By Alfred K. Dogbey

The chiefs and people of New Weija in the Ga-South Municipality are still in a state of shock over what might have forced a Methodist Church Pastor, Evangelist Jerry Mpraim and his assistant, Yaw Boateng to lead some thugs and youth from his church to vandalize a church building belonging to the Assemblies of God (A of G) in the vicinity.

The two pastors, on July 4 this year and at midnight stormed the temple belonging to the Assemblies of God church, broke the padlock and strangely built a fence wall through the church building.

Evangelist Mpraim claimed he acted upon orders from above to demolish his colleague pastor’s church because the chapel was built on a portion of the Methodist Church plot.

Surprisingly, only two-feet out of a three-plot land, belonging to the Methodist Church, is what had been taken by the Assemblies of God church.

Though the leadership of the Assemblies of God has admitted to an architectural blunder committed during the establishment of their temple, the ‘men of God’ from the reputable Methodist Church were still unperturbed.

The presiding Pastor of Assemblies of God at Weija, Rev. Justice Akwasi Agyei, told The Herald that several proposals were tendered for a peaceful resolution of the matter, including blocking the church’s entrance which had eaten into their territory but to no avail.

Rev. Justice Agyei revealed that when the concern was first raised, he together with some of his ministers went and appealed to the leadership of the Methodist Church including some other colleague pastors to intervene.

The Herald has learnt that Superintendent George Mensah, Head and Circuit Pastor of Mount Olives Methodist at Dansoman, on two separate occasions interceded and counseled Evangelist Mpraim and Yaw Boateng but regrettably they still disregarded all the wise counsels from their leaders.

Others such as Regional Superintendents from the Assemblies of God, George Annan and Theresa Klottey were among the prominent pastors who attempted to persuade the Methodist leadership but failed.

The Leadership of the Methodist Church at Weija argued that the action was a unanimous decision by the entire church which they took to rather let peace prevail.

Mr. Yaw Boateng, who is a lay preacher at the Methodist Church, was reported to have said that “even Rev. Justice went to our headquarters to apologize but we cannot leave that portion for them, you see it can’t be possible like that”. According to the lay preacher, “the church is not for one man, the church belongs to the majority”.

It is, however, not clear whether the orders which the two Methodist pastors acted on to carry out that cruel vandalism came from the Church’s moderator, Most Rev. Asante.

Apparently pressure is mounting on the office of Rev. Asante to break his silence over who gave the instruction to his boys to carry out their ‘Rambo-style’ demolition in the wee hours of the morning.

For now, the head office of Methodist church has sent a stern warning to all ministers including members of the church not to speak about the matter to anyone, but rather direct the person to the head office.

The Herald’s source has it that some worshippers are currently threatening to stop worshiping at the New Weija branch of the Methodist Church due to the embarrassment brought on them by their leadership, especially Evangelist Mpraim and his assistant, Yaw Boateng. More to come…