Legislation will make all clergy belong to recognised bodies - Rev. Liwangol
The General Overseer of the Evangelical Church of Ghana (ECG), Rev. Maxwell. K. K. Liwangol, has advocated the passage of a law to compel every church or pastor to operate under the authority of a recognised religious organisation.
He said the absence of a law to regulate the activities of persons he described as “freelance men of God” accounted for the nefarious activities of some church leaders.
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“We have recognised Christian bodies such as the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG), the Catholic Bishops Conference (CBC) and the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC); and these bodies serve as the regulators of all churches that fall under them.
“Some people and churches are operating independently and because they are not under any of these recognised bodies, no one can call them to order. So, what I am saying is that as a nation, we need to agree that a law be passed by Parliament to make it compulsory for every church or man of God to belong to a recognised Christian body,” he stressed.
Graduation
Rev. Liwangol made the call at the graduation ceremony organised by the College of Theology and Missions (CTM) in Accra.
At the event, seven students who pursued courses in Biblical Studies approved by the African Association of Bible Schools (AABS), the affiliate institution of bible schools in Africa, graduated with diploma and degrees.
The call for a legislation to regulate the activities of churches comes at a time that there are concerns about the activities of some pastors.
Some pastors have been accused of using the pulpit for commercial activities, aside from inflicting physical harm on members by their modus operandi.
Rev. Liwangol, who is also the Principal of CTM, stressed that when the CCG, CBC, GPCC and other recognised bodies were clothed with legal authority to monitor churches and their operators, such negative tendencies would be removed.
Corruption
Touching on corruption among public officials, he stressed that the time had come for all members of the society to rise up and work towards making the canker a disincentive.
He also called on all organisations to develop a social media policy for their members to prevent the use of that space for destructive purposes.
“We know that social media is good for us and can be used to our advantage, but the situation where people use it as a platform for insults, peddling falsehood and defrauding people must not be countenanced,” he said.
Security
Rev. Liwangol condemned the unwarranted attacks and killing of security officers, especially the police, stressing that steps must be taken to clamp down on the criminal elements in the society.
The clergyman called for the provision of modern tools and equipment that would make the police communicate intelligence effectively and also track the criminals with relative ease.
Good call
For his part, the West African Director of AABS, Rev. James Attah Odoom, described the call for legislation for churches as a step in the right direction because it would be in the interest of the country.
“The bible states clearly that everyone must be under the authority of the government so pastors must obey the rules. If the government comes out to spell out clearly that every church should be under a regulatory body that will be the way to go and I have been looking forward to it,” he said.
Rev. Odoom urged pastors to be good servants rather than acting in a manner that would create problems in the country.