Recently, the Episcopal ordination of Most Rev. Matthias Kobena Nketsiah as an Auxiliary Bishop took place at St. Peter’s Regional Seminary at Pedu, Cape Coast, coming at a time when the nation is feverishly preparing for her Golden Jubilee.
One of the most significant aspects of the ordination was the thought- provoking sermon delivered by Senior Prelate of the Church, Most Rev. Peter Kwasi Sarpong, Metropolitan Archbishop of Kumasi.
Eventhough the sermon was directed at Bishop Nketsiah, it holds good for all those entrusted to leadership positions in public life.
Said Archbishop Sarpong: “Matthias is expected to assist in bringing back to Ghana, our cultural Godliness, the gradual disappearance of which is spelling moral doom for our country.”
Other questions below, posed by Archbishop Sarpong to the new Bishop are worth pondering over by all Ghanaians.
* Fifty years ago, Ghana attained political liberation from the shackles of colonialism, but has Ghana attained social liberty?
* Is Ghana economically liberated?
* Is Ghana not sinking into the abyss of moral decadence?
* Are we not worse-off from the point of view of crime than we were at the time of independence?
Archbishop Sarpong declared: “Bishop Matthias is expected to have a critical look at these and other questions, which affect the whole nation and see what, with the help of God, he can do about them.”
The Archbishop said Bishop Nketsiah would be expected to be a meaningful factor in the “liberation of Ghanaian captives from slavery and sin and he is also expected, in this year of the Lord’s favour, to help Ghanaians to disentangle themselves from the influence and power of the devil, which, too, have imprisoned many of us.”
The new Bishop, he said, must try to be the good pastor to his people and rid them of the evils of society.
He must be in the vanguard of the struggle against structural injustice, exploitation of the poorest of the poor, bribery and corruption; he must join forces with all men and women of goodwill in different religions in the fight to eliminate what is inhuman or even anti-human.
In our view, unwholesome foreign cultural influences have ‘derailed’ some of our youth.
They copy blindly anything from the West to the extent that some of our boys wear ear-rings, a preserve for girls; while some girls openly display their under-wears in the name of fashion.
Disappointingly, some of our youth are today involved in armed robbery, a situation unknown in the good old days of the Gold Coast.
We feel the questions posed by Archbishop Sarpong, should also be the concern of all those in leadership positions to help stem the moral decline of our dear nation.
We also need to attain what Archbishop Sarpong termed as ‘social liberty’; we need to liberate our country economically, and this would entail a lot of hard work; we need to free ourselves from moral decadence.
This means, keeping to acceptable social norms expected in every decent society.
We pray that Bishop Nketsiah succeeds in the fight “to break the vicious circle of poverty, hunger, disease and ignorance.”
Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, but it is our hope and prayer that Bishop Nketsiah would easily wear his crown.
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