The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) on Sunday, October 13, 2019, climaxed its Golden Jubilee Anniversary celebration with a mammoth service held at the Perez Chapel Dome in Accra.
The thanksgiving service was attended by thousands of Pentecostals, Charismatics and Evangelicals from the over 200 member churches in the national capital.
Held under the theme, “Celebrating 50 Years of Pentecostal Influence,” patrons celebrated the goodness and the faithfulness of God towards the GPCC, which has become one of the most influential ecumenical bodies in the country.
The service, chaired by the President of the Council, Rev. Prof. Paul Yaw Frimpong-Manso, was attended by leading figures in the Christian community in Ghana, including the immediate past President of the Council and former Chairman of The Church of Pentecost, Apostle Prof. Opoku Onyinah, Rt. Rev. Sam Korankye-Ankrah (1st Vice President of the Council and Apostle-General of the Royal House Chapel International), Bishop Charles Agyinasare (Presiding Bishop of Perez Chapel International), National Executive Committee Members of the Council, heads of member churches and some civil society and para-church organisations.
There were fraternal messages from the Muslim community, the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Christian Council, the National Association of Charismatic and Christian Churches, Ghana Evangelical Committee, the Civic Forum Initiative and the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), among others.
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was represented by the Minister of Aviation, Hon. Kofi Adda.
Giving the anniversary message, the President of the GPCC, Rev. Prof. Frimpong-Manso, touched on the importance of unity in the Body of Christ, the distinctiveness of Pentecostalism and the need to uphold the true Pentecostal heritage to transform Christianity in Ghana.
Using Acts 2:1-4 as his foundational text, the distinguished theologian stated that Pentecostalism has two distinctive features in addition to its evangelical persuasion; the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues. He also said that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not synonymous to salvation.
“As GPCC churches let us not be afraid to preach the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the initial physical evidence of speaking in tongues. We believe it, we are not ashamed of it, let us preach it. Pentecostalism is different from the others who just make noise and they do not have personal biblical theologies, thereby giving false prophecies and false teachings and creating confusion. There are a lot of charlatans, false prophets, false teachers who are deceiving people. You can never see this in GPCC churches because we are self-regulatory,” he said.
He called on GPCC member churches to be united to fight for the Lord, and promote the Pentecostal distinctiveness.
Commenting on some national issues, Rev. Prof. Frimpong-Manso admonished politicians to stop the politics of acrimony and vindictiveness by doing away with the ‘winner takes all’ syndrome. He charged ruling governments to harness talents from various political parties to form their governments to accelerate national unity and development.
Touching on corruption, the GPCC President appealed to Ghanaians to unite in order to fight the canker collectively. “I urge all Ghanaians to unite as one people to fight corruption which has become endemic in our country.
“It is a fact that some people would always want to use smart ways of getting money instead of working hard to increase productivity in the country. We must desist from such corrupt tendencies and be faithful because it breaks my heart when I hear people say that ‘Christians form 70 per cent of the population, and yet many bad practices exist in the country,’” he bemoaned.
Rev. Prof. Paul Frimpong-Manso indicated the GPCC’s resolve to be more relevant in its prophetic voice while focusing on the promotion of unity and Pentecostal evangelism.
The GPCC was established in 1969 when Rev. J. K. Gyan-Fosu, then General Secretary of the Assemblies of God Church, suggested the need for the four main Pentecostal churches in Ghana at the time namely, The Assemblies of God Ghana, The Christ Apostolic Church, the Apostolic Church Ghana and The Church of Pentecost, to unite under one body to foster harmony and strengthen the Pentecostal movement in Ghana.
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