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Executive Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana has expressed his desire to see a female moderator for the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.

Speaking to JoyNews’ Dzifa Bampoe, Rev Dr Opuni-Frimpong was addressing the possibility of Ghana hitting its 2030 gender target of having a reasonable number of women being moderators of the member churches of the Christian Council.

Rev Opuni-Frimpong explained that with some member churches having “very clear positions when it comes to women in Ministry, to the extent that they may not ordain women as ministers at all”, the target will not be easy to reach.

Narrowing down the conversation to churches that have come to the point of ordaining women as pastors, he explained that the task would rather be in getting them climb up the ranks, as the Ghanaian culture may not be ready for such change.

“The possibility is there but when that will happen is the issue,” he said, pointing out that the Presbyterian Church has had a female bishop or regional head but that “society must get ready for that.”

He was of the opinion that it is not only men restricting the rise of women in the church, saying that “surprisingly you find women also behaving like that…who are not ready to see a woman as their district minister or local pastor.”

“I think that the cultural side of it…our African societies are too masculine”, he bemoaned.

Rev Opuni-Frimpong noted that several women have played active roles in both the old and new testaments of the bible and as such, women’s roles in the church should not be discounted.

“So we need to create space for the gifts of women to come up but we must also encourage the women because sometimes it’s very intimidating”.

He concluded by saying, “I want to see a Presbyterian woman being a moderator in the years ahead of us.”

The United Nations has set the year 2030 as the target to end gender inequality. This means that Ghana has 15 years in which to make good on its 2030 gender targets.

Ghana’s targets which set out to make women visible in all leadership in the country, include among others, to have women fill 60 percent of Parliamentary seats and to have a 60:40 representation of females in all educational levels.

The targets list also that there should be a complete elimination of female genital mutilation, and that a “reasonable number of women should be moderators of the member churches of the Christian Council of Ghana.