President Kufuor and nation mourn Prof Dickson

Accra, Nov. 17, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Thursday joined mourners at the Calvary Methodist Church in Accra to pay their last respect to the Most Reverend Professor Emeritus Kwesi Abotsia Dickson, former Head of the Methodist Church of Ghana.

Among them, were some senior government officials including Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Foreign Minister, Papa Owusu Ankomah, Minister of Interior, Mr Allan Kyerematen, Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Kwamena Bartels, Minister of Private Sector Development and PSI and Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Education and Sports.

Former Vice President Professor John Evans Atta-Mills and some Heads of religious bodies both local and foreign also attended. The Most Reverend Dr Robert Aboagye-Mensah, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana, in a pre-burial sermon challenged Christians to let their lives reflect life in heaven.

This, he said, offered a strong point for their involvement in social issues to transform society.

He said, "Faith should transform and that faith that does not transform is dead. Jesus would not have anything doing with this." The Most Reverend Dr Aboagye-Mensah said death was a necessary part of life and since even the righteous would die, it was important to recognise that the life they lived would determine where they would be after death.

He said there should therefore be no reason why people should not feel free to talk about their own death and even plan for it. The Presiding Bishop said it was for this reason that whatever they did "must be informed by the values of our conviction of our relationship with God and fellow human beings."

Running through the various tributes paid to his memory was the acknowledgement of his sublime qualities of gentleness, graciousness, modesty, disposition towards peace and reconciliation as well as transparency and integrity.

His greatest legacies were the abolition of wake keeping in the Methodist Church, which has been embraced by almost all Churches in the country and the establishment of the Donewell Insurance Company. The corpse of Most Reverend Professor Dickson was conveyed to Ebenezer Methodist Cathedral, Winneba for another thanksgiving and burial service.

An eminent Statesman, Theologian and Academician, he was born at Saltpond in the Central Region on July 7, 1929. He was the first Dean of Students of the University of Ghana, Legon, and also a former Director of the Institute of African Studies of the same University.

Most Reverend Professor Dickson served twice as President of the All Africa Council of Churches and was a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He died on October 26, this year and left behind a wife Cecilia and four children.