List Of Past Moderators Of Presbyterian Church Of Ghana

[Daiana Parthemore]

ThePresbyterian Church of Ghana is a mainstream Protestant and ecumenically-minded church denomination in Ghana. The oldest, continuously existing, established Christian Church in Ghana, it was started by the Basel missionaries on 18 December 1828.[3] The missionaries had been trained in Germany and Switzerland and arrived on the Gold Coast to spread Christianity.[2] The work of the mission became stronger when Moravian missionaries from the West Indies arrived in the country in 1843.[4] In 1848, the Basel Mission Church set up a seminary, now named the Presbyterian College of Education, Akropong, for the training of church workers to help in the missionary work. The Ga and Twi languages were added as part of the doctrinal text used in the training of the seminarians. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Presbyterian church had its missions concentrated in the southeastern parts of the Gold Coast and the peri-urban Akan hinterland. By the mid-20th century, the church had expanded and founded churches among the Asante people who lived in the middle belt of Ghana as well as the northern territories by the 1940s. The Basel missionaries left the Gold Coast during the First World War in 1917. The work of the Presbyterian church was continued by missionaries from the Church of Scotland, the mother church of the worldwide orthodox or mainline (oldline) Presbyterian denomination. The official newspaper of the church is the Christian Messenger, established by the Basel Mission in 1883.[5][6] The denomination's Presbyterian sister church is the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana.[7]

By the 2015, the church had 876,257 members and 2573 congregations. By the end of 2019, the PCG had about a total membership of 1,015,174.[11][4] According to the 2019 report of the Committee on Information Management, Statistics & Planning (IMSP) of the Department of Administration & Human Resource Management (AHRM) of the church, it had 4889 congregations. As of 2021, there were more than 1.7 million Presbyterians in Ghana, representing approximately 8% of Ghanaian Christians and comprising members of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana, Global Evangelical Church and other smaller Reformed denominations in the Presbyterian tradition.[12][4][7]

Education is an integral part of the church's responsibility to the communities it operates in. In general, Ghanaian Presbyterians have a high educational attainment.[13][10] Together with Ghanaian Anglicans, Methodists and Roman Catholics - Christian denominations that also prioritize higher education, Presbyterians in Ghana were historically disproportionately represented in the upper ranks of government, industry, academia and the professional occupations.[13] The church is the proprietor of more than 2400 basic schools including 487 kindergarten and nursery schools, 984 primary schools and 399 junior high schools. The church has 30 senior high schools, 40 private schools, 6 vocational institutions, 5 teacher training colleges, 2 research centres, 4 nursing training colleges and 5 training centres for pastors and laity.[2][14] In 2003, the church started a university known as the Presbyterian University College. It is located at Abetifi-Kwahu in the Eastern region of Ghana.[15]

The Presbyterian Church of Ghana was established in 1828 and formalised partnership (Reg No. ACB 146/88) with the then government of Gold Coast now the Republic of Ghana in 1932 to contribute to the Spiritual and socio-economic development of the citizenry of Ghana. To this end, the Church established six (6) Agricultural Service stations in the late sixties in the Northern, Upper East, Eastern and Greater Accra regions of Ghana to complement the efforts of Government at poverty eradication in rural communities of the country.[2]

The church owns two printing and publishing houses including Waterville Publishing House, three newspapers, including Christian Messenger and eight bookshops. It has three retreat centres and operates four guest houses and three conference halls.[2]

The Moderator of the General Assembly position is the chairperson of the general assembly (previously synod), equivalent to the chief executive officer or managing director or president of the governing body of the national church organisation.[17] Serving moderators use the honorific style, The Right Reverend. Retired moderators use the style, The Very Reverend after leaving office.

The Clerk of the General Assembly position (previously Synod Clerk) is the chief ecclesial (ecclesiastical) officer of the general assembly, equivalent to as the chief administrative officer or secretary-general or executive secretary of the national church organisation, responsible for daily operations or performance.[17] The Clerk uses the title style The Reverend. The following ministers were elected and served as the Synod Clerk or Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana:[17]

The Moderator-Elect of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rev. Dr. Abraham Nana Opare Kwakye has stated that top on his list of priorities is missions and youth development.

He revealed this during an interview with Rev. Dr. Joseph Kofi Antwi on PCG TV on Friday, 18th August, 2023.

One of your responsibilities as a church member is to pray for the Church. That is to say, your membership of a church automatically bestows on you not only the right to benefit from welfare schemes, but the responsibility to ensure that the church is spiritually sound and fit and that requires prayer, among other things.

In a virtual meeting by the Media and Publicity Committee of the Ga Presbytery YPG on the International Youth Day, diverse opinions were shared about the role of the young people in the church and how all can take actions towards the attainment of the Agenda 2030 which is the Sustainable Development Goals.

On the panel for the discussion was the immediate past Superintendent of the Ga Presbytery, Brother Stanley Toddison, the Superinetndent of the Presbyrey, Brother Sylvanus Meeyeoya Afotey and Brother Richard Okyere, the Secretary of the Ga Presbytery.

At the end of the discussions that took place on Zoom and Facebook, participants and the panelists pledged to be committed to different activities and objectives that seek to assist in attaining the Agenda 2030 even though they had expressed uncertain views about the possibility of reaching all the 17 goals of the SDGs by 2030. Some of the commitments included providing education and sensitization for good health and well- being, assisting the needy to eradicate poverty, speaking up against injustices and building partnerships for the goals.

It was also stated that, if young people in the church will set examples in their places or work, schools and communities, Christ is preached and characters will be shaped so to create a healthier community which serves all people and discriminates against none. It was all rounded up with Ecclesiastes 11:9- 10 that entreats young people to follow their hearts but not being ignorant of the fact that whatever actions of theirs will be judged and so, the need to go the right ways and be positive influencers and changemakers.

?#RepTheYPGCloth reflecting on the contributions you need to make for the growth of the young people around you and the excellent service you need to offer to God and your Country. It is a training space if we allow it to be and make the right investments?

1. The town was filled with excitement

The King was riding through the city

Humbly on a colt

People waved palm branches in respect

Others went the extra mile to cover the road with clothes

Today, the people praised

But a lot can happen within a week.

4. It was a quiet, sad day

The shock and pain of yesterday was still fresh

Others were jubilating, their plans had come off

Beneath the earth, the struggle had just begun

The Son of God vs the Devil

The fate of mankind was to be decided

6. On the road to Emmaus

Pondering over the events of the weekend. Eyes cleared to see the Saviour

News too good to keep to ourselves

This is the perfect love story

That all and sundry should hear of

As it has been revealed in many instances that participation is and has been one of the best methods of educating and enables individuals to be equipped with requisite knowledge and skills, and in turn build their capacities for the benefit of themselves and the communities they find themselves in.

With the world recording the highest ever youth bulge with over 1.2 billion that is 16 per cent of the global population, young people between the ages of 15 and 24 or around one in every six persons worldwide falls in this category and the numbers are projected to grow by 7% to 1.3 billion by 2030 which happens to be the target year for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. There have been loads of interventions to address the numerous challenges of these young people and ensure that their potentials are harnessed in all circles, as it serves as the greatest resource for building states.

Meanwhile, the Christian Council of Ghana takes a cue from this African initiative to build and shape the minds of Ghanaian youth in the Christian arena as it organized the Ghana Youth Congress as pre-congress towards the All African Youth Congress to take place in October 2022. It was a gathering that saw about five hundred young people from different churches converging at the Pentecost Convention Centre in February 2022 for intensive sessions to inspire and impart for exploits in all circles of deeds. Out of these numbers were eleven (11) young people of the Ga Presbytery YPG who participated in the congress and could not keep the very good messages of transformation to themsleves but to share for the benefit of other young people.

Meanwhile, a keynote address by the Chairperson of the Christian Council who doubles as the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rt. Rev Prof J.O.Y. Mante disclosed that as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have been created to be spiritual, moral, social and environmental witnesses and young people must be conscious to work towards this purpose through many different ways. In the light of witnessing, Christian youth were entreated to begin to look out for the pieces of evidence of the riches in Christ Jesus so that those can proclaim the Lord Jesus to the world. This is where Rev Opoku Baffour stresses that it is becoming difficult for Christian youth to witness to the world as mandated because the evidence of the good things which takes hard work and faith to attain in Christ is not seen and that is why unbelievers find it difficult to believe what is preached to them.

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