Listen to voice of God - Palmer-Buckle tells Mahama
The Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, the Most Reverend Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, has asked President John Dramani Mahama to listen to the voice of God and not that of men in the performance of his duties.
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He said it was important for the President to seek the will of God and listen to Him, instead of the voices of priests and prophets.
Preaching the sermon at this year’s National Thanksgiving and Prayer Service at the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Accra yesterday, the Most Rev Palmer-Buckle bemoaned the way sexual immorality, partisan division and political thievery had brought the nation to its knees.
The sermon was on the topic, “Ghana is good, beautiful and God loves Ghana”.
The Archbishop said God had endowed the country with human and natural resources, and yet Ghana seemed to be “failing and falling apart”.
The service, which was on the theme, “Bind us together Oh Lord” (John 17:21), brought together some leading members of political parties, including the flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2012 elections, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and his counterpart of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Dr Abu Sakara.
Also in attendance was the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, who read the third Bible text.
Self-destruction
The Most Rev Palmer-Buckle said Ghanaians were bent on tearing the country apart through sin and insatiable demands, adding, “Ghana is full of religious leaders, shrines and soothsayers, and yet sin and evil have engulfed every aspect of our country.”
“Our newspapers have been replete with reports of rape involving priests, pastors and people raping their own daughters. There is also rising sexual immorality among the youth and the abandonment of babies,” he said.
The clergyman bemoaned the high incidence of teenage prostitution in the country, child trafficking, drug trafficking, contract killing, armed robbery and the embezzlement of huge sums by public officials.
Chiefs were not spared, as the Archbishop condemned rising instances of chieftaincy dispute and the dissipation of stool lands, creating conditions for illegal miners to operate.
“All the evil and the hardships we are suffering are human and self-inflicted, which is the result of selfish desires and inclination,” he said, adding, “We have all sinned and departed from the path of righteousness.”
The Most Rev Palmer-Buckle asked Ghanaians to renounce wicked behaviour by calling on God with their might.
Caution to politicians
He cautioned politicians opposed to the government to desist from the practice of “sitting on the fence” and rather contribute their quota to the development of the nation.
Similarly, he advised the government to shy away from the politics of exclusion and bring everybody on board in the governance process.
Describing the two scenarios of exclusion by the government and sitting on the fence by the opposition, he advised the President to listen only to the voice of God and not the voice of prophets and priests.
He called on the Judiciary to let Ghanaians have confidence in the justice delivery system, since judges were men and women of integrity.
President
President Mahama, in his address to the congregation, stated that the country could only make progress if Ghanaians resolved to unite as one people with a singleness of purpose to find lasting solutions to the current economic challenges.
He said many nations across the world had been in crisis but they were able to overcome their challenges as a result of unity and singleness of purpose, irrespective of their differences.
“We can also recover if we work together and believe in our nation,” he said.
President Mahama expressed the conviction that with a positive frame of mind, the country could surmount the current difficulties, just as other nations had done, and called on Ghanaians to use the present moment as a turning point “in our relationship with one another, so let us go out and make things work for us”.
He was thankful to God that the service had coincided with the period of Ramadan and implored the Muslim community to commit the country into prayers.
Pessimists
President Mahama, however, expressed his displeasure at what was “becoming a nation of pessimists”, pointing it out that that attitude created a national psyche of hopelessness, when the country had actually made modest gains.
Making reference to a popular quote by the late former South African President, Nelson Mandela, “Until it is done, it is impossible”, the President asked the citizenry to celebrate those few successes, bearing in mind the fact that “a prosperous Ghana is possible”.
He reiterated that the current difficulties were temporary.