Extravagancy in funeral celebrations in Ghana

The Head Pastor of the Washington DC Ghanaian Seventh-day Adventist Church Pastor Enoch Afum has noted that Ghana is gradually being crippled by the lifestyle of ‘endless self-indulgence’ which is leading to destruction of family life, apathy to others’ welfare and consequently, breakdown of love and concern for one another in society.

He said the extravagancy in funeral celebrations and other expensive lifestyles in Ghana are gradually gaining undue root to the detriment of ensuring the welfare of the needy in the society.

Pastor Afum was delivering series of lectures at the London-Ghana Seventh-day Adventist Church in London. The lectures formed part of a month long programme to commemorate the first anniversary of the opening of the new church building for the church. The climax of the programme would be a grand harvest on the 28th June this year, to raise funds for other welfare projects of the church.

The London Ghana Seventh-day Adventist church is the biggest Ghanaian congregation in the UK with a total membership of nearly 600 and its new church edifice standing in the East of London is a real sign of glory from the Ghanaian community to God.

He said people of late gratuitously spend huge sums of money and time on dead bodies than concentrating on issues that would enhance societal progress.

He cited an instance where people live in very dilapidated homes but when they die, their funerals are delayed to enable family members build new houses and rehabilitate old homes before the dead body is laid in state there and questioned ‘the sense in this’.

He said ‘it is sad to note that there are millions of Ghanaians who find it extremely difficult especially during this period of global hardship, to provide one meal a day for themselves. Most of these people have relatives living very spendthrift lives here in the Diaspora `only to vote huge sums of monies for the funeral of these poor ones’ Pastor Afum exhibited lacerate bother on what he described as ‘miring the once beautiful oneness in families and the care of the poor and the aged’ and noted that many people do no longer care about what their parents eat or sleep but care greatly about how they will burry them. ‘This does not make sense’. Pastor Afum Emphasised. He observed that if a little percentage of monies spent on funerals had been used on the living for their survival such victims perhaps would have lived longer. He noted that it is not completely wrong to celebrate a befitting funeral for friends and relatives but ‘let us look after them well whilst they live and by so doing they may have their funerals postponed by living a bit longer.’ He added.

‘As we live in this world some would continue to be poor while others would be rich and God in his wisdom provided wealth for some of us to be a channel of blessing to others who through no fault of theirs are poor’. He said.

Pastor Afum noted that the sad thing is that many people profess to be Christians but close their eyes and ears to the suffering of others.

He also touched on the way most funerals are celebrated these days in Ghana and said it is completely out of tradition and customs of old. He said today’s funeral celebrations is full of bad behaviours like binge-adultery, drunkenness and in some cases accidents and chaos, and this is why many people look up to the death of other people just to have time to do their own things.

He commended some traditional and religious leaders who are working hard to bring sanity into the way funerals are held in Ghana.