Open Letter To The Bishops Attending The Ghana Methodist Conference

Since the beginning of this year, the Ghana Methodist Church in the diaspora has been hitting news headlines for the wrong reasons, or should I say for the same wrong reasons. The lay 'self appointed representatives' of the church abroad have witnessed and endured the questionable, unchristian examples set by some of our ministers for far too long, and they are now coming out, from all corners of the world, to voice their dissatisfaction and disapproval of such attitudes.

The Toronto case that hit the web a couple of months ago is a well rehearsed example. The London situation is even more pathetic due to the calibre of people who are corroborating, both directly and indirectly, with these ministers to entrench the unacceptable behaviour in the church.

Here in London, Ghana Methodist Church did not establish its own mission from scratch. Even though there may have been plans to set one up, it had not materialised by the turn of the century. In the last decade of the last millennium, the late Rev Dr Hayford Adu-Darkwah tried, on his own accord, to bring together the many Ghanaian groups in the various Methodist churches scattered around the London metropolis.

Just as the seeds that fell among thorns in the parable of the sower were choked by the cares of the world, Rev Adu-Darkwah's efforts were thwarted by the vicissitudes of life in Britain on the members. A year or two after the grand inauguration of the group at Westminster Central Hall, attendances at meetings and events dwindled to about five, and subsequently Rev Adu-Darkwah had to abandon his vision.

Later on, some selfless individuals organised themselves into a fellowship, with the aim of encouraging each other in their sojourn in these foreign lands, hoping that in the process and with increased membership, they would be able to raise funds to undertake some projects to help the church especially back at home in Ghana and also here in Britain. The idea was to meet together for worship similar to the three-hour long vibrant services that pertain at home, rather than the one hour services of baptism, confirmation and communion all rolled into one that we are compelled to endure in the British Methodist churches.

Even on a much publicised Annual Harvest in British churches, everything would be over latest within 75 minutes. The worst scenario is at Christmas services, where if the preacher delays the end of the 45-minute service by more than 5 minutes, most of the congregation would be missing from their pews by the time the minister has finished praying over the offertory - the reason being that their Christmas dinner would be delayed or the turkey they had left in the oven would be overcooked.

The coming of the fellowship has contributed to bring much new life into most of the Methodist Churches here in London and beyond; the dismissal message after fellowship meetings has been that members are encouraged to go back and infuse what had transpired at fellowship meetings into the life of their individual local churches. The vogue now is for every British Methodist minister whose congregation contains Ghanaian members to make a pilgrimage to Ghana to witness things for themselves. It is worth mentioning here that the current chaplain of the fellowship has nobly enabled this tradition and has made it his main focus of ministry, probably for good reason.

When the first ever Presiding Bishop of Ghana Methodist Conference, the Most Rev Dr Samuel Asante-Antwi, visited London at the beginning of the current millennium, the 'self appointed group' [an accolade lately conferred on this group by the chair of the London District of the Methodist Church] approached him thus: 'We have managed to bring together a large cross-section of Ghanaian Methodists who are now resident in this part of the world. What we require urgently, as Ghanaians, is to have an ordained Ghanaian Methodist Minister to lead us.

Even though the British Ministers are happy to help us from time to time, we need one of our own kind who would understand that Ghanaian funerals do not end at the cemetery, but rather late into the night at the durbar grounds, and that a Ghanaian christening service is not complete until after a buffet lunch at the home of the proud parents of the baptised, and that on both occasions we expect the minister to bless the feast, which a non-Ghanaian minister may not be too keen on.' The group's appeal found favour with the Bishop, and by the end of his two weeks' visit, he had managed to broker a deal with the British Methodist Church.

The arrangement was that Ghana Conference would release a minister to be part-time chaplain to the Ghana Methodist Fellowship-UK and part-time circuit minister in the British Conference. The initial term was to be three years (which was later extended to five for good reason) and the perception was that at the end of each term, another minister would be released from Ghana to take over. The expectations of the originators of this noble idea was that it would enable Ghana Conference give the opportunity to as many Ghanaian Methodist ministers as possible to use the exposer to gain much privileged overseas experience that would be of benefit to the home church on their return.

The two Ghana Presbyterian Churches, in corroboration with the URC Church in Britain, had successfully negotiated a similar arrangement which had produced a Moderator for each church who had once been a chaplain in London - the late Rev A. A. Berko and Rev Francis Amenu, respectively. The Methodists, too, had hoped that one day they would be able to proclaim enthusiastically: 'Look, the Presiding Bishop was once the Chaplain of the Ghana Methodist fellowship in London'.

One noteworthy aspect of the arrangement was that there was no requirement for the Ghana Conference, let alone the Ghana Methodist Fellowship-UK, to contribute anything towards the chaplain's stipend; this was going to be borne partly by the World Church Office in London and partly by the British Conference, as part of the chaplain's work would be as a circuit minister.

This would enable the Ghana Methodist Fellowship-UK to use the funds they were able to raise towards their objectives of sponsoring projects in the church mainly in Ghana and also in the UK where appropriate. The idea, from the point of view of the British Methodist Church, was to discourage the formation of an independent Ghana Methodist Church in Great Britain. Members of the fellowship would retain their membership in, and continue to contribute to the work of, their local Methodist churches, coming together only one afternoon each month to fellowship in the Ghanaian way.

Thirteen long years after this noble arrangement was put in place, two ministers from Ghana Conference, with the connivance of the authorities both in Ghana and in Britain, have managed to monopolise the opportunity selfless individuals had helped to bring about to the disadvantage of their colleague ministers in Ghana. The first chaplain manipulated the situation to stay on for seven years; when his term finally came to an end, he was easily and quickly absorbed into the British Conference. To some of us, this was nothing short of brain drain in the church, and we never failed to point this out to the British Conference. Unofficial contacts within the British Conference, somehow confirmed officially, claim that the British Conference would never unilaterally employ a member of a brotherly conference without approval from the conference concerned.

Moreover, the assurance one of the three Presiding Bishops (we have had 3 so far) gave some time ago was that: 'Any minister Ghana Conference sends out on a mission is limited to the term conference gives. He is bound to come back home after the agreed term. Even if the minister decides to study, he will have to return home after his initial term and reapply for another leave'. The billion cedi question is: 'Who gave the permission for the first Chaplain to London to defect to the British Methodist Conference?'

When the second chaplain finally arrived in London, he never ceased to preach thus: 'I have been sent here to do a job. After my term is over, I will happily return to continue my exalted career at home'. In no time, with the connivance of people both high and low, this chaplain has also managed to manipulate the system, and is now on his second term. What is not yet clear is whether this second term means another five years, or, according to unofficial information from some British ministers, a basic two years extension.

Both the fellowship and the minister's own local circuit are left to speculate exactly what the duration is going to be. But whether it is two or five extra years, come the end of the term, without some heavenly intervention, the conference in Ghana would be robbed of the services of yet another overseas experienced minister. When this happens, what would stop the next minister in line from even bribing his way to get the nod, if that becomes necessary - and we all know that the church is not immune to such practices - since the prospects of the position are such promising?

The reference to the term 'people both high and low' above was to depict the part played by some individuals within the Ghana Methodist Fellowship-UK itself in the perpetuation of this selfish, unchristian behaviour by our ministers. A friend of mine once quoted to me a statement made by one good, old Ghanaian Methodist minister thus: 'There is never a bad or good minister. The behaviour of any minister is dictated by the character of the church elders he meets at his new manse.' This could not have been better illustrated than in the Ghana Methodist Fellowship-UK.

Leaders who were selected, appointed and/or elected to spearhead and promote the wishes and aspirations of the majority of the membership of the fellowship easily abandon their roles because of their own selfish interests - such as promises of assistance to enroll their relatives in colleges of higher education back in Ghana - and collude with the chaplains in their own selfish aspirations. For example in the latest case, the fellowship's leaders botched the review process which allowed the chaplain's term to be extended.

When this was brought to the attention of the British Conference, it was rebuffed, the explanation being that the fellowship leaders had reported that everything had been done properly. At least the concerns raised could have been investigated and declared as unfounded if it turned out to be so; but that is not the way the Methodist Church operates. This completes the explanation of the term 'people both high and low'

The situation in London currently is that the once vibrant Ghana Methodist Fellowship-UK is now a shadow of its old self, despite the pretence of the leadership of the fellowship to depict it as otherwise. Presently, while the British Methodist Conference is demanding that the fellowship must contribute an amount in the region of £37,000 annually towards the chaplain's stipend, the leadership of the fellowship is dishonestly claiming that we are only being asked to contribute £5,000 annually.

Be it £5,000 or £37,000, this extra burden on the fellowship cannot be justified since members of the fellowship are still full members of and contribute to the life (and funds) of their respective local churches: being made to contribute further towards the upkeep of a chaplain whom they meet only once every month is double jeopardy. We had expected the leadership of the fellowship to uphold this view on our behalf, but this was also not to be.

The chaplain, being the consequent beneficiary, has refused to see the sense in protesting against the levy; the elected leaders of the fellowship are rather more interested in their exalted positions than to care about the welfare of the fellowship as a whole. Some of us have tried to bring this to the attention of the British Methodist conference without any success.

We have tried in vain to explain that if the British Conference requires any assistance in the funding of a minister, the matter must be discussed and agreed between the British and Ghana Methodist Conferences but not clandestinely between the British Conference and the fellowship, or more accurately, the leadership of the fellowship to the exclusion of the entire membership - something that could never have been allowed to happen to a local British congregation! It is, in fact, an unfair imposition of extra levy on Ghanaian Methodists resident in London, What this means is that the fellowship is being deprived of the use of the funds they raise to fulfil the noble objective of supporting viable projects in the church especially at home but also here in the UK.

A good case can be cited here: Our representatives to the last Ghana Methodist Conference in 2012 came back to report the difficulty some congregations in remote parts of the country were facing with their yearly assessment, and conference's appeal to the affluent in the urban areas to help set up backup funding to help these churches. When this was reported to the fellowship, most members found contributing to such causes as our Christian duty. However, the burden of our own new challenges have overtaken the importance of conference's appeal, and nothing more has been said about this ever since.

Because of these reasons, a large section of the membership have started staying away from fellowship meetings, with the excuse that if the extra contributions they are making is never going to be used to undertake the projects we envisaged, then there is no need to even show up for fellowship events. All this is happening because of the selfish inclinations of our leaders, most pointedly our ministers.

As our Bishops, ministers and leaders prepare for this year's Ghana Methodist Conference, we are hoping that these issues would be at the forefront of their deliberations. The church surely has no future in the present dispensation if the Bishops, ministers and leaders of the church cannot lead from the front and show us laymen how to live the Christian way of life.

Stay tuned for an exhaustive, no holds barred, treatise on the Ghana Methodist Fellowship-UK.

Agya Okoromansah ([email protected])
London.