Head Pastor of the Calvary Charismatic Centre (CCC), Pastor Ransford Obeng believes President Akufo-Addo’s partial reopening of churches in the country in spite of the growing number of cases of COVID-19 in Ghana is apt.
The request of the Kumasi-based mega church leader had earlier made a case ahead of the president’s h Sunday nights broadcast; his first since he extended restriction on public and social life by 3 weeks on the night of his 9th address on May 10.
Restrictions on social and public gatherings including all school sessions, religious group activities, festivals, sports and political rallies have been in force since March 16, 2020; all the country’s entry points by sea, land and air have also been closed to human traffic as part of measures to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Opinions were divided as to whether or not the president would take the bold step to ease restrictions further by allowing school sessions to resume or give in to the demand of the clergy to allow for religious activities to come back to life.
But in the view of Pastor Ransford Obeng, “it should not be a wholesale reopening of churches; what it should be is this; any church that says it is ready, they should go and inspect the facility and make sure that they adhere to all the protocols and let them know that if they don’t adhere to the regulations they will close down the church”.
“We are telling the president that, this crisis would be solved both physically and spiritually; we cannot use only one method and that is why I believe churches must be opened. The physical aspect is observing all the rules that the scientific community has given us and the spiritual aspect is prayer. Somebody would say can’t we pray at home; but the bible tells us that when we come together to pray, one will chase a thousand, two will chase ten thousand; this place is safer to worship than to go to the market or to the bank”, he told a press conference at his church.
On a tour of his 3000 seat capacity church, the CCC had spaced out according to the social distancing protocol to allow for only 400 seats at a time, in readiness to fully adhere to other protocols like wearing of nose masks, hand washing and sanitizing, temperature checks and minimal bodily contacts as it anticipates a positive response from the president on Sunday night..
Find below a copy of his proposal to the nation as the church readies to reopen upon the president’s words.
