The Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana, Most Rev. Dr. Paul Kwabena Boafo, has expressed worry over increasing social vices in the country and has, therefore, urged Christians to rise up and pray for God’s intervention to avert further occurrences.

He said gruesome incidents of murder, armed robbery, gender-based violence as well as child abuse had become rampant in the country.

“The church, as a conscience of the nation, must live up to its mandate of being the salt of the earth and light to the world by rising up to the challenge to stop such incidence from happening,” the bishop added.

He was speaking at the 60th annual synod of the Accra Diocese of the Methodist Church Ghana.

Event

The event took place in Accra yesterday at the Rev. Joseph Thomas Clegg Memorial Methodist Chapel on the theme: “Teaching everyone to live like Jesus Christ”.

The clergy, as well as other members of the church, deliberated on issues confronting the church and on the way forward.

A synod is a council of a church usually convened to decide on issues of doctrine, administration or application.

As part of the programme, the family of a late former reverend minister of the church, Rev. Joseph Emmanuel Allotey-Pappoe, donated a 100-year-old Bible to the church to serve as a resource for studies and research.

Security threat

Most Rev. Dr Boafo described the recent killing of a child for ritual purposes for quick money as a major security threat to the nation.

He urged parents to show more concern in nurturing their children, saying “true discipline must have a positive impact on our nation and not where wealth is celebrated and elevated above everything; where the rich are worshipped without questioning the source of their wealth; where parents neglect their responsibility and work is equated to suffering and punishment from God”.

The bishop further charged the church to see such incidents as a wake-up call to question the impact of Christian teachings on the nation.

“We need to find out what has gone wrong with us as a nation where the majority are Christians. The people called Methodists, as a holiness movement, must be concerned. We must intensify our teachings on discipleship,” Most Rev. Boafo added.

Gratitude

For his part, the Methodist Bishop of the Accra Diocese, Rt Rev. Samuel Kofi Osabutey, expressed gratitude to bishops, lay chairmen, past synod secretaries, ministers and stewards whose services had ensured the progress of the church in spite of the prevalence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the church would continue to teach in various settings and on various occasions to promote good behaviour among members, especially the youth.

Rt Rev. Osabutey said in collaboration with the Accra North Circuit, the church had developed a model curriculum for discipleship training out of which 37 trainees had graduated and had been commissioned.