News

By Patience Gbeze, GNA

Accra, Feb. 27, GNA – The Most Reverend Dr Robert Aboagye-Mensah, a former Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana, has admonished people in leadership positions to know when they are done and exit honourably.

He said: “most leaders do not know when to exit because they do not know what they were called to do”.

The Most Rev. Aboagye-Mensah, who said this at the induction service of the newly appointed officials of the Bible Society of Ghana (BSG), said “there are leaders who are so confused about their call and do not know how to exit”.

The service, which was held at the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana, Dansoman Congregation, was to climax this year’s Bible Week celebration on the theme, “Come Let us Reason Together, The Bible Way”.

The Former Presiding Bishop, therefore, urged all leaders to exit honourably when their time came.  

The appointed officials are Dr Joyce Rosalind Aryee, Chief Executive Officer of Salt and Light Ministries as the President of the Society; Dr Steve Asante, the immediate past President of the Ghana Baptist Convention, as First Vice President.

Others include Apostle Peter Okoe Mankralo, President of the Apostolic Church-Ghana, as the Second Vice President; Mrs Efua Ghartey, a Corporate Lawyer, maintained her position as the Chairman of the National Council of the BSG, and Mr J.N.B Tetteh, a Retired Banker, as a Vice Chairman.

In all, 16 Council members and 36 committee members from various church denominations were also inducted to have oversight responsibilities over the operations of the Society.

The Very Reverend Francis Amenu, the District Pastor of the E.P Church, Dansoman Congregation, who performed the induction rites, said the officials were called by the Lord to be at the helm of affairs to produce and distribute His word (the Bible) to every corner of the word and urged them to deliver exemplary service to achieve the Society’s mandate.

Dr Joyce Aryee, on behalf of other appointees, said their appointment was a big responsibility but also a great privilege to serve the society.

She pledged the commitment of members saying they would join hands with the Holy Spirit and work together to ensure their usefulness throughout their tenure.

Mrs Elizabeth Taylor-Sampson, the Administration and Human Resource Manager of BSG, said every year they celebrated the Bible Week to promote unity in diversity in the word of God, family and the Church.

The Week, she said, was also to raise funds for the activities of the Society and expressed her gratitude to the past executives for their committed service to the Society.

For the first time, Ghana has been chosen as the venue for the 2022 UBS World Assembly. The World Conference would host National Bible Societies from 200 countries.

South Africa is the only other African country to have hosted this global conference.

The BSG is a non-denominational Christian organization registered under the Trustees Act, 1962 of the Republic of Ghana.

Caption:

Pictures of The Most Reverend Dr Robert Aboagye-Mensah, a former Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana and Dr Joyce Rosalind Aryee, newly appointed President of BSG attached      

GNA

List of Officials

Glory be to God for His mercies and abundant blessings he has shown us.The year 2016 has been purely by God’s grace every step of the way.

The Bible Society of Ghana held a lot of activities in the past year, such as the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Ga Bible and Bible Week celebration in churches across the country.
Cherished donor, through your generous donations towards Bible translations, a good progress has been made with the translation of the Gurune Bible which began in the year 2014. By God’s grace, the first scripture portion in the book of Mark is ready for publication.
The review of the Akan Bibles, that is the Asante, Akuapem and Fante, have been completed and ready for publication in early 2017.
In the area of distribution, the BSG in partnership with the Crossway Publishers International, distributed over 5000 English Standard Version Study Bible to 23 Theological Institutions across the country.
And for the first time, we are meeting the target of distributing 600,000 Bibles exclusive of Bibles distributed for free.
The BSG continues to make a great impact at the United Bible Societies front. To attest to that, the BSG was, at the 2016 World Assembly held in Philadelphia, USA, voted to host the next Assembly in 2022. In November, 2016, Mrs. Efua Ghartey, the Chairman of the BSG Board and Vice Chairman of the UBS Council was also elected as the Chairman of the UBS Council.
Another feat was achieved when I was also re-appointed as Chair of the West African Bible Societies Affinity Group. We give glory to God.
The Bible Society of Ghana also hosted a number of UBS programmes in the country, notably among which are, Story Based Trauma Healing workshop and the Fundraising and communications workshop all held in Accra.
Our relationship with the church in Ghana has been tremendous with more Heads of churches participating in our events and availing themselves to be used at different times.
Over one thousand new members were raised as members of the Society in the year 2016 under an aggressive membership drive embarked on by the Communication and Resource Mobilization Department.
The BSG has been recognized as a Society which has upheld the African Biblical Leadership Initiative Forum and Ghana has now become a reference point for other Bible Societies. The ABLI Forum for the Youth was held in Accra and for the first time also in Kumasi. The participation of the schools was massive at both events.
Thank God for the many volunteers who have willingly supported Bible work. The work is not yet done; we are setting higher targets and objectives for 2017. In every way, God is blessing the Bible work and we will continue to humble ourselves to him.
To all true Bible lovers, let us seek peace, work for peace and pursue peace, as we go to the polls to elect leaders for our nation. Let us not join any conspiracy or activity that will disturb the peace of our nation
I am thankful to the Board, Committees and the hardworking staff and our faithful registered members and collaborators and above all to the Church in Ghana. We wish you the blessings of God
God has greater things for us; let us gird up our loins to embrace His greater blessings, for our vision is not yet realized till we have a Bible in every language and format of choice.
Happy New Year!

Rev. Dr. Erasmus Nii Bonne Odonkor
General Secretary

The Holy Bible in Twi (Ghana) – Very easy to use – Single mode or parallel mode display (side-by-side) Please click here to  [ddownload id=”1161″]

The Bible Society of Ghana for many years has been in active partnership with the churches in Ghana to promote the Word of God. This partnership started in the year 1964 when series of meetings were held by representatives of the churches in Ghana with the purpose of ascertaining the need for an autonomous Bible Society and how such a Society should be organized to ensure the support of the whole Church in Ghana and yet be the servant of every individual Church.

Every year, the Church joins in the celebration of Bible Week, a week set aside to thank God for the gift of the scriptures and admit the relevance of the Bible in our daily lives. The week is additionally celebrated to raise funds for Bible Work in Ghana. The doors of many churches are opened to us, as we join to celebrate together with them, thanking God for this gift and promoting unity in diversity among churches.

The Church in its relations with the Bible Society of Ghana also makes modest donations to the work of the Bible Society of Ghana every year. These donations have gone a long way to help make the Word of God available and affordable all over the country.

Furthermore, the Bible Society of Ghana has received immense support from the Church in the work of Bible Translation in that they support us with experts in Bible work and theologians who aid in the careful translation of the Bible and eventual publishing. The Church has gone ahead to allow its members, including some Heads of churches, to make up our Council and Committee members. These have, over the years, given good counsel to the Society.

The participation of Heads of Churches and their members in our Annual General Meetings held in August (previously May) every year has been an encouragement to us and goes a long way to convince us that the Church is interested in the work we do as a Society.

The Bible Society of Ghana marked her Golden Jubilee Anniversary in 2015 with a number of Church leaders warmly receiving us and coming together in the various regions to celebrate 50 years of Bible Work. At the service for the grand launch of the Golden Jubilee Anniversary in February 2015, were six Heads of churches to support the BSG and its operation.

During the African Biblical Leadership Initiative Forum (ABLI), hosted in Ghana in the year 2014, the Bible Society of Ghana saw immense participation from the Church and Local Council of Churches. This forum was organized to promote Biblical leadership principles & practice in Africa.

In February this year, the Ministry of Finance requested the assistance of the Bible Society of Ghana to arrange an interactive session with the leadership of Churches in Ghana with the objective of briefing them on the state of the Ghanaian Economy. This meeting recorded a massive participation of 103 Church leaders amongst whom were five Heads of Churches.

The presence of the Church was even bigger at the Final Thanksgiving Service in September, 2015, to climax the Anniversary celebrations.

The BSG and the Church are united by a common interest and that is the BIBLE. We believe the Word of God has the power to transform and shape lives.

Church leaders, over the years have encouraged us to play a prominent role in uniting the front of the Church, to bring churches together for the purpose of a common understanding and also speak with one voice.

The Church’s expectation is that the Bible Society of Ghana (BSG) will do a bit more. It is reassuring that the BSG is careful not to move away from her core mandate of making the Word of God available and affordable to all and encouraging its use to transform lives.

The Society has come a long way in achieving its mandate, and this has been, in no small way, possible through the immense support of the Church. The BSG cannot be grateful enough. However, in our mutual quest to make the Bible relevant in our time and for generations to come, we pray for an even greater involvement in Bible Engagement and Bible Advocacy Programmes.

“The Lord reward your labour in the vineyard. (1 Corinthians 15:58)

Rev. Erasmus Nii Bonne Odonkor
General Secretary
The Bible Society of Ghana

BSG held a literacy training program for the Dagaare community at the Blessed Mary of Passion Guest House in Jirapa in the Upper West Region. The participants came from Wa, Kaleo, Nandom, Nadowli, Lawra, Jirapa, Guri, Jankori and other Dagaare communities.

They were take through various topics such as Biblical Principles of Working with Adults, Basis for Literacy, Witnessing and Discipleship and How to start Literacy Classes among others.

It is worthy to note that the initial thirteen persons who were trained have on their own recruited sixty-five more persons from their various communities for the project.

The literacy project is one of the ways The Bible Society of Ghana helps our communities to read and understand the Bible in their local language.

A similar training will take place in two other locations in Wa soon.