Culture, traditions not heathen — Methodist Church Presiding Bishop
The Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana, Most Rev. Dr Paul Kwabena Boafo, has advised Christians not to regard the culture and traditions of the various tribes as heathen.
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Instead, they should help in developing them to play their roles in society as spirituality could not be deleted from culture.
"Food, songs, ways of talking and dressing speak volumes of our heritage and culture and there is nothing heathen about those as a way of life as a people," he stressed.
Most Rev. Boafo was speaking at the opening ceremony of the ninth religious tourism festival (METHOFEST) held at Akyem Oda.
METHOFEST
The Methodist Church Ghana introduced METHOFEST, a connexional religious tourist festival in 2001 with the first celebration in Cape Coast.
The festival has since been held annually, to take stock of the tangible and intangible rich religious socio-cultural heritage materials, which the church had realised throughout its history.
It is also being used to explore, develop and promote its religious tourism potential in the area of its rich historical stock and cultural heritage and religious sites, such as the British heritage site, the Ampia Ajumako Museum and Heritage Centre.
Unlike the previous festivals, which were attended by bishops and members from only the 22 dioceses of the church, this year's event has taken international dimension, attracting representatives from Africa and other parts of the world.
This year’s event attracted many dignitaries including the Senior Presidential Advisor, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, a host of government appointees and traditional rulers from the three Akyem States: Kotoku, Abuakwa and Bosome.
Support for tourism promotion
Opening the festival, Most Rev. Boafo said it would continue to collaborate with the government to promote tourism for it to contribute significantly in revenue generation for the country.
This is because tourism has been identified not only as a significant revenue generation, but also a key source of employment and with the Methodist Church keen to promoting religious tourism, the collaboration had become imperative to help the sector play a major role in the national economic recovery agenda.
While supporting tourism, the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana was, however, wary of the infiltration of activities that were alien to the culture and values of the country.
He thus admonished Christians, who constituted the majority of the Ghanaian population, to preach against such ills of society, to help curb the moral decadence in the country.
He reiterated the resolve of Methodist Church Ghana against same sex marriage and called Christians to condemn the act wherever they would find themselves.
Oda Diocese
Most Rev. Boafo commended the Oda Diocese of the church for the efficient manner it had prepared to host the national event and announced that another international event of higher dimension would take place at Oda from August 15 to 20, this year, encouraging all members of the church to prepare for the event.
The Deputy Minister of Tourism and Creative Arts, Mr Mike Okraku Mantey, commended the Methodist Church Ghana for playing a yeoman's role in tourism development and assured the church of the government's practical support.
He said tourism was key and realising its economic potential, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had charged the tourism ministry to strive to make tourism the leader in Ghana's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with a target of $5 million by 2025.
Mr Okraku Mantey said that was on course as in 2019, ‘The Year of Return’ gave the country revenue of $3.3 million in 2019.