Well, I’ve gotten a little preoccupied with North American Presbyterianism in the last couple of months and the PC(USA) in particular. So, looking globally there have been a series of interesting news items from the Presbyterian Church of Ghana over the last few weeks.
It is worth noting that the PC Ghana can be described as being, at the least, “well connected” in Ghana’s society and government, and it is probably fair to say that in some areas, including education, it is a significant contributor to society. This fact was recently recognized when the Moderator of the General Assembly, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Yaw Frimpong – Manso, was recognized with a State Award from the President of Ghana. The Rt. Rev. Frimpong-Manso was one of 147 individuals to be recognized this year and his specific award was the ORDER OF VOLTA – OFFICER (RELIGION) distinction for his contribution to the Christian community and national development.
The Rt. Rev. Frimpong-Manso has been an outspoken leader for moral values in society and earlier this month at two ordination services for new clergy, some of his comments were picked up separately in the news media. From two of these services were reports on his exhortations to clergy about showing humility in their work and being faithful and responsible in their obligations. The story on ModernGhana.com about the first service says:
themselves instead of preaching the word of God to address the
challenges and vices in society.
and
said: “The constant changes and decay in the world today, are always
calling the church to its mandate of transformation based on the
imperatives to the great commission of Our Lord to go into the world to
make disciples of all nations”.
He entreated clergymen to at
all times strive to work within the principles and tenets of the Bible
in the discharge of their duties to sustain and enhance the image of
the priesthood institution.
He picked up a similar theme at the second service according to the article on GhanaWeb.com:
Rev Frimpong-Manso said some pastors had neglected to fulfill their
obligations concerning visitations to the sick, the poor and vulnerable
and payment of assessments.
He said those same pastors did not attend meetings nor did they submit
statistical data about their activities.
In the first service reported on, Rev. Frimpong-Manso led the way in addressing the “challenges and vices in society” by criticizing advertising of alcoholic beverages and calling for a ban on advertising. An article on JoyOnline picked this up as a story with an different emphasis on the same sermon. That article says:
Ghana (PCG), Right Reverend Dr Yaw Frimpong-Manso, has appealed to the
government to ban all advertisements on alcoholic beverages as it has
done with tobacco.
According to him the widespread intake of
alcoholic beverages in the country did not give any revenue to the
government or individuals.
“Alcohol has only succeeded
immensely in contributing to increase in diseases, immorality and crime
in the country, he observed.
and
before it succeeds in destroying our dear nation, the better it would
be for us all,” he said.
The moderator, therefore, urged the
public not to be lured and pressured by advertisements to take to
drinking alcoholic beverages, because there was nothing to be gained
from their intake, but would only give huge revenue to producers.
While in town for one of these ordination services, the Rt. Rev. Frimpong-Manso helped open an Information and Communications Technology centre built by the Northern Presbytery. This is a training facility mostly funded by European partners to benefit the PCG educational programs as well as those of “other sister church members and the public.” (Ghana Broadcasting Corp. article)
Finally, there was also news this past month about the Moderator helping to lay the foundation stone for a new Presbyterian Conference Centre. The vision for the conference center is multi-fold, providing not just a location for Presbyterian meetings, but to be state of the art so that it will provide a revenue stream from corporate meetings and employment of Presbyterians in the area. The Moderator also made an appeal for church members to give towards this project with a suggested regular monthly donation of one Gahanian cedi (currently worth about $0.90) per member.