Enforce ban on galamsey - Apostle Otoo
The General Overseer of The Lords Pentecostal Church International, Apostle Eric Essandoh Anim Otoo, has called for the strict enforcement of the ban on illegal mining.
That, he said, was to sustain the fight against the practice, also known as galamsey.
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Apostle Otoo made the call at the opening of the 61st General Conference of the church in Accra last Thursday.
The five-day conference being attended by members from across the country is dubbed: "Grace for fruitfulness".
Effects
Apostle Otto said the country had for some years now suffered from the negative effects of the vicious operations of galamsey.
He said such illegal operations across recent years had, however, been very disastrous and life threatening.
"These illegal mining activities in some parts of our country have gradually rendered water bodies and water life useless and dangerous to humans; plant life is begging for mercy; animal life is under threat, hence the need for us to rise up as a Christian body and herald a crusade against it.
"Galamsey should not wear party colours. It should be treated as a national canker and dealt with appropriately by all and sundry; if not, posterity will judge us," he said.
The General Overseer said if the earth should be safeguarded and protected for the future, it should start from today, adding that "apart from the education and caution from the religious bodies on this issue of galamsey, I think we have to also take the bull by the horn, bite the bullet and name and shame some individuals who have stood out clearly as the kingpins of this galamsey business".
"Let their names come out as the perpetrators of this debacle, and they would walk with their heads in shame," he said.
Economic hardship
On the economic hardship the country was going through, Apostle Otoo said the surge of prices of goods and services was appalling and record breaking.
"The cedi is not doing well. Fuel price hikes do not seem to be ending soon. The economy is having a downturn, to say the least.
However, there is hope, and that hope is Jesus Christ. We need him in times as this more than ever because with Christ in you, you can smile at any situation that is as deplorable as our economy.
“I believe that Christ is the only one that can give us a lasting solution to all the problems that we are facing," he added.
Divine selection
The General Overseer of the Foursquare Gospel Church International, Ghana, Rev. Francis Sey, told the audience that as Christians, they had been divinely selected.
"Grace is God's gift to humankind. It is the love of God poured on us through Christ. In fact, we have not done anything to merit the grace of God, and we don't deserve God's grace," he said.
Rev. Sey said that God's grace, however, needed to come with an effect in the lives of Christians, and that "the effect is that we must bare fruits".
The kinds of fruits that Christians should bear, he said, included love, unity and sacrifice, and that with those fruits they must reign in the vine and submit themselves to God's ways and actions.