Govt will partner religious organisations

THE Deputy Minister of Local Government, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, has said the government will collaborate with religious bodies to build a morally conscious society in order to minimise corruption.
Mr Ankrah said until society became morally upright corruption would continue to erode all the efforts of the central government to provide development to the people.
He said this in an address he delivered at the National Convention of the Men Ministry of the Global Evangelical Church in Accra, which was held on the theme: “Fulfilling God’s purpose through your gift.”
Mr Ankrah, therefore, called on religious leaders to endeavour to live by the standards they preached on the pulpit to set good examples for society.
The Deputy Minister said he was not happy about the over concentration of churches on issues related to generational or ancestral curses within their members.
This situation, he said, “painted a negative picture about our ancestors, and if there are generational curses as it is called, then I believe also that there will be generational blessings, let us put our efforts into identifying those blessings to develop the person and the nation.”
Mr Ankrah told the congregation that they could not build the Kingdom of God without building the nation, saying, “the Bible states that as you do for these little ones you do for me, adding that in the same way as you build the nation, you would be building indirectly the Kingdom of God as well.
He said the amount of time spent by churches in exorcising demons out of members could also be channelled into locating good things in those people.
“Let us have a better approach to some of these things for the good of society,” he said.
Mr Ankrah told the men in the gathering that their role as Christians in society was not being felt by the larger community, and called on them to put in much effort.
Mr Ankrah said the government was putting in place the right structures that would bring about different styles of leadership in the country, and therefore, called for patience and tolerance.
In his address, the Moderator of the Global Evangelical Church, Rt. Rev Dr E. K. Gbordzoe, said that the church had for a long time assisted the central government in many ways.
Rev Dr Gbordzoe cited some collaborations in the areas of the provision of schools and hospitals to augment what the government was providing for the people.
He added his voice to the call for decent dressing in the country, particularly, and attributed the situation to the over concentration on foreign cultures, which he said, was having a negative impact on the youth.
Rev Gbordzoe gave a pledge that the church would continue to support the government in its efforts at eradicating poverty and providing better standards of living for the Ghanaian.
For his part, the Director of the Men’s Ministry of the Global Evangelical Church, Rev N. Y. Azalekor, commended the government for the swift and non-partisan manner it had handled the conflicts in the northern part of the country.
He said the church would continue to support the government with prayers to overcome the challenges the government was facing in this direction.
Rev Azalekor asked the government to put in place policies that would create jobs for the youth.
The main speaker at the five-day convention was Rev J. F. K. Mensah, Chairman of the Apostolic Council of the Great Commission Church International.
Rev Gbordzoe led the congregation to pray for the nation.