General News of Tuesday, 1 April 2008

Source: GNA

Orthodox Anglican church to get first Bishop in Ghana

Sekondi, April. 1, GNA- The Very Reverend Doctor Jacob Augustine Welbourne, would be consecrated and enthroned as the first bishop of the orthodox Anglican Church of Ghana at Sekondi on April 6, this year. The service would be held at the Cathedral Church of the Resurrection of the Diocese of Saints Peter and Paul, the Apostles at Sekondi.

These were contained in a release faxed to the GNA and signed by Rev. Father Edward Kwamina Minnah, Rector of the Church.

The Primate and Archbishop of the orthodox Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Dr. Scott Earl McLaughlin would perform the consecration service. Other bishops expected include Rt. Rev. Alphonse Mifika, Presiding Bishop of the Democratic republic of Congo, and Rt. Rev. Hesbon Njera, Presiding Bishop of Kenya.

Rev. Welbourne was ordained a deacon in 1981 and a priest the following year.

The release said between 1983 and 1994, he was the rector of the Trinity Episcopal Church in New Jersey and St. Clement's Episcopal Church in Michigan all in the United States of America. He was the parish priest of the St. Augustine's Anglican Church at Dansoman and was transferred in 2002 and made the Dean of the cathedral church of Saint Andrew the Apostle, at Sekondi. In 2006, he and four other church members of the church were charged for contempt of court, imprisoned and upon their release broke away to form the Orthodox Anglican Church at Sekondi.