First Orthodox Anglican Church to be inaugurated at Sekondi

Takoradi, July 16, GNA- Most Reverend Dr Scott Earl Mclaughlin, Archbishop and Primate of the Orthodox Anglican Church in the United States, would inaugurate the first Orthodox Anglican Church in the West African sub-region in Ghana on July 28 this year at Sekondi. Mr Kofi Gyetsua Ankuma, Chairman of the Public Affairs Committee of the Orthodox Anglican Church, Ghana, announced this at a press conference on Monday at Takoradi.

He said the Church received its formal certificate of affiliation from the Orthodox Anglican Communion on Easter Sunday, April 8 2007. He said, "The Orthodox Anglican Communion was established in 1967 as a self-governing Anglican body with a worldwide fellowship of national Anglican Churches committed to the old paths of one holy Catholic and Apostolic Faith".

Mr Ankuma said the Communion is one of the first of such communions outside the See of Canterbury and the Church stands on "Biblical Faith and Morality and thus ordains only Godly Men to Holy Orders and affirms that marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman". He said the church does not subscribe to gayism and lesbianism and uses the traditional Anglican liturgy as found in the 1928 edition of the Book of Common Prayer.

Mr Ankuma said the Communion is one of the largest Anglican Fellowships worldwide with branches in Asia, Canada and parts of Africa with its headquarters in North Carolina in the United States. He said the Very Reverend Jacob Augustine Welbourne has been appointed the Vicar General of the Church in Ghana. Mr Ankuma said Archbishop Mclaughlin would arrive in the country on Tuesday July 24.