President Mahama was addressing the opening ceremony of the seventh General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian (EP) Church in Ho yesterday.
He commended the church for its role in conflict mediation, its reconciliation with the breakaway Global Evangelical Church and investments in education, agriculture, relief services, micro-finance, care for the aged, ecological justice and the reversal of climate change, publishing and hospitality services.
Funds for Eastern corridor road
President Mahama announced that $100 million from the Eurobond would be allocated to speed up work on the Volta Region portion of the Eastern corridor road.
He said he would return to the region to inaugurate one of the phases of the permanent campus of the University of Health and Allied Sciences and cut the sod for the proposed airport for Ho.
He commended the members of the Christian Health Association of Ghana for not taking part in the strike by members of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA).
‘EP Church, a trailblazer’
In his address, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the EP Church, the Right Rev. Dr Seth Senyo Agidi, said the church had worked with the state as a partner to improve the livelihoods of the people since it was established 168 years ago.
He said the church had been a trailblazer in establishing mission schools, colleges of education and a university, several agricultural projects, as well as health facilities, rural community development projects, care for the aged and hospitality services.
He said it was using the general assembly to take stock of its activities, with the view to reshaping its policies and programmes.
The Rt Rev. Dr Agidi bemoaned the contemporary tele-evangelism or the electronic church, without the true communal element or communion of the saints, saying the system was producing millions of consumers of religion who were a far cry from being true disciples.
“With the proliferation of churches, one expects Christians to serve as disciplined, committed and worthy disciples of Christ. Rather disappointingly, however, society is experiencing the worse forms of indiscipline, immorality and get-rich-quick attitude,” he said.