Presbyterian Church holds workshop for its Managers

Abokobi, Jan. 31, GNA - The Rt. Rev. Dr Yaw Frimpong-Manso, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, has cautioned its social institutions against attempts to sideline the Church from their activities.

He said the Church was not happy with the trend, but would ensure that its numerous efforts in providing seed money and other support to those institutions were recognised.


Rev. Frimpong-Manso gave the warning on Wednesday at a workshop for Managers in charge of the various institutions and programmes of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG) which are providing social services to communities.


The workshop under the theme: "Intra-Departmental Networking and Linkages for Effective Delivery of Social Services," was to forge closer collaboration among units in the Department of Development and Social Services, to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in the social service delivery system. The Moderator unders cored the importance of social services in the Christian missionary work and said it should be upgraded to ensure maximum benefit.

He, however, advised that evangelism should be totally separated from the provision of social services to avoid the impression that the Church was taking undue advantage of the vulnerable. "We must provide social services without the intention of winning the people to our side, however, as we seek their physical well-being we must remember that they have a soul, but do not take advantage of them," he advised.


He explained that the Church began the implementation of new structures seven years ago, which brought into being seven departments, namely; Church Life and Nature; Ecumenical and Social Relations; Development and Social Services; Administration and Human Resource Management; Finance; Missions and Evangelism and Education. Rev. Frimpong-Manso related the practicality of Christianity to the examples of the early Presbyterian Missionaries, who established numerous institutions to cater for the educational, health and other physical needs of the communities in which they dwelt. He said the Church had founded a nongovernmental organisation called the Presbyterian Relieve Services Development, to help position it well in the era of great competition in sourcing for overseas funding to support its social and disaster relief services. He urged all players to work hard by collaborating and networking with each other, while giving due recognition to the Church as the founder.


Rev. Herbert Anim-Opong, Clerk of the General Assembly of the Church, said it had planned human resource training for the Managers to enhance their capacity in the various institutions to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in the social service delivery system.