Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey

Rev. Prof. Cephas Omenyo, may Almighty God guide you and other 2016 election nostrums

Colin Essamuah Abura Epistle Sep - 10 - 2016 , 17:01

YES, I believe all Ghanaian Christians would agree with me that the Presbyterian Church of Ghana has been in the news this year for two very terrible reasons, and that the new Moderator elected some two or so weeks ago, Rev. Prof. Cephas Omenyo, needs all our prayers and goodwill not only to restore the good name of the church and its balanced, important place in the schema of our moral society, but he would also need even more, the spiritual strength to reconcile all the aggrieved members of the Christian faith to each other, so that together, the church will continue to play its important moral and spiritual role in our country, in addition to providing religious succor for Ghanaian Presbyterians.

It is with great sadness that I lay the entire blame for the rough seas being encountered by the church lately on someone who if he had been a Methodist minister, would have been my father, the current and outgoingModerator of the church, the Reverend Professor Emmanuel Martey. In addition, Professor Martey would have been my older brother. This is because my own father was the 5th President of the Conference of the Methodist Church, [now styled Presiding Bishop], and my younger brother based in the United States is a Methodist minister just like my father.

The Presbyterian Church of Ghana is the closest in doctrine and practice to the Methodist Church of Ghana, and both have distinguished themselves in the provision of religious faith services, educational advancement, healthcare and numerous social interventions to Ghanaians of all faiths since their introduction to this country in 1827 and1835 respectively. I daresay that the Christian churches in this country were the vectors of social and personal refinements in our society long before formal colonization in the 1870s.There is a real danger that if the incoming Rev. Prof. Omenyo does not seek and heal frayed and fractured feelings and sentiments in the wake of the extremely unwise utterances of his predecessor in and outside the church proper, we may witness the sad spectacle of devoted Christians not talking to, or co-operating with each other because of lack of reconciliation and prayerful commitment to the central message of the gospel for us to love and live in peace with one another ,in the hope of salvation.

I must say at once that obviously, I am not one of those who believe, falsely, that a pastor, whether ordained or anointed, or not, is a Man of God, and therefore beyond criticism, and insulated from condemnation, whether public or private, as a result of the practice of his vocation. Because being a preacher in the itinerant or evangelical ministry is a form of public service, and I see no justification, religious or otherwise, for believing any public officer must not be reacted to in the course of their work.

Democracy and the freedoms they confer will fail when practiced by automatons and zombies. There is even abundant literature to support the view that modern democracy itself is a fruit of Christianity and its evolution. This very paper and its sister paper, The Ghanaian Times, editorialized against my father several times in 1982, and I did not think there was anything wrong with that, even though the editor at the time remains a Methodist to this day. The first unwelcome news to come from the stables of the Presby Church this year was when we learnt that the Moderator who preceded Professor Martey had been dismissed from the church because he refused stationing by the parent church in Ghana having been serving in New York to Ghanaian Presbyterians there. How a whole Moderator can be stripped of his former status, and also as a member of the church which had nurtured and given him his highest position in its clergy, is extremely puzzling and perhaps indicative of the grievous lack of charity in the whole church, in spite of the sinful materialism which may lie at the root of Rev. Dr. Frimpong-Manso’s decision to disobey his parent church. This has actually happened in the Methodist Church before, but it was skillfully managed and we all lived in peace and love afterwards. The second is the avoidable public rumpus and disquiet surrounding the several public statements by Professor Martey on subjects on which the input of serious Christian leaders are not required to prove anything. Allegations and claims of bribery, cooptation and suborning by political parties all seem so demeaning fora church prelate to dabble and revel in. This country is a secular country and not a religious state which simply means other religious faiths are of equal standing in the constitutional order. The wise and circumspect adopt the position of Edmund Burke that religion is a private contract between one and his God, and not the template to dabble in political and secular matters, to the discomfort of other churchgoers of the same faith.

This is a different proposition from saying religious leaders must be silent in the face of injustice. How, for example, are the issues of the Guantanamo detainees and a presidential pardon matters of scriptural injustice or of religious consequence in the terms that Rev. Martey railed against President Mahama? He has completely forgotten that Presbyterians like Methodists, are

Protestants, and not Catholics who must accept ex cathedra the statements of their bishops on all issues of the day no matter the reasoning behind them.

In the event, he has managed to steer very closely in tandem with those who are militantly intolerant in the polity. This country, at the cusp of a general election, does not need a shepherd of the flock who divides more than he unites, and I daresay the Peace Council is the better for him being not a member. I hope the Presbyterians put this unnecessary episode behind them as quickly as possible.