Diocesan Synod of Fredericton
BISHOP Matthias Medadues-Bodahu’s Comments
07 June 2007
My Lord Bishop, the Clergy, Members of Synod, my dear Christian Brothers and Sisters, all protocols observed, I bring you Greetings from your new Companion Diocese of Ho in the Volta Region of Ghana - Church of the Province of West Africa.
On Pentecost Sunday, the very first morning of my visit here, I looked through the window of my bedroom in the Bishop’s Court (sic) and saw a bird pecking a leaf and jumping all over the fields, and that reminded me very much of the dove which returned to the Ark in Noah’s days with an olive-leaf in her beak. As I looked on, thoughts of hope flooded me all over as it quite often happens to me from my house in Ho.
Then as I travelled round New Brunswick in the past week looking at the scenery which is similar to many parts of Ghana - the vegetation, the industries, the mines and the coastal areas, I often wonder why the diocese of Ho should be poor. There are many resources to be tapped and developed for the good of our people, hence my joy for this companionship link with Fredericton.
It first began in January, 2005 when some selected Bishops from across the world met in Canterbury to look into their future as Bishops of the Church and the demands of their Office, when Bishop Claude and I vaguely spoke about what we are witnessing today - linking up our two dioceses as Companions in our worldwide Communion. We in the Volta Region of
Ghana are very much privileged to be Partners-in-Mission with your Diocese as we wait on God to direct.
The greater part of the Volta Region, which is on the eastern part of Ghana, sharing a border with a country called Togo, until May, 1956 was a German Colony. When the Germans rolled up their sleeves after the Second World War, we then became part of the Gold Coast just before the latter’s Independence from Britain on 6th March, 1957 when the name was
changed to Ghana. The whole Volta Region which is the Diocese of Ho covers a land space of 20,570 square kilometres and has about 2m people in population. Among the major ethnic groups in the Region, the Ewes are the main tribe with their language as the Ewe.
The Diocese of Ho was created from the Koforidua-Ho Diocese which comprised the Eastern and Votla Regions of Ghana on 22nd March 2003. It has six parishes, three sub-parishes, and ten outstations scattered all over the Region, it is a very basic diocese in terms of personnel, finances and infrastructure. No offices, no secretary, except a part-time treasurer and a typist who assist the bishop to run the diocese. There are ten clergy including the bishop and three people in seminary. There are also two diocesan Cathechists and twelve local cathechists through whom the Word of God reaches the people.
In every community that we are in, we have a Church School which is the bedrock of our mission and evangelism. Our evangelism to the people we serve is through rendering social services to the poor and the needy and to bring some meaning into the loves of those who have lost hope. Because we do not have any income whatsoever to suport us on this mission field, we have friends in England who often come to our aid by raising an average of 60 (British Pounds) a month for a Priest’s stipend which is about a third of the least paid civil servant in our country.
BUT we are never discouraged yet, for it is our belief that in every age and time, and in every place God has created what is good in His sight, and so may it be here in New Brunswick, or over in the Volta Region of Ghana there is the goodness of God we can harness to help each other as Partners-in-Mission.
My Christian brothers and sisters, I know that our Communion is in serious crises at the moment and throughout the world, the Anglican Church is becoming a matter of discussion everyday - something not in the positive in the light of the Christian Gospel but in the negative - may I, therefore, plead with Synod that throughout your deliberations, whatever
decisions you arrive at must be in the supreme interest of the wider Church as Christ prayed for the Unity of all people in those solemn moments before His departure from earth.
Look up to your Bishop as a focus of unity representing Christ Himself and listen to the cries of his heart at those moments when decisions are to be made to rebuke and condemn the evil in man but not to condemn the man, for Christ did not condemn the sinner but ask her to go and sin no more. We are there to pray for you always, and if there is any help we can
also give, we shall not hesitate to do that.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Bishop Claude and Sharon, Heather Miller, Heather Carr, Keith Osborne and all those who have made my visit and travels so successful not forgetting the bishop’s staff who made everything possible to bring me safely here and to send me home in one peace, not in pieces.
On behalf of the Bishop, Clergy and People of the Anglican Diocese of Ho, I wish you well in your 129th Synod and pray for God’s blessing and presence upon you in your deliberations.
God bless you all.