Pastor Calls For Campaign Against Alcoholism

Pastor Emmanuel Denteh, President of the Central Ghana Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church, at the weekend called for a vigorous national campaign against alcoholism and the promotion of alcoholic beverages in the media. He argued that if a campaign was being waged against smoking, something should also be done to discourage people from drinking alcohol. Pastor Denteh made the call in a sermon in Koforidua during the Ordination ceremony of four pastors to the Gospel Ministry of the East Ghana Conference of the SDA Church. Those ordained were Pastors Isaac Omari, 39, Charles Boamah, 46, Bernard Adu Yeboah, 51 and Shadrach Kwame Appiah, 34. Pastor Denteh noted with concern that instead of discouraging people from drinking, that habit was rather being promoted by massive advertisement of alcoholic beverages on television, radio and in newspapers to get more people hooked on alcohol. He indicated that alcoholism was not only dangerous to health but it also hindered productivity and worked against national progress, and that its use should be discouraged. Pastor Denteh spelled out ten success secrets for pastors, warning them against love for money and women which, he said, were dangerous to pastoral work. He advised pastors who were called �shepherds� and their wives �Shepherdesses� to stick to one another and promote peace and harmony in their homes to serve as an example to others. Pastor Denteh asked them to lead devotional lives and aim at high spiritual standards rather than positions since in God�s work, promotion was God�s responsibility. He urged them to be absolutely honest in all things and lead lives worthy of emulation. The President of the Ghana Union Conference of the Church, Pastor S.A. Larmi, told the new pastors that they had been vested with full ecclesiastical authority and charged them to serve as servants and �good soldiers of Jesus�. He urged them to be a good example to members of the church and the society at large, and to demonstrate purity, love and honesty and to work for the sake of the "Sheep� and not for money. Pastor F.Y. Adu Gyamfi, Ministerial Secretary of the Ghana Union Conference, later presented certificates to the newly ordained pastors.