Kumasi, Aug. 21, GNA - The Right Reverend Professor Emmanuel K. Asante, Presiding Bishop-elect of the Methodist Church, has called for stronger state-church partnership to address the myriad socio-economic challenges confronting the nation.

He said dealing with issues of unskilled labour, lack of functionally educational opportunities, cultural deprivation in rural and city centres and the problem of distributive and social justice demand closer collaboration.

"Neither the state nor church could alone do it", he said in an address to the Ninth biennial delegates conference of the Kumasi Diocese of the Union of Methodist Singing Bands, read for him by the Very Reverend I. K. Twum, the Diocesan Assistant Synod Secretary . The theme for the conference held at the Kumasi Wesley Girls Senior High School was "Be your brother's Keeper." The Rt. Rev. Professor Asante announced that the Kumasi Diocese of the Church has in partnership with the Rural Enterprises Project been providing skills training in soap-making for some of its members in deprived communities.

Newly established societies in the Sene District of the Yeji Circuit are among those to have benefited from this. He said what was needed now, was the capital to enable them to start production.

The Rt. Rev. Professor Asante, who is also the Bishop of the Kumasi Diocese, said he proposed to the Committee on Social Responsibility and Rural Development during this year's Synod to facilitate employable skills acquisition by members of the church.

This should be done through funding of production and marketing under a project to be dubbed "Methodist Corporate Venture." He said in order to serve as an effective instrument of growth, it was important they displayed compassion for one another.

The Presiding Bishop-elect called on them to do away with extravagance and greed, which he said were signs of social injustice and ensure that they assisted the deprived, poor and needy. Mr Johnny Oduro, the Diocesan President of the Union, said it has been active in all programmes of the church to reach out to the people through evangelism. He praised the members for their cooperation and called for the adoption of effective strategies to achieve set goals in the ensuing years.