The Church should promote peace and reconciliation - Bombande

Koforidua, Nov. 11, GNA - Mr Emmanuel Bombande, Executive Director of the West African Network for Peace (WANEP), has urged churches to be in the forefront in building peace and reconciliation among people divided in the country by past experiences.

He said churches had a critical role to play to ensure justice and peace by working at the root of injustice, ensuring the equitable distribution of resources, speaking out for and supporting the needs of the marginalized.

Mr Bombande was delivering a paper on: "The Church as a Family of God and its Evangelising Mission in the Diocese of Koforidua", at the on-going First Synod of the Koforidua Diocese of the Catholic Church at the weekend.

He said regard for justice in the building of society must begin from within the Church's own system, adding that there were "too often barriers erected between our faith and practice, religion and life." "Justice within the Church must be reflected in how we build our church institutions," Mr Bombande stressed.

He questioned the mode of recruitment of workers into church institutions, as to whether there were equal opportunities for all, or "do we see in practice the 'whom you know, syndrome'."

Mr. Bombande contended that churches had no choice but to serve as institutions for reconciling people, but pointed out that, "We are incapable as individuals or churches of reconciling divided communities when we cannot resolve conflicts within us."

Mr Bombande commended the role The Most Rev. Charles Palmer-Buckle, Bishop of the Koforidua Diocese, was playing on the National Reconciliation Commission, saying the concept of reconciliation was central in the Christian theology.

He referred to a number of conflicts in the country and stressed that those conflicts required peace building with impartial third party approaches that would respond to the real nature of the conflicts. He said not only did churches possess such impartial qualities but were also "the most credible third party intervener in many of the community conflicts."

On peace and stability in the West African sub-region, Mr Bombande cautioned that Ghana's current reputation as a peaceful, stable and democratic state "is under threat from more than 200 communal conflicts that revolve around chieftaincy and land, with those in the three Northern regions among the most vulnerable."