National week of prayer and thanksgiving slated for June 30

The leaders of the Christian Council of Ghana, National Catholic Secretariat, Council of Independent Churches, National Association of Charismatic and Christian Churches and the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council bring you greetings in our resurrected Jesus’ name.

We are very grateful to God for His protection, guidance and peace that He continues to bless our dear nation with, even in the midst of challenges. God is indeed good to our country and we need to continuously appreciate Him for His mercies and goodness upon us.

As a country, we must always acknowledge our relationship with God and prayer as the pivot to our spiritual journey, national life and development. We cannot do away with God and prayer in everything that we do. This therefore means that, we must consistently pray for our dear nation and never relent on depending on Him for our survival, especially for the fact that majority of our people are Christians.

1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 which reads; “pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks for this is God’s will in Christ Jesus” is an encouragement from Apostle Paul which further emphasises the need for prayer and thanksgiving, irrespective of what we are going through, and where we find ourselves.

We therefore call on all Christians to be part of the re-orginsed National Week of Prayer and Thanksgiving, which is being fully organized by the churches in Ghana. In the past few years, the Week of Prayer and Thanksgiving was being organized by governments. Successive governments were responsible in leading the planning of the Week and also provided funding for it. This led to a situation where the observation of the Week did not receive effective participation due to the fact that it was perceived by some to be politicized.

In a recent meeting on Monday, March 17, 2014 with His Excellency, President John Mahama at the Flagstaff House, the Christian Council of Ghana was tasked to coordinate the organization of the National Week of Prayer and Thanksgiving without government interference. A committee was therefore constituted by the church councils to effect its planning and implementation.

In the light of the above, we have therefore slated June 30th to July 6th, 2014 as the National Week of Prayer and Thanksgiving. The Week will be observed in all communities, districts and regional capitals and will also be organized by leaders of our various member churches.

The climax of the Week, which will be the Thanksgiving Service, has been scheduled for Sunday, 6th July 2014. The National Thanksgiving service will take place at the Holy Spirit Cathedral, Adabraka, Accra at 10am.

This year’s week of Prayer and Thanksgiving will be celebrated on the theme “Bind Us Together Oh Lord” - John 17:21 to further facilitate our closer walk with God, national reconciliation and unity.

Activities such as fasting, unity walk, prayer meetings for children, youth, women, men, Christian mission in Ghana, political parties, judiciary, indigenous businesses, legislature, government, economy, health, peace, stability and security must be organized at all levels.

We therefore entreat all of you and Ghanaians in general, to participate effectively in this very important national exercise as we call on God to reconcile us back to Himself, and unto one another.

We also call on members of the clergy across the country to seek for platforms on electronic media to offer public prayers for our nation during the week of Prayer and Thanksgiving.

It is our prayer that we will be faithful to this call to prayer which will spur us into God’s abundant blessings as we unite and pray to Him.

Beloved, we reiterate in accordance to 1Timothy 2:1-3, the need for prayers to be made for our children, young people, women, men, and leaders, especially our President.

We pray that this letter will be read in all Christian congregations in the country.

God bless our homeland Ghana and make her great and strong.

Signed,

Rev. Dr. Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong

National Coordinator

National Week of Prayer and Thanksgiving

On behalf of;

Christian Council of Ghana

National Association of Charismatic and Christian Churches

Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council

Council of Independent Churches

National Catholic Secretariat