Ghana Methodists mark five years in Australia

Sydney, Australia -- A branch of The Methodist Church Ghana in Australia has marked its fifth anniversary in Sydney with a five-day revival that culminated in a special service on Sunday 21 September.

Guest preacher at the service was Apostle Ato Addison, a retired pastor of the Church of Pentecost. Delivering the sermon on the theme “Rescue the Perishing, Care for the Dying,” Apostle Addison said Christians would toil in vain, and would not rescue or care for the perishing and the dying if they didn’t have the spirit of forgiveness.

“Let’s learn forgiveness. There are people among us who would never forgive those who they believe have offended them,” he said.

He urged Christ’s followers to heed the Saviour’s call to forgive one another and live in the spirit of Christian love.

Apostle Addison praised members of the Ghana Methodist Faith Community, as the local society is officially called, for their dedication and their hard work in building a strong congregation in a short period of five years.

“Talent is one good thing God gave every one of us. Let’s put then to good use in building Christ’s ministry and especially this young congregation,” he said.

The Ghana Methodists held their first church service as a congregation on March 1, 2009. A year earlier, a few members of the Ghanaian community in Sydney had met several times to plan how they would go about setting up a Ghanaian Methodist congregation in Australia.

The Uniting Church in Australia, formerly The Methodist Church in Australia, was approached for help. They welcomed the Ghanaians’ initiative and offered them a chapel for Sunday worship and other meetings in the Sydney suburb of Greystanes.

Society chairperson Mr Anti Aboagye thanked the Uniting Church for their help and assistance to his fledging congregation, and promised that their efforts in helping Ghanaian Methodists in their spiritual journey would not be in vain.

He also thanked the Ghanaian community in Australia and the hundreds of people who thronged their premises to share in the celebrations.