Presby Church Lashes Kufuor Car Attacker

RT. REVEREND Dr. Yaw Frimpong-Manso, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana has condemned the recent attack on President Kufuor's life by one Thomas Osei who rammed his Mercedes Benz at top speed into the official vehicle carrying the President to the office.

The Moderator described the action as “indiscipline in the highest order” and called for sober reflection by Christians and all Ghanaians in general to nip the trend in the bud.

Rt. Rev. Dr. Frimpong-Manso was speaking at a special service to mark the Golden Jubilee celebration of the Kaneshie Presbyterian Church at Kaneshie in Accra over the weekend.

The theme for the occasion was: “Come, Let us walk in the light of the Lord.”

Clad in their beautiful anniversary cloth, members of the congregation had every cause to celebrate as they danced and sang in chorus to music provided by the various singing groups in the church.

He noted that the action of the would-be 'assassin' was deplorable and did not conform to normal human behaviour.

The Moderator said “it is true that the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, like the Apostle Paul, has cause to be confident in the flesh and our achievements but our encounter with Jesus Christ, and with reality, should cause us to realize that we still have a long way to go.”

He attributed the stunted growth of the church to the fact that many members were confused about the elementary doctrines of their faith.

“Ethnicity, unforgiving spirit, shift of emphasis from the Word of God, prayer and evangelism to music and dancing which are not biblically powered but look more like merrymaking, and being emotionally charged for the sake of it, is dominant in our congregations,” the Moderator lamented.

Rt. Rev. Dr. Frimpong-Manso described the year 2007 as significant because it marked the Golden Jubilee of the nation's independence, adding that the religious flavour given to the celebration as a Jubilee Year and the fact that “your congregation also celebrates her Golden Jubilee is very important.

It is therefore appropriate to remind ourselves of the contemporary implications of Jubilee for us as a Church and Nation.”

According to the Moderator, “Jubilee was the time in which God would set right what had gone wrong throughout the previous years. God created and established the world on the basis of justice and wishes that it continues to exist as such.

“Yet due to evil and sin, injustice seems to always creep in and change God's just order of things. Many people fall prey to others and the rich and powerful in society tend to exploit the poor and weak,” he stated.

Rt. Rev. Dr. Frimpong-Manso, reminded Christians of their responsibilities towards their families and urged them to live by their resolve to serve even when it required sacrifice.

On the environment, the Moderator was unhappy with the rampant and indiscriminate disposal of rubbish, leading to gutters choked with filth, polluted water bodies, unplanned structures and smoke-filled air.

“It is no wonder the substantial increase in the death rate in our country now could be traced to deterioration and degeneration in our environment,” he expressed.

Rt. Rev. Dr. Frimpong-Manso urged the congregants and the general public to keep their domestic livestock in check to prevent them from straying to destroy people's farms and property, littering the streets or polluting the rivers with their droppings.

President John Agyekum Kufuor, in a speech read on his behalf by the Minister of Communication, Dr. Aggrey Ntim, noted that most Christians in Ghana were walking in darkness.

“In fact, we cannot walk in the light of the Lord when selfishness, greed, hatred, envy, wickedness, disunity and laziness take the better part of us.

“They go to church every Sunday pretending to be angels, but immediately after church service resort to all sorts of evil acts such as corruption, armed robbery, gossiping and rape," he noted.

President Kufuor therefore urged the church officials, as they celebrate their Golden Jubilee, to redefine their agenda and focus more on effective evangelism and social development to benefit their members and Ghana as a whole.

Rev. C.B. Ahwireng, the host and District Minister mentioned some of the successes the church had achieved in the past 50 years.

“We have been able to convert the chief and people of Oduntia, a village six miles away from Amasaman. On the 29th of April, 2007, we baptized 110 people from the village, including the chief, the Gyaasetse and the Chief fetish Priestess.”

Rev. Ahwireng said the church which started with 22 people now has 3000 members with three ministers of the Gospel, and had churned out distinguished personalities in the country.

The function was chaired by Dr. Justice Twum, a Supreme Court Judge.

By Wisdom Peter Awuku