Clergy asked to champion peace-building activities
The Vice-President of the Pan African Bible Seminary (PABS), Rt Rev. Dr Frederick Akakpo, has urged the clergy to champion peace-building activities in their electoral areas to make the 2016 general election peaceful.
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“Use the pulpit to preach peace, tolerance and insult-free electioneering and elections,” he urged the clergy and also asked them to mentor politicians who were members of their churches “to set the right pace for others to follow”.
Rt Rev. Akakpo said this at the elevation and consecration ceremony of the Head Pastor of God’s Ministry International, Rev. Charles Ofori, to the status of Very Reverend.
He acknowledged that voter education was paramount in attaining peaceful elections and, therefore, charged pastors to join the task as part of their national duty.
He called on the clergy and the church not to “stand aloof and watch governments and for that matter political parties wreck our country because of elections”.
Negative impact of elections
Rt Rev. Akakpo observed that one of the activities that bedevilled many African countries and endangered democracy was election.
“Power drunkenness, personal greed, inordinate desire to perpetuate a government in power and dishonesty have pushed many African leaders and political parties to rig elections, make bad policies, which promote corruption, and even when they have lost elections genuinely, they mislead the youth to take arms to destabilise nations,” he said.
Predictions
Speaking on the theme, “The Role of the Ghanaian Clergy in the 2016 General Election”, he advised members of the clergy to desist from predicting election results even before the Electoral Commission (EC) declared them.
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He said the clergy should rather constantly educate their members to help reduce the tension that was always associated with elections in the country.
The Dean of PABS, Rev. Prof. Ebenezer Marquaye, in his sermon said it was paramount that Christians, who contributed to the development of the country through hard work, desisted from activities that could lead the church to eternal condemnation over the upcoming 2016 general election.