The Bishop of the Somanya Diocese of the Methodist Church Ghana, Rt Rev. Albert Ofoe Wright, says the country will overcome its socio-economic challenges if the citizenry do away with laziness and cheating.
“We must be sincere and accountable to the nation in whatever positions that we occupy,” he said.
The bishop of the Somanya Diocese was addressing the 11th and his last synod at the Wesley Cathedral at Somanya on the theme, “Move forward: witnessing for Christian formation.” (Exodus 14:15).
Rt Rev. Wright said what the country was going through at the moment was a global affair, even though the experiences might be different from country to country.
He, however, said with patience, co-operation, hard work, commitment, dedication and determination, the nation would overcome the situation.
Rt Rev. Wright indicated that Christians who are citizens of this nation knew what was expected of them as good citizens in society and committed members of the church, organisations and institutions, but they hesitated to do the right thing, thereby dragging the nation backwards.
Rt Rev. Wright, who was elected and confirmed as the Bishop of Somanya Diocese at the fifth Biennial and 43rd Conference of the Methodist Church Ghana at Winneba in 2008, has served the diocese for six years.
Appeal
“Let us refrain from postponing what we know should be done in order to move Ghana, our churches and societies forward,” he urged.
The bishop observed that good relationship mattered most in nation building, and advised Christians and Ghanaians to relate well with others, devoid of anger, rage, malice, lies, slander and filthy language. Rather, he encouraged Ghanaians to cloth themselves with compassion, respect, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
“Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgives you and, above all these virtues, put on love which is the bond of perfection,” she stressed.
Crave for riches
The bishop noted that the tendency and crave of Ghanaians to be rich overnight was not a healthy practice. “These days, people want to be rich all of a sudden, ride in flashy cars and do all sorts of things that depict that they are very rich. Meanwhile their sources of the riches are doubtful,” he lamented.
He explained that there was nothing wrong for people to become rich, provided they got the riches through genuine means. According to him, the basic truth underlying riches is that those who get the wealth through genuine means have God’s blessings, whereas those who get rich by fictitious means have an answer to give one day.
He said Ghanaians should rather support one another “as we all work towards success of our organisations, churches and the nation at large”.
Call to serve
He maintained that God had called each Ghanaian to serve humanity and the nation in diverse ways, and urged all to stay focused. He frowned on people who looked down on others because of positions they occupied.
Rt Rev. Wright thanked the Methodist Church Ghana for the confidence reposed in him and the Somanya Diocese for the good working relationship he had enjoyed from them for the past six years, and advised them to extend the same to the new bishop who would take over from him in October this year.
At the end of the synod, the Very Rev. Alfred Nii Okai Aryeetey, the Diocesan Secretary, was elected as the new Bishop to replace Rt Rev. Wright for the next six years.
Communique
The synod, in its communiqué at the end of the programme, agreed to train interested members of the Methodist Church Ghana in sign language in order to reach out to the hearing-impaired during Sunday services. In the same vein, synod embraced the bishop’s admonition to build capacity for class leaders and lay preachers throughout the diocese.
The former Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana, Rt Rev. Samuel Asante Antwi, who witnessed the election of a bishop for the diocese for the first time, was full of praise for the delegates, and advised them to do same in the national elections in order to make way for free and fair results.
The Divisional Chief of Plau, a suburb of Somanya, Nene Tetteh Agbleze II, who was a special guest, urged the ministers of the Gospel to help the political leadership to give good governance to the people.
There were fraternal messages from sister churches in the Somanya Diocese.
