President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s directive that all outdoor events including funerals, church activities and naming ceremonies, be suspended for a period of 4 weeks as part of drastic efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus has been greeted with discontentment as founder and leader of the Heaven’s Gate Ministries, Nicholas Osei, popularly known as Prophet Kumchacha, has expressed fury.
Prophet Kumchacha, like other pastors, argued that the ban will cripple the church as members now have the liberty to not give offertory and pay their tithes.
The ripple effect, he mentioned, will be huge considering the fact that some pastors are into full time ministry, hence depend on offertory, tithes and gifts from the congregation for their living.
Although some posit that service could be conducted online for monies to be sent via mobile money, Kumchacha thinks the option is ‘nonsensical.’
“They should spare us that crap. How do we take the offertory? Nonsense!” he fumed on Kofi TV. “Mobile money? Even when the ban was not in force, payment of such monies was problematic how much more when transactions are done via mobile money? You people are just against our survival through the offertory.
Declared pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO), coronavirus has killed more than 7,000 people, sickened over 115,000 and spread to 75 countries and regions worldwide.
Ghana is currently faced with seven confirmed cases of the widespread virus, with over 350 people having had contact with the affected persons being observed.
You should have consulted us first – Bishops to Akufo-Addo
The Ghana Charismatic Bishops’ Conference has criticized the government for not engaging in consultations before the closure of churches as part of the measures to forestall the spread of the coronavirus.
A statement issued read: “The arbitrary closure of churches and places of worship without consultation or discussion for 4 weeks, smacks of a disregard of the importance of the church’s role in the country. This disregard of the place of this powerful social and religious institution, to which over 70% of Ghanaians belong, is wrong.”
Reconsider ban on churches and mosques – Lawrence Tetteh begs Akufo-Addo
International Evangelist and the Founder and President of the Worldwide Miracle Outreach, Dr Lawrence Tetteh, has decried the president’s ban on gatherings especially churches and mosques as a safety precaution against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr Lawrence Tetteh in an interview with GhanaWeb stressed that in the face of the imminent threat, government needs religious leaders now more than ever since they are able to disseminate information better to Ghanaians.
He noted that instead of closing the churches and mosques, they should rather be opened to enable leaders sensitise their congregants on the pandemic.
