Rt Rev. Dr Abraham Opare Kwakye (right), Moderator of the PCG, presenting a piece of the bicentennial cloth tp Simone Giger, the Swiss Ambassador to Ghana

Swiss Ambassador confers with Presby Moderator

Daily Graphic Oct - 18 - 2025 , 09:57 2 minutes read

The Swiss Ambassador to Ghana, Simone Giger, has visited the Moderator of the General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG), Rt Rev. Dr Abraham Nana Opare Kwakye, in Accra.

The visit was for them to discuss issues of common interest, and also for the Ambassador to undertake a familiarisation tour of the Head Office of the PCG.

Rt Rev. Opare Kwakye and Ms Giger, among other things, discussed activities earmarked for the commemorations of the church’s bicentennial celebrations, which have been launched and will be climaxed in 2028.

Present at the meeting were the Clerk of the General Assembly (GA) of the PCG, Rev. Dr Godwin Nii Noi Odonkor; GA Clerk-elect, Rev. David Aboagye-Danquah and his spouse, Evelyn Aboagye-Danquah. The moderator’s spouse, Mrs Benedicta Kwakye, was also present.

Switzerland and the PCG have a relationship dating as far back as 1828, when the Swiss missionaries arrived on the Gold Coast and formed the Basel Mission

On December 18, 1828, the Basel Mission Society sent its first missionaries, Johannes Philips Henke, Friedrich Salbach and Johannes Gottlieb Schmid, to take up work with the Danish Protectorate at Christianburg, Gold Coast.

Later on March 21, 1832, another batch of missionaries, including Andreas Riis, Peter Peterson Jager and Christian Heinze, the first mission doctor, arrived on the Gold Coast to support the work of the earlier missionaries.

The Director of Ecumenical and Social Relations, Rev. Andrew Odjawo, described the visit as heartwarming, with fruitful discussions on four key issues.

“We talked about the bicentennial celebration and a proposed ecumenical trip to Switzerland, an archives project, a public lecture on ecological crisis (galamsey), the legacy of our missionaries and the development of our heritage sites.

“The relationship between the PCG and Switzerland has always been cordial, and the visit was just for the Ambassador to touch base and to be updated on preparations to celebrate the bicentennial anniversary,” Rev Odjawo said.