LIVE ABOVE REPROACH (PAGE 25)

THE Chairman of the Brong Ahafo Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG), Reverend R.R. Brobbey, has cautioned newly ordained ministers of the church to live above reproach or face the appropriate sanctions.
He said it had become a common phenomenon that some ministers of the church did not discharge their work in the right manner and to the displeasure of their congregation, who consequently, rejected those ministers as their leaders.
“Now that you have been fully ordained as ministers of the church, there will be no longer excuse for you to go contrary to the virtues of the church, and the leadership will not hesitate to heed to the call and protests by your congregations to sack you,” he warned.
Rev. Brobbey declared, “Some of you have been pardoned before when you had only been commissioned for having misconducted yourselves to the displeasure of your church members, but now that you are full-fledged ordained priests, you have to strictly follow the rules and regulations that govern the church’s activities or else you will be sacked.”
Rev. Brobbey gave the caution at the opening of the 43rd Presbytery meeting in Sunyani during which some newly commissioned, newly ordained and newly transferred ministers as well as new presbyters, new catechists and other personalities of the church, were presented to the presbytery.
He stated that as ministers of the church, they would be judged by the prompt and adequate payment of assessment to the General Assembly of the church.
Rev. Brobbey stated that although some of the ministers organised periodic crusades, revivals and healing which brought money to their respective churches, they failed to account for those monies to the General Assembly.
He reminded the ministers that since they were paid from the coffers of the General Assembly, they had financial obligations to the leadership of the church, adding that some of the ministers were only interested in projects being undertaken by their respective churches.
He said as presbyters, everyone had a crucial role to play in the general uplift of the church, stressing that the PCG believed in democracy.
According to Rev. Brobbey, all other members of the PCG had a unique role to play in the progress of the church, and that whoever misbehaved or misconducted himself or herself had a direct bearing on the church since the media would not spare them.
The Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Eric Opoku, stated that mission schools were basically established to inculcate the values of the various churches in children but observed that the children rather came out of those schools worse off, thereby eroding the purpose of the missionaries.
He, however, stated that with the assistance of the church, the government would find solutions to the myriad of problems confronting the country, especially unemployment of the youth.