Accra, June 29, GNA – The Apostle Professor Opoku Onyinah, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, National Cathedral of Ghana, has called on churches nationwide to mobilise funds from their congregations to support the construction of the Cathedral.
He said it was only by the goodwill of Christians and the entire citizenry that the nation could construct the Cathedral, with the biggest ‘Bible Museum’ in the world.
“There is no money lurking somewhere for the construction of the Cathedral, so if churches don’t support, we cannot build it,” he added.
Apostle Onyinah made the call on Wednesday when together with other Board members, he launched the National Cathedral Week Celebration in Accra.
The week, which comes off from July 4 to 10, 2022, will entail showing of audiovisuals on the project in churches, prayer sessions, evening services, clean up exercise, health walks and tree planting, among churches while mobilising funds from members of the congregation towards generating at least 100 million Cedis every month for the project.
The estimated 350 million dollar-Cathedral when constructed, would house ‘The Bible Museum of Africa’, ‘The Bible in Africa’, ‘The Old Testament and Africa’, ‘The New Testament and Africa’, ‘Children’s Discovery Centre’, and ‘The Bible Gardens of Africa’.
The economic engines for the Cathedral complex will include a restaurant that seats 365 people, coffee shop, gift shop, meeting rooms, two chapels, and two prayer rooms that could be rented.
It also has catering kitchen for cathedral events, and would permit special events and festivals with a fee, and admission fees for various segments of the complex.
The Cathedral will also have a Bible curriculum created by the museum academic team for use by universities, offer admission for special lectures and symposiums, private guided tours, museum memberships, online gift shop, and banquet hall that can seat up to 300 people for dinners, celebrations, wedding receptions and meetings.
Apostle Onyinah said the Cathedral generated 2.6 million Cedis in 2018, 3.6 million in 2019, 13.9 million in 2020, 7.7 million in 2021, and 3.6 million in 2022 with a total of GHS 31,747,989.16 currently in the project fund.
“We appeal to leaders of the churches in Ghana not to forget the purpose of the Cathedral and stand up to the challenge without running away from supporting the project. Let’s not make it appear that the President has made a mistake in bringing the idea of the Cathedral,” he added.
The Cathedral has the potential of drawing the world to Ghana to experience the spirituality of God, he added.
Dr Joyce Aryee, member of the Board of Trustees, National Cathedral of Ghana, speaking on the week celebration, said it aimed at reaching out to all Christian denominations nationwide to mobilise at least one million people to contribute a minimum of 100 Cedis every month toward the construction of the cathedral.
“That means we will generate GHS100 million every month and that will go a long way,” he said adding that, the celebration would also promote the Cathedral as a symbol of God’s presence and an iconic infrastructure that brings Christian unity…,” she added.
The week-long programme, Dr Aryee said, would generally focus on mass mobilisation of funds and admonished Ghanaians to commit to support through the short code *979#.
She said the project was at a critical stage, hence the fund available did not meet the demands for its construction and called on all churches to intensify fund raising.
Source: Ghana News Agency
