Government lauds development roles of Presbyterian Church
Government has lauded the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG) for playing major roles in various sectors of the economy in the areas of health and agriculture to help develop the country.
Mr Kwaku Agyemang Manu, Minister of Health, gave the commendation at the opening of this year’s annual performance review meeting of the Health Services, Agriculture Services and the Relief and Development Services of the PCG on Wednesday 12th February 2020 at Bethel Heights Hotel, Madina.
He said the Presbyterian Church of Ghana health facilities spread across the country have complemented government’s efforts at improving quality health care delivery in the country.
He said the construction of a new district hospital in Aburi in the Akuapem South District at the site of the Kom Presbyterian Clinic to replace the existing facility is part of the partnership between the state and the Church.
The Minister pledged that that government would continue to partner churches to provide quality health care delivery as required by World Health Organization.
The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rt Rev Prof Joseph Obiri Yeboah Mante said the church was happy to partner the government to enhance healthcare delivery in the country.
He expressed gratitude to the government for elevating the Kom Presbyterian Clinic into a district hospital and assured that the Church would continue to support in healthcare delivery because it was the first to bring healthcare services to Ghana.
Rt Rev Prof Mante said the Presbyterian Church of Ghana for the past One Hundred and Ninety One years in its quest to be Christ-Centred, Self-Sustaining and a Growing Church had used a three-prong approach in its mission work – namely Preaching, Teaching and Healing. This approach has been fashioned after the patterns of Jesus Christ as stated in Mathew 9:35:
“In a typical Presbyterian enclave in any city, town, village, one would see a Chapel and school and then, in some of the places a healthcare facility. The teaching and preaching of the good news are supposed to bring healing to the sick – that which can be physically discerned as unwell or ill-health and the “dis-eased” – a myriad of conditions that make people uncomfortable. When the good news has been proclaimed, it is supposed to bring wholeness” he said.
The Moderator said that the PCG had undertaken a holistic mission by operating under three broad themes: Spiritual, Moral and Social Witness.
He explained that under Spiritual witness, the Church engages in activities that call people’s attention back to God and stresses the total depravity of man and the salvation power of Jesus Christ, the need to daily repent and renew oneself in the grace God provides. The Moderator said as result, the Church has close to five thousand Congregations globally where the unadulterated word of God is taught in its entirety.
Under Moral Witness, the Church calls attention to a life of integrity in both the public and private space. The stress on discipline, and high ethical standards, something that every Presbyterian person is expected to live by.
He said the Church also engages in social witness in the provision of Social Services – Education, Health Agriculture, and Relief Services. This Social Witness of the Church dates back to the very onset of the mission work. He said in education, the PCG pioneered formal education now as follows; 2,440 Basic Schools, 30 SHS, 3 Vocational Schools, 5 Colleges of Education, 4 Nurses Training Colleges, 5 Lay Training Centres, 2 Research Institutions and 2 Universities
In the area of health the Church has established four health training institutions and a health-related faculty in the Presbyterian University College, Ghana, fifty-five health care facilities from Health Post to sub-regional Hospitals that have gained a reputation in specialties across the West African sub-region.
In the area of agriculture, the Moderator mentioned that several communities are largely dependent on the Church’s role in these areas. With seven Agric Stations, the PCG acquired several hectares of land to engage in Agriculture breeding livestock and engaging in crop production.
He said the Presbyterian Agricultural Station at Tease, Donkorkrom and parts of the Afram Plains and the many dotted Agric stations in the five regions of the North are key stakeholders in the Government’s Planting and Rearing for Food and Jobs programmes are to succeed.
The Moderator said the mutual benefits of partnerships in the provision of health care to the communities cannot be overemphasized, explaining that the Church has partnered the Government over the years and this Church-State partnership over the years has crystallized. He commended government for payment of staff remuneration and infrastructure.
“We are grateful to the government for these benefits that the partnership brings. These investments by the State have brought huge relief to the Church”
Mr Peter Yeboah, the Executive Director of Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) commended the Presbyterian Health Service as the third largest single health service provider in the country after the Roman Catholic Church and the Ghana Health Service.
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mr Kennedy Osei Nyarko on his part praised the Church on its efforts to improve agriculture production and visibility in the country. He said the government had introduced a number of interventions in the Agric sector and therefore urged the Church to take advantage of such interventions to expand its agriculture sector.
Source: Rev George Larbi
