THE Evangelical Presbyterian (EP) Church has entered the 21st century with a new set of leadership that has delivered services beyond the expectation of its congregation spread throughout Ghana and the Diaspora.
At the onset of the millennium in 2000, the Right Reverend Dr Livingstone Komla Buama and Reverend Frank Kwame Anku were consecrated to become the millennium spiritual leaders of the church, that is, the moderator and the synod clerk, respectively.
By Saturday, August 23, this year, the two men would have ended their two terms of office with significant achievements.
Their achievements manifested in the establishment of the premier university for the Volta Region and championing the peace process of the fratricidal war between the people of Nkonya and Alavanyo in the Jasikan and Hohoe districts, which had existed for more than eight decades as a result of land conflict.
The church was also actively involved in the implementation of international conventions, especially the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which bordered on gender issues. That led to the election of the first female presbyter executive, Mrs Lydia Adajawah.
The new university known as the Evangelical Presbyterian University College (EPUC) now has an outreach campus at the Peki Seminary of the church known as the Greenhills campus with the central campus at Ho.
The establishment of the university was not by chance. It serves as a symbol of the achievements of the church in the provision of sound education for Ghanaians for more than 100 years of the existence of the religious body in the Volta Region and other parts of the country.
The church, which was founded on November 14, 1847, has established two teacher training colleges at Amedzofe and Bimbilla, five senior high schools (SHS), 94 junior high schools (JHS), 370 primary schools, 197 kindergartens, two vocational institutions. A total of 2,908 teachers are currently teaching in the primary and JHS. It is logical that the ultimate was to establish a university to consolidate the path for quality education, and that has happened. Congratulations to the synod and the church.
Apart from the education portfolio, the EP Church has made outstanding achievements in agriculture, health, tourism and the hospitality industry, pharmacy.
The church has nine hospitals and clinics, six agricultural stations, one agricultural training centre, 23 self-help projects, a pharmacy and a hotel in Ho.
The church has also invested in the development of African womanhood, printing press, soap making, urban/rural water services, rural and community development, preservation, beads making, pottery, Kente weaving, carpentry, masonry and cookery.
Against the backdrop of those achievements, the EP church has stood tall and resistant to several challenges that have plagued it.
The climax of the synod is the election of a new moderator and a synod clerk, who are expected to work to generate funds to sustain the new university and the tempo of the peace process at Nkonya and Alavanyo.
Delegates to the synod should, therefore, consider themselves as apostles of the church and take decisions that would help the progress of the church.
The most crucial event of the synod is expected to be the election of a new moderator and synod.
The EP Church has more than 163, 000 members spread across 121 districts both local and international.
Although the church has faced several secession activities by some members, it continues to grow by leaps and bounds with more international partners.
The religion has overseas partner churches in Bremen, Germany, England, Wales and Scotland in the United Kingdom, Louisville, Cleveland, Atlanta, Ohio and Richmond in the United States of America.
The church has undertaken several projects such as the Agenda 21 project, which is still more relevant than before in view of the emphasis placed on “Climate Change” by the international communities in contemporary times.
What is more important about the church now is the mounting of an intensive campaign on the use of computers in village schools in order to bridge the gap between rural and urban schools.
The church should endeavour to advocate computer laboratories in all 94 JHSs and 370 primary schools in order to give all children of the church the opportunity to prepare adequately to meet the challenges of Information Communication Technology (ICT) that is currently ruling the world, and without which rural children would continue to be marginalised and remain underdeveloped.
This should be approached in the same vein as the church promulgated a policy on water as a precious gift of God in the previous synod.
Because it is a logical sequence that after the rural electrification programme, there should be a rural computerisation programme and other rural programmes to make life meaningful in rural areas.
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