had brought them the honour.

“I want to take this opportunity to thank Very Rev. Fr. Adoboli who welcomed me into the parish 15 years ago and has the pleasure to install me today as the Parish Priest of this wonderful Church,” he said.

He said the Parish has given itself by the end of the year to complete the school project, which has reached primary four and urged the parishioners to put in the same enthusiasm to enable them complete the project.

Very Rev. Fr. Opong was appointed the first Parochial Administrator of the Church in 2004.

The St. John the Evangelist Church, hitherto was a quasi-parish carved from Queens of Peace Parish, Medina in 1998.

They moved to the Assisi House in the SSNIT Flats, Adentan, where they worshiped until they acquired land in 2008 and finally build a permanent chapel in 2013.