TAKE CHILDREN'S FUTURE DEV INTO ACCOUNT...Rev Aboagye-Mensah urges churches (PAGE 22)

THE Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana, the Most Reverend Dr Robert Aboagye-Mensah, has urged churches to take the future development of children into account when it comes to budgeting for church activities.
He noted with regret that when it came to budgeting for the activities in churches, the future development of children were not considered.
“It is important to take into consideration the future of children who are our hope, and the budget must express that,” the presiding bishop emphasised.
Most Rev. Aboagye-Mensah was addressing the 12th annual connexional children’s festival of the Methodist Church at Agona Nkwanta in the Ahanta West District in the Western Region.
The one-week festival, organised by the Christian Education Division of the church, was attended by about 650 Sunday School children from all the connexions in the country, as well as 14 children from the Republic of Benin.
The event had the theme: “The child: Our future hope”.
Most Rev. Aboagye-Mensah said children had the potential of becoming professionals such as doctors, engineers, lawyers, nurses, pastors and pharmacists who could move the country forward.
“That is why the Methodist Church is committed to the development of education and it will continue to make the educational system better,” he stressed, adding, “As a church, we are committed to the development of the potential of the children through the educational system that we have.”
Most Rev. Aboagye-Mensah said children had been seen as the hope for the future and that was the reason why marrying and having children was very important in the church and “in our customs”, because without children, there would be no hope for the future.
The presiding bishop stressed the need for good character training, since without it, intelligent children who had gone through the high schools built by the church would be social misfits.
He stated that the religious and moral character the children acquired was not only to prepare them to enter Heaven, but also to enable them to become nation builders.
The Lay President of the Methodist Church, Mrs Araba Ata Sam, said ethical behaviour and the fear of God were very critical for the orderly development of children.
The Bishop of the Sekondi Diocese of the Methodist Church, Right Rev. John Harvey Ewusi, advised that the negative attitudes and wrongs such as child trafficking, child labour and child slavery done against children should be stopped.