It won’t be misplaced priority for gov’t to construct national shrine – Christian Council

• Posted on November 21, 2019
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) has explained that it will not be a misplaced priority for the government to construct a national shrine for Ghana.

The CCG said the fact that Christians do not believe in traditional religion and as such evangelizing to have them change does not mean traditional believers do not have the right to demand for what is due them.

The Minister of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Samuel Kofi Dzamesi, on Wednesday announced that the government is considering plans to build a national shrine for traditional leaders.

According to him, the construction of a national shrine would not be unrealistic since the Islamic and Christian faiths in the country have a national mosque and national cathedral respectively.

“Since I took office, as I said, we have a national mosque and now we are in the process of building a national cathedral. And few times, some traditional groupings have also approached me. There was a group of Wulom?i [Ga Traditional Priests] who also approached me and actually asked for a traditional shrine,” he explained.

Reacting to the issue on Onua FM’s Yen Sempa hosted by Nana Yaw Opare, the General Secretary of the CCG, Rev. Dr. Cyril G. K. Fayose, said: “Ghana is largely a Christian country. It is also a multi-religious country, so we do not have only Christian, we have Muslims, and traditional religions”.

“So if we have a national mosque and a national cathedral, I don’t think it’s a misplaced priority to have a national shrine.”

Rev. Dr. Fayose said “they have the right to ask. They are all evangelistic religions and they all want to convert people into their religions”.

“For us as Christians, our goal is evangelize the whole world so as the Muslims and may be traditional religions,” he explained.

Commission to audit churches

Commenting on the decision to audit churches to ensure they conform to the regulations of their registration, the man of God explained that “churches are registered by guarantee just as NGO so they must file their returns with the GRA at the end of the year”.

“Churches are to account to their members even though they are registered as charity.”

Rev Fayose believes the move to audit the churches “will sanitize the system so that we know what charity is and how it is registered”.

“Churches would be listed under a particular council so that some of the abuses that we are seeing in the system can also be regulated”.

The General Secretary said “it will include all churches. Everyone that calls itself a church must come under this”.

By Kweku Antwi-Otoo