Confer In Atlanta

Over 80 Delegates and Observers mostly Ministers and Leaders of 14 Societies of The Methodist Church Ghana will meet in Atlanta from April 23 to 26th 2009 to pray, plan and project as to the future of their Societies.

The Annual Meeting under the Theme “ARISE, SHINE FOR THY LIGHT IS COME” is hosted by Ghana Ebenezer Methodist Church, Lilburn, Atlanta. It is the First-ever Meeting of these Societies and will be a Business Meeting by all standards. Groundbreaking decisions affecting the Societies and the Mission will be discussed. High on the Agenda will be Proposals for the creation of a Diocese of the Church in North America and Elections of Officers to lead the Mission.

The Meeting will commence with a Formal Opening Ceremony to be addressed by Dignitaries including Nana Gyetuah Acheampong, Asantefuohene of Atlanta. The Meeting will immediately thereafter plunge into the business of Discussions on the way forward for these Societies, which have for years striven to be united and subject to the Conference of the Mother Church in Ghana. Meetings of the Officers of the Association of Methodist Men’s Fellowships of North America, The Women’s Fellowship Interim Council and the Choir Co-ordinating Council will also be held.

It will not be talk only though as a Half-night Prayer Meeting to be led by Ghana Methodist Evangelist Edwin Oppong Boateng is scheduled for Saturday night. Another important event will be the Inauguration of the Ghana Ebenezer Methodist Women’s Fellowship, which has drawn some Observers from Sister Fellowships from all over North America. All these activities will come to a head when a Thanksgiving Service is held on Sunday 26th April 2009 to thank God for the new wind of change blowing over these Societies among others. The singing of Methodist Hymns and Ebibindwom will characterize the sessions of this Denomination, which still holds to the truism that ‘Methodism was born in song’.

Very Rev. Charles Ekuban, a former Synod Secretary of Sekondi Diocese of The Methodist Church Ghana, now schooling in the USA, in an interview stated, “It is my fervent hope and prayer that the Delegates attending the Meeting will discuss issues passionately and that the results of the Meeting will give a new face to the work being done in North America. It is my prayer that the efforts of the church life over the years, which had been clouded by very unfortunate incidents, will now become clearly evinced, so that the process for a Diocesan status could be encouraged. I hope that the Atlanta Meeting would bring all Ghanaian Methodist Ministers and Churches together. That, “the fighting’s without and within” will cease, so we can all appreciate and preserve our traditions as Methodist Church Ghana. Last but not the least, I hope that the Mother Church in Ghana and those of us in North America will be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and examine our Church life in the light of the age and circumstances in which we live”.

Vice Chairman of Lay Movement Council of North America, Bro. Baffour Amoateng commenting on the events leading to this Meeting stated, “I am happy to see an efficient administration of all the Church Organisations namely the Choir, Men’s Fellowship, Women’s Fellowship and Youth Fellowship. I am glad to see our Circuits functioning well. Our next agenda is to plant more Churches in all the States and I know by the grace of the Almighty God this is within our reach because we are guided by His Holy Spirit to accomplish the great Commission.”

The host Minister Very Rev. Isaac Ishmael Arthur told the Reporters that his Society has prepared for months praying and planning to host this auspicious Occasion and with God’s help will do so successfully.

As the Delegates and Observers fly and drive to Atlanta they may not have Georgia on their minds but many are the expectations and the hope that as they leave for home these leaders of the North American Mission will have on their minds a stanza of a well known Hymn -

Though with a scornful wonder Men see her sore oppressed, By schisms rent asunder, By heresies distressed: Yet saints their watch are keeping, Their cry goes up, “How long?” And soon the night of weeping Shall be the morn of song! [MHB 701]