Pentecost re-elect chairman

The Chairman of the Church of Pentecost (COP), Dr. Opoku-Onyinah, has been re-elected to serve another five-year term as the head of the church.

His re-election came after he obtained 77.3 % of vote cast at the church’s 40th General Council Meeting currently on-going at the Pentecost Convention Centre (PCC) at Gomoa Fetteh in the Central region.

Dr. Opoku-Onyinah, who served as the church’s maiden International Missions Director (IMD) from 1991 to 1996, succeeded Apostle Michael Ntumy, whose tenure of office as a chairman of the leading Pentecostal church in Ghana ended in 2008.

The meeting, which is also to review the activities of the church as well as elect new executive members, is being held on the theme: “Worshipping in Spirit and Truth.”

As at press time on Thursday, the church had in addition to the re-election of the chairman also scrapped its Public Affairs Committee and tasked its radio pastor and Director of PENTMEDIA, Dan Nii Tackie, to handle public relations.

Since taking over the helm of affairs of the church, Apostle Onyinah has introduced numerous reforms into the once conservative church, something which many members had openly criticised and condemned.

Media reports indicated that many pastors and various presiding elders of the church’s local Assemblies failed to read out the newsletter containing the directives to their congregation.

‘Shut up! Shut up!! Don’t read any communiqué here! Does the Church Council think we can swallow any damn thing they put in our mouth? This is a holy and respectable church which should not be allowed to rot because of membership drive,’ the Daily Guide newspaper reported as an elder of the church’s reaction to the newsletter when it was read out at the A. T. Nartey Memorial Pentecost Church in Takoradi in the Western Region.

Thus, with the end of his first tenure as chairman of the church with a total membership of 2,252,228, many expected that the mandate of the chairman would not be renewed.

However, in a vote to decide on whether he should continue his service to the church and God, Dr. Opoku-Onyinah did not only have more than the two-thirds or the 67% a chairman is expected to have but was also overwhelming appreciated by the pastors of the church.

The pastors also congratulated the chairman for his position as the President of the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) and also the Chairman of Ghana Evangelism Committee.