To commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Accra Wesley Cathedral, the Methodist Church Ghana has held ThanksGiving Service for its dedication.
The thanksgiving service held was to acknowledge the sacrifices made by the founding fathers of the Accra Wesley Cathedral.
In a goodwill message to the members of the Cathedral, the Presiding Bishop, the Most Reverend Dr. Paul Boafo admonished the church to pause and reflect on the reason for the existence of the church together with the vision of the forebears who bequeathed the Cathedral to them.
Indicating that, the forebears had the vision of building up a community of faith full of dedicated and committed individuals who will not only keep faith but also spread it.
“Based on this, I expect that, you will make this church a Missional one, with the help and support of the Holy Spirit”, he noted.
The 60th Anniversary of the dedication of the Accra Wesley Cathedral begun with a launch on Sunday, 8th December, 2019, followed by a float on Saturday, 11th January, 2020 through the principal streets of Accra.
In addition, quiz competition on Saturday, 18th January, 2020, sports activities, rededication service, a Stephen-Odunton-Armar memorial lecture as well a thanksgiving service on Sunday, 2nd February, 2020.
Speaking on the theme, “60 years of Church dedication: Celebrating the Past, Living Today and Creating Our Future”, the Presiding Bishop charged members to let this be the standard in all their endeavours.
“Celebrating the strong foundation laid by your elders and through it carving an ethos of distinction for this cathedral”, he opined.
Therefore hoped that, the Anniversary will bring all members of the Cathedral together and urged them on to achieve greater things for the Lord.
Furthermore ” Let the purpose of worship and celebrating the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord continue to remain a priority in the coming years”.
Hence charged them to keep to the strict maintenance of the Cathedral and should see it as a rallying point for all who want to experience God.
On his part, the Bishop of Accra Diocese, the Rt. Reverend Samuel Kofi Osabutey acknowledged that, the Cathedral as the “Seat” of the Bishop has been a source of great inspiration and excitement for the Methodist Church of Ghana over past several years and thanked the Superintendent Minister, Ministers and the entire membership of the Church.
Construction of a Chapel he noted is an important event in a Church’s history because it serves as a place of worship of God’s children and therefore foster good interpersonal relationship between members.
To continue maintaining the Cathedral, the Bishop of the Accra Diocese stressed on the need for more resources in its quest to render continual services to God and to Humanity.
“The Cathedral is the house of the Almighty God and therefore must continually be kept clean and holy, so that, all who are burdened and those outside the fold might love to come in for counseling in order to experience the love of God in their lives”, he advised.
For him, the Superintendent Minister for Accra Circuit, the Very Reverend Dr. Nana Kwesi Bart-Plange, the 60th Anniversary celebration of the dedication of the Cathedral truly shows, that, the Accra Wesley Church have come this far by faith.
Adding “the Lord had brought us a long way and He will not leave us nor forsake us, the future of the Church is Blessed”.
He however admitted that, they have not made it this far by themselves, but through many who have gone on before them, hence paved the way for where they are in the year 2020.
The 60th anniversary of the dedication, he noted is special because it afforded them to honor the memory of the Most Rev. Dr. Jacob Stanley Adams Stephens, Bro. Joseph Bennet Odunton and Bro. Dr. Augustus Amartei Armar.
According to him, the Cathedral has been a “house of bread” to bring new hope to the hopeless indicating Rev. Thomas Birch Freeman has been a blessing to thousands of people.
To him, the Cathedral should be the foundation on which the church will grow, therefore urged all and sundry to remain steadfast and continue to uphold those values that have been passed down from heroes who sacrificed so much to put up the edifice.
He therefore used the ocassion to call on the members of the Methodist Church to firmly uphold the church’s theme for 2020 church year: “Discipleship: Teaching Everyone To Live Like Jesus Christ”.
“Let us go out and tach the world about Jesus Christ so that, we will all live like him”, he added.
Meanwhile, the Society Steward, Brother Emmanuel Nii Lamprey called on the current generation especially the young ones to take cue from the sacrifices of past generations, and make the Cathedral a sacred place of worship.
The construction works of the Accra Wesley Church started in 1920 with the foundation stone laid in 1922 by the then Governor of the Gold Coast, Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg together with Reverend E.W. Thompson and Sir Arthur Black, both of whom travelled from England for the ceremony.
The construction took forty years for its completion in 1960 when the Accra Wesley cathedral was formally opened and dedicated to the glory of God.
Source: www.thenewindependentonline.com/ Ishmael Barfi/ senghana@gmail.com
