Regional News of Monday, 19 July 2004

Source: GNA

Churches must transform lives- Presiding Bishop

Kumasi, July 19, GNA- The Most Reverend Dr Robert Aboagye-Mensah, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, has called on Churches to live up to its role of helping to transform lives and promote genuine peace and progress in the society.

This, he said, called for Christ-centred teachings to enable people to make right decisions and choices.

The Most Reverend Dr Aboagye-Mensah was preaching the sermon at a service at the Wesley Methodist Cathedral to round off his one-week pastoral visit to the Kumasi Diocese of the church on Sunday. He observed that those who follow Christ are merely nominal Christians who "do not actually know what they want".

He explained why there was so much struggle and clamour for materialism instead of fighting to get salvation.

The presiding Bishop said it was important for the church to intensify its evangelism to save more souls for God and prevent charlatans from misleading innocent and unsuspecting people with self-serving religious doctrines.

The Most Rev Dr Aboagye-Mensah later laid a foundation stone for a 2.3 billion-cedis multi-purpose church complex and inaugurated a 500 million cedis refurbished clinic completed by the Wesley Cathedral in Kumasi.

The four-storey two semi-detached complex has facilities for a banking hall, guest rooms, a conference hall, offices and an apartment for the resident Minister and scheduled to be completed within 78 weeks. The project was started in March and is being financed from the church's own resources.

The Presiding Bishop said he was highly impressed by the numerous development activities the church aimed at bringing social progress to the people.