Accra, June 28, GNA - The Ghana Pentecostal Council (GPC) on Wednesday inaugurated a seven-member National Committee chaired by the Reverend William W. Dontoh, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God Church and second Vice President of the GPC, to oversee the affairs of Social Action Committee (SAC) of the various churches.

Other members are Rev Dr Michael Tawiah-Ransford, a Health Practitioner as Secretary, with Rev Dr Seth Ablorh, Manna Mission, as a member in charge of Health and the Rev Dr Gordon Kisseih, Miracle Life, Member in charge of Christian Education, all chairpersons of the various sub-committees of the SAC.

The rest are Bishop Seth Abbey, Calvary Apostolic Ministries, also a member in charge of Inter-Religious issues, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Gbordzoe, Global Evangelical Church, member in charge of Social and Economic Affairs and Elder Dr Yao Yeboah, Church of Pentecost, member in charge of NGOs.

The members of the SAC are expected to lead their respective sub-committees to survey the efforts of government and input of stakeholders to enable them to generate ideas on how to complement these efforts.

In his inaugural address on Wednesday, Apostle Ekow Badu-Wood, General Secretary of the GPC, said the demonstration of God's love to humanity through the provision of social services was one of the core visions of the Council and urged the Committee to work hard to achieve results.

He said unlike developed economies where such social need could be left to governments to fulfil, the Church in developing countries needed to deal with both metaphysical issues relating to the salvation of the soul as well as on other physical needs of their societies. Apostle Badu-Wood said though individual member churches of the Council were already involved in the delivery of various social services including education, health and building infrastructure and that the GPC's SAC was expected to coordinate all those efforts and further bring aboard other member churches to live up to their civic and social obligations.

He said the GPC's SAC would also provide a platform through the organisation of nationwide seminars and workshops to discuss socio-economic, political and development issues affecting the nation for a more viable social delivery from the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches.

Apostle Badu-Wood commended the Ghana Black Stars for their performance at on World Cup 2006 in Germany where they were able to reach the 1/16 stage of the competition. He said Ghana's defeat by the Samba boys of Brazil on Tuesday, was a painful one, but worth the venture and wished the Black Stars better luck next time.