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The call on Parliament to enact a law to regulate activities of churches must be extended to all other faiths in Ghana, the Moderator of the Global Evangelical Church, the Right Rev. Dr Setorwu Kwadzo Ofori, has said.

While admitting that some self-styled preachers and bishops were giving Christianity a bad name hence the decision of Parliament to legislate on activities of churches, he said that decision needed to be extended to all other religions in the country, including traditional religion.

According to him, it was only reasonable that the African Traditional Religion which enslaved people, through practices like Trokosi for years, was not left out of the call for legislation.

“When issues about the church comes up then people are up-in-arms, but when that of other religions come then we are quiet,” he said at the ordination of 22 pastors of the church at the Trinity Parish of the church at Kotobabi in Accra.

According to the church’s doctrine, a pastor qualifies for ordination after graduating from the Global Theological Seminary (GTS), the church’s pastoral training school, and serving and ‘pastoring’ a congregation for two years.

The ordination ceremony at the packed auditorium of the Trinity Parish at Kotobabi was marked by praises, worship and cheers on a day that a female and 22 men were ordained for the ministry.

Speaker’s order

The Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye, in May this year, gave a joint committee of Parliament a one-month deadline to develop recommendations on the possible regulation of churches in the country.

The committee tasked with this responsibility comprised the Youth, Sports and Culture Committee, and the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee.

The referral follows a debate on the Floor where some MPs called for the state to regulate the activities of one-man churches due to the many excesses associated with their activities.

The house was divided on the matter with some members arguing that it would not be biblical to regulate churches.

Christian leaders’ lifestyle

The GEC Moderator observed that although it would be a herculean task to legislate on Christianity, the issues were gaining traction because of the way some Christian leaders were living.

He, therefore, challenged the newly ordained ministers to preach God’s word without the self-glorification that had become associated with some ministers of the gospel today.

“Please preach the word and invite people to accept Christ. Teach them, nurture them. Don’t resort to those things that will project you for people to say that you are powerful. Yes, if God has given you the gift, yes use the gift but it is not you, it is God. Go and do God’s work faithfully. If you do that he will bless you faithfully.

He also urged Christians not to be deluded by the notion that once they accepted Christ, their salvation was guaranteed, no matter the sins they were involved in daily.

“After accepting Christ, you must live for Christ faithfully every day. You can’t say that because you are a Christian, you are predestined and you can’t lose your salvation so anything goes,” he said.

He also expressed concern about what he described as the watering down of the word of God by some preachers which made it seem as though some things were hidden from the faithful, arguing that everything was laid bare to all Christians.