 | |
| Formation | 30 October 1929 |
|---|---|
| Type | Ecumenical body |
General Secretary | Cyril Fayose |
| Website | www.christiancouncilgh.org |
The Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) is an umbrella group that unites 31 churches and denominations in Ghana. [1] The council has its members from Church of Power World Ministry, Charismatic, Pentecostal, Orthodox, Inside God Christian college, and other churches.
The CCG was formed on 30 October 1929. [1] Five churches, namely:
united aiming to work with various congregations on social matters and to speak for the voiceless in society. [1] [2]
The council has been restructured several times since its formation. It currently includes 29 churches and two Christian organizations. [1] [3]
Chairpersons of the Christian Council of Ghana [4] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| From | To | Name | Organisation |
| 1929 | 1934 | Rt. Rev. J. O. Anglionby | Anglican Diocese of Accra |
| 1935 | 1937 | Rev. C. W. Armstrong | |
| 1938 | 1939 | Rev. H. H. G. MacMillan | Accra Ridge Church |
| 1940 | 1943 | Rev. M. B. Taylor | Methodist Church Ghana |
| 1944 | 1945 | Rev. J. Bardsley | |
| 1946 | 1949 | Rev. M. B. Taylor | Methodist Church Ghana |
| 1950 | 1950 | Rev. C. G. Baëta | Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana |
| 1951 | 1951 | Rev. Canon C. H. Elliot | |
| 1952 | 1953 | Rt. Rev. J. C. Daly | Bishop of Accra |
| 1953 | 1956 | Rev. S. G. Williamson | |
| 1956 | 1957 | Rev. C. G. Baëta | Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana |
| 1957 | 1960 | Rev. G. T. Eddy | |
| 1960 | 1963 | Rev. C. G. Baëta | Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana |
| 1963 | 1965 | Rev. F. C. F. Grant | |
| 1965 | 1967 | Rev. E. M. L. Odjidja | Presbyterian Church of Ghana |
| 1967 | 1968 | Justice Nii Amaa Ollennu | |
| 1968 | 1969 | Rev. T. W. Koomson | |
| 1969 | 1970 | Col. S. J. Hill | |
| 1970 | 1971 | Rt. Rev. I. S. M. LeMaire | |
| 1971 | 1972 | Rev. A. K. Abutiate | Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana |
| 1972 | 1975 | Rt. Rev. G. K. Sintim-Misa | |
| 1975 | 1976 | Rt. Rev. C. K. Yamoah | |
| 1976 | 1978 | Rt. Rev. C. K. Dovlo | Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana |
| 1979 | 1979 | C. Awotwi - Pratt | |
| 1980 | 1980 | Rt. Rev. Dr. I. S. M. LeMaire | |
| 1981 | 1981 | Rt. Rev. I. H. Frempong | |
| 1982 | 1983 | Rt. Rev. Prof. N. K. Dzobo | Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana |
| 1984 | 1984 | Rt. Rev. S. B. Essamuah | |
| 1985 | 1985 | Rt. Rev. F. W. B. Thompson | |
| 1986 | 1986 | Rt. Rev. I. H. Frempong | |
| 1987 | 1987 | Rt. Rev. Prof. N. K. Dzobo | Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana |
| 1988 | 1988 | Rt. Rev. J. S. A. Stephens | |
| 1989 | 1989 | Rt. Rev. Lt. Col. F. W. B. Thompson | Anglican Diocese of Accra |
| 1990 | 1990 | Rt. Rev. D. A. Koranteng | Presbyterian Church of Ghana |
| 1991 | 1993 | Rt. Rev. Prof. K. A. Dickson | Methodist Church Ghana |
| 1994 | 1995 | Rt. Rev. Lt. Col. F. W. B. Thompson | Anglican Diocese of Accra |
| 1996 | 1998 | Col. John E. Amoah | |
| 1998 | 2001 | Rt. Rev. Justice Offei Yaw Akrofi | Anglican Diocese of Accra |
| 2001 | 2003 | Rt. Rev. Dr. Sam Prempeh | Presbyterian Church of Ghana |
| 2003 | 2006 | Rt. Rev. Dr. Paul Kofi Fynn [5] [6] [7] | Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana |
| 2006 | 21 April 2010 | Rt. Rev. Dr. Yaw Frempong-Manso [8] [9] | Presbyterian Church of Ghana |
| 21 April 2010 | 2013 | Most Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante [9] [10] | Methodist Church Ghana |
| 25 April 2013 | 2016 | Rt. Rev. Francis Amenu [10] | Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana |
| 2016 | 2019 | ||
| 2019 | 21 April 2021 | Most Rev. Dr. Paul Kwabena Boafo [11] [12] | Methodist Church Ghana |
| 21 April 2021 | 19 April 2023 | Rt. Rev. Prof. J. O. Y. Mante [11] [13] | Presbyterian Church of Ghana |
| 19 April 2023 | Incumbent | Rt. Rev. Dr. Hilliard Dela Dogbe [13] [14] [15] | African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church |
The council undertakes various projects in Ghana. One of its major goals is the elimination of stigma and discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS. [16] The project trained community members in areas of the country that had high HIV/AIDS prevalence of 8–9%. The training involved basic facts about HIV/AIDS, stigma and discrimination among others. [17]
The council has also set up an Interfaith Unit to educate Christians on the need for peaceful existence and tolerance among members of different faiths. [17] The School Dropout Scholarship Programme promotes education among Liberian refugees in the Buduburam refugee settlement near Accra. The programme also identifies the causes and consequences of school dropout among the refugees. [17]
In governance and nation building, the council monitors the activities of political parties and professional bodies in the country and offers advice to them. In 2005 the council appealed to Ghanaians and professional bodies to put the country's economy nation first and spend more time discussing issues of national interest concerning education, health and poverty. [18] In 2011 the council encouraged political party leaders and their followers to avoid the use of provocative language in their speeches. [19]
The Right Reverend is an honorific style given to certain religious figures and members of a clergy.
The Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in Ghana. It is popularly referred to as the "EP Church". It has strong roots in the Evangelical and Reformed traditions. The denomination's Presbyterian sister church is the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.
Christianity is the largest religion in Ghana, with 71.3% of the population belonging to various Christian denominations as of 2021 census. Islam is practised by 19.9% of the total population. According to a report by the Pew Research, 51% of Muslims are followers of Sunni Islam, while approximately 16% belong to the Ahmadiyya movement and around 8% identify with Shia Islam, while the remainder are non-denominational Muslims.
Francis Amenu (born ?) is a Ghanaian metallurgical engineer who also trained and ordained as a minister. He served in the Evangelical Presbyterian (E.P.) Church, Ghana. In 1999, he was assigned to serve Ghanaian congregations in London, United Kingdom. There in 2003, before returning to Africa, he founded the E.P. Church, UK.
Accra Academy is a boys' high school located at Bubuashie near Kaneshie in the Greater Accra Region, Ghana. It admits both boarding and day students. Founded as a private school in 1931, it gained the status of a Government-Assisted School in 1950. It is the oldest existing high school to have been privately founded in the Gold Coast.
Christianity is the religion with the largest following in Ghana. Christian denominations include Catholics, Methodists, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Seventh-Day Adventists, Pentecostals, Baptists, Evangelical Charismatics, Latter-day Saints, etc.
The Presbyterian Church of Ghana is a mainstream Protestant and ecumenically-minded church denomination in Ghana. The oldest, continuously existing, established Christian Church in Ghana, it was started by the Basel missionaries on 18 December 1828. The missionaries had been trained in Germany and Switzerland and arrived on the Gold Coast to spread Christianity. The work of the mission became stronger when Moravian missionaries from the West Indies arrived in the country in 1843. In 1848, the Basel Mission Church set up a seminary, now named the Presbyterian College of Education, Akropong, for the training of church workers to help in the missionary work. The Ga and Twi languages were added as part of the doctrinal text used in the training of the seminarians. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Presbyterian church had its missions concentrated in the southeastern parts of the Gold Coast and the peri-urban Akan hinterland. By the mid-20th century, the church had expanded and founded churches among the Asante people who lived in the middle belt of Ghana as well as the northern territories by the 1940s. The Basel missionaries left the Gold Coast during the First World War in 1917. The work of the Presbyterian church was continued by missionaries from the Church of Scotland, the mother church of the worldwide orthodox or mainline (oldline) Presbyterian denomination. The official newspaper of the church is the Christian Messenger, established by the Basel Mission in 1883. The denomination's Presbyterian sister church is the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana.
Dansoman is a suburban town in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, It is known as one of the largest estates in West Africa.
Kaneshie is a suburb in the Accra Metropolitan district, a district of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The name was derived from a word in the Ga-Adangbe, that is "Kane Shie Shie", meaning "under the lamp" referring to its beginnings as a night market.
Accra High School is a Senior High school located in Accra, Ghana in West Africa. It initially started as a Boys School.
Christian Tsui Hesse, popularly known as Chris Hesse is a Ghanaian cinematographer, filmmaker, film administrator, photographer and Presbyterian minister who is known for his cinematography in several award-winning films such as the critically acclaimed Love Brewed in the African Pot (1980) and Heritage Africa (1989). He was the personal cinematographer of Ghana's first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah. Chris Hesse helped to document the visual history of the political leadership and development of the country. He also worked for the United Nations, serving as a photographer, documenting the Congo crisis in 1960.
Nicholas Timothy Clerk was a Gold Coast theologian, clergyman and pioneering missionary of the Basel Evangelical Missionary Society in southeast colonial Ghana. His father was the Jamaican Moravian missionary and teacher, Alexander Worthy Clerk, who worked extensively on the Gold Coast with the Basel Mission and co-founded in 1843 the Salem School, a Presbyterian boarding middle school for boys. Born on the Gold Coast, N. T. Clerk was elected the first Synod Clerk of the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast, in effect, the chief ecclesiastical officer, equivalent to the chief administrator, leading the overall strategic operations of the national Reformed Protestant church organisation, a position he held from 1918 to 1932. A staunch advocate of secondary education, Nicholas Timothy Clerk became a founding father of the all-boys Presbyterian boarding school in Ghana, the Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School, established in 1938. As Synod Clerk, he pushed vigorously for and was instrumental in turning the original idea of a church mission high school into reality.
The Clerk family is a Ghanaian historic family that produced a number of pioneering scholars and clergy on the Gold Coast. Predominantly based in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, the Clerks were traditionally Protestant Christian and affiliated to the Presbyterian Church. The Clerk family is primarily a member of the Ga coastal people of Accra and in addition, has Euro-Afro-Caribbean heritage, descending from Jamaican, German and Danish ancestry.
Carl Henry Clerk was a Ghanaian agricultural educationist, administrator, journalist, editor and church minister who was elected the fourth Synod Clerk of the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast, assuming the role of chief ecclesial officer of the national church from 1950 to 1954. Between 1960 and 1963, he was also the Editor of the Christian Messenger, established by the Basel Mission in 1883, as the newspaper of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.
The Trinity Theological Seminary is a Protestant seminary located on a 70-acre campus in Legon, Accra. As an ecumenical theological tertiary and ministerial training institution, it serves students in Ghana and the West African sub-region. The focus of the curriculum is pedagogy, guidance, counselling, and fieldwork to adequately prepare students for careers in Christian ministry. The school has charter status, offers certificate, diploma, and degree programmes, and is accredited by the National Accreditation Board of the Ghanaian Ministry of Education.
Rose Akua Ampofo was a Ghanaian educator and gender advocate who became the first woman in Ghana to be ordained a Presbyterian minister. Between 1992 and 2002, she was the founding Director of the Presbyterian Women's Training Centre (PWTC) at Abokobi. From October 2002 until her death in March 2003, she was the Head of the Women and Gender Desk of Mission 21, formerly known as the Basel Mission in Basel, Switzerland.
Kwabena Opuni Frimpong is a Ghanaian academic and Presbyterian minister who served as the General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG), equivalent to the chief executive officer of the ecumenical organisation. He is also a lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
Hilliard Kwashie Dela Dogbe is a Ghanaian clergyman and bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. He currently serves as the Bishop of the Western West Africa Episcopal District, which encompasses Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Togo.
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