Vice President Lauds EP Church

Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Saturday commended the Evangelical Presbyterian (EP) Church, Ghana, for building health facilities and educational institutions from the basic to the tertiary level for national development. He said the Church had also been in the forefront of providing social amenities and basic infrastructure in deprived communities. The Vice President made the commendation in a speech read for him by the Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah on the occasion of the EP Church West Volta Presbytery Presbyters Union Silver Jubilee celebration in Accra. It was on the theme: �Enhancing Human Dignity-Vision of the Presbyter as a Steward of the Church.� Vice President Mahama said State-Church collaboration and partnership was even crucial as both strive to develop and to modernise society to improve the quality of life of people. The Vice President noted that Government in line with its agenda would remain committed to strengthening and deepening the cordial State-Church partnership in executing its development agenda to benefit the citizenry. He said the theme for the celebration was appropriate since government�s major policy was to invest in human resource as the catalyst for development.�Government has put in place relevant plans and programmes aimed at building human capacity to accomplish its development agenda,� he added. The Vice President lamented the high level of immorality among the youth, especially the issue of Internet fraud which has become known as �Sakawa�. He appealed to all stakeholders in the work of God not to hesitate in using whatever platform available to them to speak against the menace as well as many other vices plaguing the society. �As Church organisation you owe it a moral duty to evangelise to the youth within your catchment areas, and to influence them to channel their energies into productive ventures,� he said. Right Reverend Francis Amenu, Moderator of the General Assembly of the EP Church, Ghana, said presbyters as lay leaders of the church were expected to work in collaboration with pastors and other key leaders of the church to ensure growth and development in a holistic manner. �The Presbyters therefore in serving the members of the church in the various congregations should ensure that that services lead to enhancement of human dignity of their congregants,� he added. He noted that to be visionary in one�s leadership role was to be dedicated and bold to take decisive steps that would help to guarantee the growth and sustainability of the institution under their control. He said the activities of the Presbyters must go beyond the routine annual conference, workshops and seminars and lead to more concrete engagements of strategic plan focused on holistic evangelism, growth and development of structures and institutions. Rt. Rev Amenu said the Church needed investments to create avenues for the enhancement of human dignity to ensure economic viability. He congratulated the leadership and members of the union for their foresight to construct an office complex for the Church, which would enable the church to re-position itself in the enhancement of human dignity through effective stewardship and evangelism.