Presbyterian Church of Ghana

The Presbyterian Church of Ghana is a Protestant church in Ghana. The church was started by the Basel missionaries in 1828. The missionaries had been trained in Germany and arrived on the Gold Coast to spread Christianity.^[2] The work of the mission became stronger when missionaries from the West Indies arrived in the country. The church set up a seminary for the training of church workers to help in the missionary work. The Twi language was added as part of the text used in the training of the seminarians. At the beginning of the 21st century the church had founded churches among the Asante people, where lived in the middle belt of Ghana. 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. Since 2010 the moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana is the Rt. Rev. Professor Emmanuel Martey. The church expanded to the northern part of Ghana in the 1940s.

Church structure

The church is a founding member of the Christian Council of Ghana.^[3] The association is an umbrella group that unites several churches in Ghana and monitors the activities of members to ensure that they are united in their Christian mission.^[3][4] The Presbyterian Church of Ghana has seven church departments that have specific tasks of building up the church in their respective activities. These are:^[2][5]

1. Department of Administration & Human Resource
2. Department of Church Life & Nurture
3. Department of Mission & Evangelism
4. Department of Ecumenical & Social Relations
5. Department of Development & Social Services
6. Department of Education
7. Department of Finance

Membership

By the end of 2013 the church has about 773,504 members and runs 1,907 schools and a university.^[5][6] In 2012 according to the WCC data it has more the 565,600 members and almost 2,200 congregations. PCG Statistics – 2001 to 2013

   Year            Total             Increase        % Increase
   2001          500,190  
   2002          535,130           34,940                7.0
   2003          565,637           30,507                5.7
   2004          578,727           13,090                2.3
   2005          612,337           33,610                5.8
   2006          615,391            3,054                0.5
   2007          622,609            7,218                1.2
   2008          624,890            2,281                0.4
   2009          652,083           27,193                4.4
   2010          691,949           39,866                6.1
   2011          721,599           29,650                4.3
   2012          739,548           17,949                2.5
   2013          773,504           33,956                4.6

Church and education

Education is an integral part of the church's responsibility to the communities it operates in and Ghana. There are 487 kindergarten and nursery schools, 984 primary schools and 399 junior high schools. The church has 27 senior high schools, 40 private schools, 6 vocational institutions, 5 teacher training colleges, a research centre.^[2] In 2003, the church started a university known as the Presbyterian University College. It is located at Abetifi-Kwahu in the Eastern region of Ghana.^[7]

Church and health

The church is a member of the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG).^[8] CHAG is an umbrella group that unites all the health facilities in Ghana that are owned and run by Christian churches in Ghana. The church is the third largest in terms of number of health facilities. It operates four hospitals, 11 primary health care programmes, eight health centres, 13 clinics, two nurses' training colleges and a technical unit.These institutions provide a substantial portion of health services in the rural areas with a workforce of 1,977 and total hospital beds of 745. Curative, preventive and promotive services are provided to clients by the facilities in their respective catchment areas. The PHC interventions cover areas such as antenatal care, postnatal care, family planning, nutrition, growth monitoring of children between 0 – 5 years, immunization, health education, environmental sanitation, HIV&AIDS control, prevention, home-based care and counselling and clinical care at the health centres.The Church is currently the third largest single provider of health services in the country. The hospitals provide medical specialist services with resident specialists as follows: 1. Agogo Hospital – Ophthalmology, internal medicine, general surgery, obstetrics / gynaecology and paediatrics. 2. Bawku Hospital – Ophthalmology, general surgery, orthopaedic surgery and obstetrics / gynaecology 3. Dormaa Hospital – Paediatrics.^[2]

The church and agriculture

The Presbyterian Church of Ghana was established in 1828 and formalized Partnership (Reg No. ACB 146/88) with the then government of Gold Coast now the Republic of Ghana in 1932 to contribute to the Spiritual and socio-economic development of the citizenry of Ghana. To this end, the Church established Six (6) Agricultural Service stations in the late sixties in the Northern, Upper East, Eastern and Greater Accra regions of Ghana to complement the efforts of Government at poverty eradication in rural communities of the country. Vision: The Presbyterian Agric. Services exist as a key player in development cycles in Ghana in Partnership with other Actors and as CentreS of excellence in integrated Agricultural and Rural Development. Mission: To provide innovative, participatory and continuously proven agricultural development services that respond to the immediate and strategic needs of farm families in their effort to attain sustainable household food and income security in a sustainable farming environment in partnership with other development Actors.(^[2]

Assets

The church owns two printing and publishing houses, three newspapers and eight bookshops. It has three retreat centres and operates four guest houses and three conference halls.^[2]

See also

• Christianity in Ghana

References