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The Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana, Rt. Rev. Titus Awotwe Pratt, has charged church leaders to live above reproach in order to have the moral right to speak against the ills of the society.

In his advice to Christians especially pastors, the Bishop noted there was too much evil deeds that were impediments to the development of the country, which pastors could condemn but were not able to do so because of their unjust ways of life.

Pointing out illegal mining that had destroyed lands and waterbodies in the country, Bishop Pratt admonished the church to be watch dogs of the society against such practices and be bold to condemn those who engaged in the act.

He was speaking at the induction ceremony of Right Rev Daniel K. Tanor as the Bishop of the Sunyani Diocese on Sunday.

Bishop Awotwe further said the were lots of wrong doings that were militating the development of the country, which required bold and exemplary leadership from Christians to correct them.

This, he said, would give pastors the mandate to speak truth to power for a healthy nation building.

"We must ensure that evil is not seen in the church,(and) corruption is not seen in the church, then we will have the mandate to tell government you are wrong or right . . . Unless we put our house in order, we have no moral right to tell anyone that you are wrong", he stressed.

Rt. Rev. Pratt also condemned some wrong doing among church leaders, which he likened to galamsey (illegal gold mining). He said extortion of monies from church members for the selfish gains of pastors was unacceptable and advised that they refrained from it.

He maintained that if those corrupt practices left the church, the clergy can always hold the government accountable at all times.

"On my way coming here, I looked at the Tano river as I crossed the bridge. It looked better than it did about 4 months ago because I think galamsey is now going down. Before we can speak against these evil, we must make sure there is no galamsey in the church."

Present at the induction ceremony were some government appointees including the Municipal Chief Executive for Sunyani East, Mrs Evelyn Kumi Richardson; Sunyani East MP, Kwasi Ameyaw Cheremeh; Rev Emmanuel Asante of the Christian Council and some traditional leaders in the Brong Ahafo Region.