Yendi Presbyterian Church has been elevated from sub-district to a full district status in the Northern Presbytery of Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG). Right Reverend Dr Yaw Frimpong-Manso, Moderator of the General Assembly of Presbyterian Church of Ghana, in a sermon said a major problem facing the church and nation was complacency because of over-reliance on past achievements and lack of absolute trust in the Lord.

“As members of the church and nation, we must not rely on past achievements and relax in all our endeavours but work hard to develop,” he added.

He said to mature as a church and a nation members and the citizenry must recognize the authority of God, confess their sins and weaknesses and place their faith absolutely in Jesus Christ and work hard to achieve their goals.

Rt-Rev. Frimpong-Manso said as a district, they were expected to make a positive impact in all spheres of their church life, mission and evangelism, not forgetting their financial commitments.

He appealed to them to find ways and means of raising funds from within and outside their congregation for the development of the church infrastructure, evangelism and social services.

Rt-Rev Frimpong-Manso said the nation was gradually being divided on political partisanship and ethnocentric groups and that was a dangerous precedent being set for development.

He said “these current trends of bitter partisanship, chieftaincy disputes, ethnocentrism, division, rancour and all manner of abuses on the airwaves would not help us as a nation and more especially when the youth get involved in such divisive tendencies it would not help us as a nation,“ he added.

Rt-Rev. Frimpong-Manso observed that corruption, falsehood and greed at the heart of every individual, enterprise and society must be eliminated.

He advised congregations in the district to be avenues for peace and reconciliation for people in the area.

Rev. Kwasi Addai-Naami, Northern Presbytery Chairman of the church said the first Basel Mission station in the North was established at Yendi in January 1913 by three Basel Missionaries.

He said one of them Rev. Hans Huppenbauer embarked on an intensive language studying and began to translate the Bible into Dagbani.

Rev. Addai-Naami said in 1914 they established a school at Yendi and in December 1915 Rev. Huppenbauer read a portion of scriptures in Dagbani for the first time.

He said unfortunately the First World War led to the closure of the mission in the area in 1916.

Rev. Addai-Naami said the present Yendi Presbyterian Church was established in 1976.

Alhaji Mohammed Habib Tijani, Yendi Municipal Chief Executive said the church had been cooperative and progressive in the development of the municipality even though located in a dominant Muslim community.

He said the assembly was privileged to have a kindergarten, primary and a Junior High School established by the church that were contributing towards education of the youth.

Alhaji Habib Tijani called on the church to consider including Information Communication and Technology (ICT) to the facilities already established to provide a model institution.

Warrant Officer Class One, Lana Abdulai Sulemana who represented the Regent of Dagbon, appealed to the church to establish a training college to admit students from Senior High Schools in the area.

He the E.P. Training College at Bimbilla could not cope with the many students who qualified to gain admission because of the limited vacancies.