‘God lives in men, so if you want to build for God why don’t you build lives?’ – Bishop Korankye-Mensah to Akufo-Addo

Presiding Bishop and General Overseer of the Transformation Assembly Church, Fred Korankye-Mensah, has urged the President to concentrate on building lives for God rather than a cathedral.

According to him, even though the building of a cathedral is a commendable gesture to support Christendom in Ghana, the timing of the building is wrong.

Speaking on PM Express, he said “You see a national cathedral is not bad, it’s a national symbol, I mean, it will help Christianity. It will help in building people’s lives, but not when our areas are flooding; not when people are hard-pressed; not when we’re being squeezed to pay taxes on almost everything; not when prices of things are rising up through the roof. I think that it shouldn’t be our priority now. It should not be.”

He noted that since the national cathedral project is a passion project of the President, there should be no need for the funding of the project to be borne by the taxpayer.

“Moreover, I understand that this is a personal pledge by our dear president to build a cathedral for God if he wins the election. How does it become a national burden if it is an individual that made that pledge?”

He further pointed out that whereas it’s a great gesture to think about God enough to put up a cathedral for him, the shift from the old covenant to the new covenant means that God no longer resides in buildings as he did in the old covenant but in men.

“There’s nothing wrong with it, but I think that the timing is absolutely not right. Because in the Old Testament, David was so fascinated about building a temple for God, Solomon was so consumed with that vision, because under the old covenant God lived in buildings so a temple was a necessity, we needed to build the temple for him to dwell in.

“But then under the new covenant, the Bible says that God lives in men so if you want to build for God why don’t you build lives? Why don’t you put that money into lives? Why don’t you just look at people, focus on people and take care of people? I think God will be more pleased with that because God does not live in temples anymore,” he explained.

“Temples are important, but I am the temple of God, so why do you put the money into a building and I go hungry?” he added.

His comments were in reaction to issues of lack of transparency and accountability surrounding the building of the national cathedral.

The Project which was initially designed to cost $100 million has now been pegged at $350 million by the Finance Ministry.

For the past one week, the North Tongu MP has accused government of siphoning public funds to facilitate a project it propagated as a personal and private pledge.

So far, the North Tongu MP has put out documents showing that an amount to the tune of GHC200 million has been dished out for the construction of the project.

These monies, he said, were dished out without recourse to parliamentary processes or strict public procurement practices.

On Sunday, Okudzeto Ablakwa alleged that Founder of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Dr Mensa Otabil, has stopped attending meetings of the National Cathedral Board of Trustees.

Speaking on JoyNews’ The Probe, on Sunday, Mr. Ablakwa asserted that the desertion by the theologian is due to the illegality being perpetrated by the Akufo-Addo government with respect to the project.

“There is quite an uneasy calm among the Board of Trustees. And I can confirm to you that one imminent priest has walked away from the Board; the revered Dr Mensa Otabil is no longer with them.

“The whole year, he has not attended any of their meetings. It is not clear what his intention was, but he has given indication that all is not well,” he told host Emefa Apawu on Sunday, June 12.