There were two interesting news items in the last week from the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, both dealing with the outreach and evangelism by the church.
The first, reported by Modern Ghana, is a workshop on “modern strategies of evangelism” held by the Akuapem Presbytery for catechists. The article says
The workshop, which was organized by the Department of Church Life and
Nurture of the Presbytery, brought together more that 80 catechists on
Akuapem ridge to be equipped with modern ways of church leadership and
evangelism.
and continues
[The presbytery chairperson] said the only way the church could be attractive to the outside
world was when the old ways of worship gave way to new and modern
strategies by way of preaching, bible studies, praises and worship.
This is reported as the first of its kind in the presbytery.
On another continent, there is coverage by both Modern Ghana and Joy Online of the installation of the Rev. Dr. Charles Gyang-Duah as the Minister-in-charge of the Ebenezer Congregation of the Presbyterian Church in Ghana (PCG) Bronx, NY, and the new Chairperson of the Overseas Mission Field – USA. In the recent interview carried by both news outlets Dr. Gyang-Duah…
…stressed the significance of the overseas assemblies of the
Presbyterian Church of Ghana by poignantly observing that language
barrier and an unfamiliar cultural environment necessitated Ghanaians
resident abroad having ready access to religious and cultural
institutions fashioned according to both their cultural norms – or
ethos – and linguistic needs
But, he also said
“We need to move away from our seemingly invariably acquisitive and
palpably unhealthy immigrant mentality. After all, this is the modern
era; we live in an organic global community of inextricable
interconnectedness,” Dr. Gyang-Duah opined and added, “We
[American-resident members of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana] see the
mainstream Presbyterian Church of the United States as our partner
Church; and we want to assure them of our unstinting support and
cooperation.”
The induction ceremony, hosted jointly by the Bronx and Manhattan congregations of the PCG, will be held on April 5 at the Manhattan church. Participating in the service will be the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, the Rt.-Rev. Yaw Frimpong-Manso.
It is interesting that Rev. Gyang-Duah mentions the partnership with the “mainstream Presbyterian Church of the United States” as a partner because about a year ago Emmanuel Presbyterian Reformed Church was chartered. This is, as best as I can tell, a union church between the PC(USA) and the RCA made up of about 20% of the members of the Ebenezer congregation who chose to affiliate with the American denominations. There appears to be cooperation between the two congregations because Emmanuel posts of list of Ghanaian Congregations in North America that includes their sibling. There is a detailed write-up of the Emmanuel history on GhanaWeb.