Right Reverend Thomas Brown Forson, Tema Diocesan Bishop, in an address said, “This is too serious an issue to play politics with”.

          Rt. Rev. Forson urged Ghanaians to speak with one voice and encourage each other to always act with the best of the nation at heart and posterity in mind.

          He stressed that “if the generation of Ghanaians before us had wasted the natural resources God has blessed our nation with the way we are wasting them, we would have been plunged into a trench of irredeemable poverty”

          Touching on activities of political vigilante groups, he called on the government and stakeholders to ensure that such groups were immediately disbanded and avoided before they turn into terrorist groups as had happened in other nations.

          Explaining the theme for the synod, the Bishop said for Christians to be relevant and attractive in today’s world, they should actively celebrate the faithfulness of God.

          The theme for the 20th synod is “Celebrating 20 years of God’s faithfulness towards the qualitative and quantitative growth of the church”.

          Rt. Rev. Forson reminded Christians that church growth was not only a spiritual matter but a combination of that and some socio-practical dimensions.

          He indicated that a church that would grow must do all that was necessary to nurture the personal growth of all its members, workers, leaders and ministers.

          He also called for a healthy relationship in the church as according to him “a church that is infested with quarrels, bickering, bigotries, fights, misunderstandings, hatred, unresolved crises, conflicts, among others cannot grow”.

          Other church growth contributing factors he spoke on were growing the church’s approach and method, social status of members, empowering members economically, taking advantage of technology and investing in dynamic structures.

          The Tema Dioceses which consists of 15 circuits spanning from Tema through to Ho and Ada was carved out of the Accra District on October 1, 1997 after a resolution was passed on it at the 35th Annual Conference of the Methodist Church Ghana at Winneba in August 1997.