Regional News of Monday, 12 January 2009

Source: GNA

Moderator speaks against encroachment on school lands

Ho, Jan 12, GNA - Right Reverend Dr Yaw Frimpong-Manso, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, has said it was wrong for people to encroach on the church's school lands in Ho and that it was an affront to both the church and the government. "Such acts are not only an affront to the Church but also to government, which owns the school," he said and called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to intervene.

Rt. Rev. Dr Frimpong-Manso was addressing a special church service at the RISS Presbyterian Church in Ho to induct Rev James Agborli-Adjokatse into office as the new Ho-Sub District Pastor. He said a playground was an important school infrastructure and could not be taken away by land owners except they are bent on having the school closed down. Rt. Rev. Dr Frimpong-Manso appealed to Rev Agborli-Adjokatse, who was transferred from Sameraboi, to work hard to increase the church's membership to enable the sub-district to attain the status of a district.

Mr Kofi La-Opare, Senior Presbyter of the Church, said the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) passed the land on to the Church but was reverted to the land owners, sparking unending litigation between the church and the landowners. Rev Agborli-Adjokatse pledged to work hard to grow and expand the 20-year old church currently under the Anum District. Rev Yaw Danso, Volta Presbytery Chairman of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, said in a sermon that the raging debate among Christians on the rightness of baptism by immersing or sprinkling was not necessary. He said the important thing was for Christians to live by the tenets of Christianity and not how one was baptized.