Churches admonished to preach change among citizenry

President John Mahama on Thursday reminded the leaders of Christian and Muslim communities in Ghana that they have more work to do in producing and mentoring God fearing people.

He was addressing the official opening of the seventh General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian (EP) Church in Ho on the theme: “Go make disciples.”

President Mahama questioned the ascendancy of indiscipline and moral decadence in the country in the midst of increasing number of churches.

He said the churches must therefore fashion practical strategies to disseminate their messages to elicit attitudinal change among the citizenry and plant principles of moral uprightness in them.

President Mahama was critical of church leaders who use their positions of “power” over their congregations to promote their self interests and gratification and cause divisions among families by playing them against each other.

He noted that the EP Church since its establishment 168 years ago continue to hold the anchor in the word of God and giving good account of its spiritual, material and social mission.

President Mahama expressed happiness at moves by the EP Church, Ghana and the Global Evangelical Church (GEC) to reconcile after decades of antagonism.

The two churches split over differences in the 1980s regarding the tenure of the Moderator and doctrinal issues. The leaderships of the two Churches have been attending each others, General Assembly and Synod in recent times.

A representative of the GEC was present at the official opening of this year’s General Assembly and delivered a solidarity message calling for staying the course towards reconciliation.

Right Reverend Dr Seth Senyo Agidi, Moderator of the General Assembly of the EP Church said the theme for the General Assembly “is to convict and convert us in order to open our hearts to accept the peculiarities of our present day challenges, so as to engage our evangelism and discipleship with such a clarity in order to bring effectiveness rather than go in the way of our conservative typical, practical traditional views that seem to leave the EP Church out of the Discipleship equation in this contemporary time.”

He appealed to striking medical doctors to call off their month-long strike on humanitarian grounds and as a Christian example of selflessness and fellow feeling.

Source: GNA