Ho, Jan 11, GNA - Right Reverend Dr Yaw Frimpong-Manso, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana on Sunday bemoaned the encroachment on the church's school lands in Ho saying it was an affront to both the church and the government. "Such acts were not only affronts to the Church but to government, which owned 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 were bent on having the school closed down.

Three mounds of sand were on the school park, only some 50 meters from the school and church blocks, ostensibly for constructional work to begin, for a private developer.

Rt. Rev. Dr Frimpong-Manso urged 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 soon. 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 land owners.

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, in a sermon said the raging debate among Christians on the rightness of baptism by immersing or sprinkling was not necessary. He said baptism was a Christian ritual and that the important thing was for Christians to live by the tenets of Christianity and not how one was baptized.