Mr. James McKeown & Mrs. Sophia McKeown

The Church of Pentecost, like most great institutions, started in a small way. The Church’s beginnings are linked to the ministry of Pastor James McKeown (1900-1989), an Irish missionary sent by the Apostolic Church, Bradford, UK to the then Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1937 to help a group of believers of the Apostolic Faith led by one Peter Newman Anim in a town called Asamankese.

Due to doctrinal differences based on divine healing, the group split in 1939 into the Christ Apostolic Church and the Apostolic Church, Gold Coast. The latter saw great expansion under Pastor James McKeown. In 1953, a constitutional crisis led to the founding of the Gold Coast Apostolic Church led by Pastor James McKeown.

On the attainment of independence by the country in 1957 and following the changes of its name to Ghana, the Gold Coast Apostolic Church was renamed the Ghana Apostolic Church. The split in 1953 did not end the crisis. New conflicts compelled the then President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, to advise the leadership of the Ghana Apostolic Church, to adopt a new name in order to foster peace and harmony on the Pentecostal front. Therefore, on August 1, 1962, the new name, The Church of Pentecost, legally replaced the Ghana Apostolic Church.