Methodist Church Ghana launches 190th anniversary
The Methodist Church Ghana has launched the 190th anniversary of its existence in Ghana.
The launching ceremony coincided with what in Methodist circles is known as, Covenant Sunday, where Methodists make a Covenant with God on the first Sunday of the beginning of a new year.
The Methodist Church Ghana came into existence in 1835 as a result of missionary activities.
In the first eight years of the Church’s life, 11 out of 21 Missionaries who worked in the Gold Coast died.
Rev Joseph Rhodes Dunwell, who arrived in the Gold Coast in January 1835, and Thomas Birch Freeman, who arrived at the Gold Coast in 1838, were among the foremost missionaries of the church in Ghana.
The Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana, Most Rev Professor Johnson K. Asamoah-Gyadu, who led the leadership of the church to launch the anniversary celebration at Bethany Methodist Church, Dzowulu, today, Sunday, January, explained that the motto of the church, “Thy Kingdom Come,” which means, we seek the reign of God in the land and in the lives of people, making disciples, and bringing people up to maturity in Christ, would remain one of the anchor themes of the anniversary.
He added that the text on which the celebration would be based on was the same as that found in the first page of the Methodist Hymn Book, which is from Colossian 3:16.
"The celebrations are to be marked by worship and prayer services, singing festivals, processions, and other such activities meant firstly, to proclaim Jesus Christ as our Lord; secondly, to win souls for Christ; and thirdly to showcase the Methodist faith as handed down to us by the forebears of the faith led by John Wesley internationally, and Joseph R. Dunwell in the local setting. We have a great heritage as Methodists, and it must be celebrated to the glory of God. May God’s name be praised; may His glory be revealed; may His works be acknowledged; and may His Kingdom descend upon his people, our nation, and the world. Thy Kingdom Come." he declared at the anniversary launch to much pageantry.
He congratulated Ghanaian Methodists across the globe and invited them to celebrate with them the goodness and mercies of God.
He also paid tribute to the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of Methodism —beginning with the foreign missionaries who responded to the call of God and at great risk to their lives made the perilous journeys by sea to the then Gold Coast to sow the seeds of the Gospel of Jesus Christ among them.
He said currently, not only was the Church present across Ghana, but Ghanaian Methodists had also established immigrant congregations to take the Gospel to the secularizing West, from where missionaries came to serve God’s people in our land. "All this is to say, we have every reason to celebrate not just the goodness of God for our Church and her witness, but also the commitment of the men and women who have laboured to bequeath to us the great legacy called “The Methodist Church Ghana.”
Touching on the impact the church had made in Ghana, Most Rev Professor Asamoah-Gyadu said, a lot of the chaplains who served in the senior high schools and regimented organisations like the Ghana Armed Forces, Prison Service, Ghana Police, and Fire Service, were trained by the mission churches, especially the Methodist Church.
Going forward, he said the church would consider strengthening its presence in education, in health care, and other social services, and make sure that as they preached the gospel of Jesus Christ and make salvation for souls, they make their influence felt in the public sectors.
The Chairman of the 190th anniversary planning committee, Rt Rev Samuel Kofi Osabutey, mentioned the activities outlined for the anniversary celebration to include, new year school for young people; 190th anniversary; Diocesan float; musical concert, homecoming celebration for members of the church in the diaspora and a thanksgiving service in all societies to climax the anniversary in August.