The General Overseer of the Living Grace Ministries, Rev. Dr. Richard Owusu Akyeaw,
has commended fathers for the enermous contributions they have been making in
training our children.
Bishop Richard said God gave fathers special roles in bringing up children who are
to take over from the present crop of elders in the society.
Bishop Richard said this in his message to all fathers on the occasion of the 2011
clebration of Fathers Day which falls on the third Sunday in June every year.
"God has given fathers special responsibilities to train children to put them in
leadership roles in the future", he said.
He therefore enjoined all fathers to live up to that expectation to the glory of the
Lord. "Fathers must live up to the expectation of caring and training their children
as God desires", he said.
The General Overseer urged fathers to use the occassion to depeen the relationship
between them and their children as well as their wives.
He noted that most fathers are not honouring their responsibilities because their
wives are not giving them the needed helping hand, encouragement and undestanding.
Bishop Richard therefore charged mothers to assist their husbands in meeting their
responsibilities as fathers.
"Fathers function very well when mothers lend a helping hand", he said.
Father's Day is a celebration of fathers inaugurated in the early twentieth century
to complement Mothers Day in celebrating fatherhood and male parenting.
Father's Day is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide and typically involves
gift-giving, special dinners to fathers, and family-oriented activities.
The first observance of Father's Day actually took place in Fairmont, West Virginia
on July 5, 1908.
It was organized by Mrs. Grace Golden Clayton, who wanted to celebrate the lives of
the 210 fathers who had been lost in the Monongah Mining disaster on December 6,
1907.
It is possible that Clayton was influenced by the first celebration of Mother's Day
that same year, just a few miles away. Clayton chose the Sunday nearest to the
birthday of her recently deceased father.
Unfortunately, the day was overshadowed by other events in the city, West Verginia
did not officially register the holiday, and it was not celebrated again.
Instead, credit for Father's Day went to Sonora Dodd from Spokane, who invented
independently her own celebration of Father's Day just two years later, also
influenced by Jarvis' Mother's Day.
Clayton's celebration was forgotten until 1972, when one of the attendants to the
celebration saw Nixon's proclamation of Father's Day, and worked to recover its
legacy.
The celebration is now held every year in the Central United Methodist Church, as
the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was torn down in 1922.
Fairmont is now promoted as the "Home of the First Father's Day Service"
A bill to accord national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in
1913.
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson went to Spokane to speak on a Father's Day
celebration and wanted to make it official, but Congress resisted, fearing that it
would become commercialized.
US President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the day be observed by the
nation, but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation.
Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by Congress.
In 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a proposal accusing Congress of
ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers, thus "[singling] out just one
of our two parents".
In 1966, President Lydon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation
honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day.
Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President
Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.
In addition to Father's Day, International Men's Day is celebrated in many countries
on November 19 for men and boys who are fathers.
Source: Francis Owusu-Ansah, Space FM, Sunyani
