Our History

Our History

The Methodist Church Ghana came into existence as a result of the missionary activities of the Wesleyan Methodist Church which was inaugurated with the arrival of the Rev’d Joseph Rhodes Dunwell in January, 1835, in the Gold Coast (Ghana). Like the mother Church, the Methodist Church in Ghana was established from a core of persons with Anglican background. Missionaries, notably Roman Catholics and Anglicans had come to the Gold Coast from the 15th Century. Their activities did not see much success. What was left was a school established in Cape Coast by the Anglicans during the time of Rev’d Philip Quaque, a Ghanaian priest.

Those who came out of this school had scriptural knowledge. They also had scriptural materials which were supplied by the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. It was not surprising that one of the local Bible study groups was known by this name in addition to other names.

It was a member of one of such Bible study groups, William De-Graft, who requested for Bibles through one Captain Potter of the ship called ‘Congo’.

Through Captain Potter’s instrumentality, not only were Bibles sent, but also a Methodist missionary. In the first eight years of the Church’s life, 11 out of 21 Missionaries who worked in the Gold Coast died. Thomas Birch Freeman, who arrived at the Gold Coast in 1838 was a great pioneer of Missionary expansion. Between 1838 and 1857 he carried Methodism from the Coastal areas to

Kumasi in the Asante hinterland of the Gold Coast. He also established Methodist Societies in Badagry and AbeoKuta in Nigeria with the assistance of William De-Graft.

By 1854, the Church had been organized into circuits constituting a District with Rev’d T.B. Freeman as Chairman. However, Rev’d Freeman was replaced in 1856 by Rev’d William West. On 6th February, 1878, Synod took steps that were confirmed at the British Conference in July, 1878, that the District should be divided into two for effective ministries. The District had then extended to include areas in the then Gold Coast and Nigeria. The two districts were:

+ Gold Coast (Ghana) District, with Rev’d T.R. Picot as Chairman.
+ Yoruba and Popo, District with Rev’d John Milum as Chairman.

Methodist evangelization of Northern Ghana began in 1910. After a long period of conflict with the Colonial Government, Missionary work was finally established in 1955, with Rev. Paul Adu as the first indigenous missionary of Northern Ghana.

In July 1961, the Methodist Church in Ghana became autonomous, and was called the Methodist Church Ghana, based on a Deed of Foundation. This deed of Foundation is enshrined in the Constitution and Standing Orders of our Church.

Currently, the Methodist Church Ghana, is one of the leading Churches in our country, with a total membership of over 600,000. The Church has 17 dioceses, 3,814 societies, 1,066 pastors, 15,920 local preachers, 24,100 Lay Leaders, many schools, an orphanage, hospitals and clinics.

HISTORY OF GHANA METHODIST CHURCH – SYDNEY AUSTRALIA

In late 2007 and early 2008 Brother Jimmy Appiah and Sister Abenaa Achiaa initiated discussions on the establishment of a Methodist Church in Sydney, Australia. Further informal discussions were made among Methodist members and resulted in an announcement being made on the local radio (through the initiative of Brother Jimmy Appiah) of the establishment of a Methodist church.

Following the radio announcement, arrangements were made to have our first meeting on the 20th of April 2008 at the residence of Mr and Mrs Nti-Aboagye at Prestons in Sydney. Present at that meeting were Sister Achiaa, Mr and Mrs Jimmy Appiah, Mr and Mrs Kojo Nkrumah, Bro. Ben Amoahene and Mr and Mrs Nti -Aboagye.

Questions were raised as to why each of us wanted to plant a Methodist Church. Various answers were given and Sister Julie Nkrumah recorded the reasons. Among them were:

  1. To belong to a Church they had grown up with. (Reconnection to the Methodist root).
  2. A return to a church structure laid down over the centuries and a form of worship with Methodist hymns and songs at the core.
  3. An interest in welfare activities in both Ghana and Australia.
  4. An opportunity to connect with the global Methodist Church Ghana.

It was clear at the first meeting that we were all eager to invite people of the Methodist faith to worship together in the Methodist tradition.

Our next meeting was held at Brother Amoahene’s house in Casula, Sydney. Present at that meeting were Benjamin Amoahene, Bro Hayford Nkrumah, Bro Frank Simpson, Mr and Mrs Kojo Nkrumah, Mr and Mrs Nti-Aboagye and Mr and Mrs Jimmy Appiah and Ms. Joana Odoom.

This meeting started a cycle of rotating monthly meetings. After several months Brother Hayford offered that if we needed a permanent place for the monthly meetings his residence will be available. The offer was accepted. This initiated a monthly service and discussions on how we could establish the Methodist Church.

Through the initiative of Mr and Mrs Kojo Nkrumah, we established a relationship with the Wesley Mission in Pitt Street, Sydney. They encouraged us to attend regular Sunday Church service with the mission. This was accepted and we began several weeks of joining in the Sunday worship service at the Wesley mission in Sydney. After some time and due to the fact that most of the Ghanaian community reside in the Sydney West, the leadership of the Wesley Mission recommended us to The Uniting Church (Parramatta Nepean Presbytery) with the task of finding a place where we can worship as a community group.

The Uniting Church embraced us with a warm heart and after some initial discussions, the Presbytery appointed Mr and Mrs Andrew Thornley as our mentors who did a great job in preparing us for the task ahead. We held a couple of training sessions with them in Pendle Hill, NSW which laid a good foundation in our preparations towards establishing and running a church.

The Uniting Church finally gave us a place of worship in Toongabbie NSW free of Charge for about one and half years. We were made aware that the building was earmarked for sale and should it proceed, another place of worship shall be found for us.

Mr Kojo Nkrumah was appointed as the first Caretaker of the Church.

Our efforts culminated in having our opening service on the 1st of March 2009. We will forever be grateful to the Uniting Church in Australia for their continuous assistance in our spiritual journey.

Ghana Methodist Church Sydney, greatly appreciates the continuous service the following members have rendered to the church: Bro Kojo Odoom, Mr and Mrs Boateng, Mr and Mrs Asare, Mr and Mrs Koomson, Bro Kofi Appiah and Bro Kwamena Acquah.

When the Toongabbie church was finally sold we were given the opportunity by Uniting Church in Australia, to select a church from a large number of locations in the Parramatta Nepean diocese, Prominent among these were Rouse Hill and Greystanes. Overwhelmingly, Greystanes was chosen where we still worship.

 

 

As part of the processes of recognition by the UCA, a presentation was made at the quarterly meeting to request the members to formally accept us .On 19th August 2009, a presentation of acceptance was made by Mrs Juliana Nkrumah .Present at that meeting were Mr and Mrs Nkrumah, Mr and Mrs Adu-Gyamfi and Mr and Mrs Nti-Aboagye. There was an overwhelming vote to accept us and the title” Faith Community “was conferred on us. We accepted the name’ Ghanaian Methodist Faith Community’.

In 2013 there was a change in leadership and Bro. Nti-Aboagye became the caretaker while Evangelist Justice Asare became the worship leader.

We are very grateful to the Uniting Church in Australia, in particular the Leadership of Greystanes Uniting Church.

We celebrated our 5th anniversary in September 2014 and invited Evangelist Eric Essel Lartey of Komenda prayer centre in Ghana. We give great thanks to the almighty God for the great things he is using the Methodist Church in Sydney, Australia to achieve.

In August 2015, The Methodist Church Ghana-North American Mission Lay Movement Council invited us to their 2nd Biennial conference which took place in Worthington, Ohio USA.

Being the only Ghana Methodist Church on the continent of Australia and recognising the importance of the theme of the conference” Witnessing to Christ: The Global Expansion of Ghana Methodism-the Challenges, prospects and a Divine Vision, and its relevance to our mission Mr Nti-Aboagye was nominated by the Church to take part in the conference and gain an understanding of how our sister Churches in the diaspora are reaching the goal of the ‘GREAT COMMISSION’ (Mark 16:15-18).

During the conference Mr Nti-Aboagye was privileged to meet with Mr Kwame Boafo, Lay President of Conference & Chairman of Connexional Lay Movement Council, The Methodist Church Ghana, who was also the Special Guest Speaker.

Mr Nti-Aboagye discussed with him and other leaders at the conference the problems we had encountered in our attempts to seek recognition from The Methodist Church Ghana. Mr. Kwame Boafo assured us that he will take the matter up once he gets back to Ghana.

Through his efforts the Sydney congregation was invited to take part in the Tarkwa conference in August 2016.The delegation from Sydney were Bro Richard Mensah, Bro Adu-Gyamfi and Bro Nti-Aboagye.

We give special thanks to Mr Kwame Boafo the then Lay President of The Methodist Church Ghana for paving the way in our quest for recognition.

During the Conference the Sydney delegation was given the opportunity to put their request to the conference to become part of the global Methodist Church Ghana and this was accepted by conference.

We will also want to thank Evangelist Essel Lartey of Komenda Prayer centre for his assistance during the conference itself.

The Tarkwa conference opened an official channel of communication between us and The Methodist Church Ghana.

Discussions with the then Presiding Bishop on the process of recognition continued after the Tarkwa conference and the 8th of April 2018 was subsequently selected for the inauguration of the Sydney society.

As part of the process of becoming part of the Global Methodist Church Ghana, the Sydney Society overwhelmingly decided to have a change of name to reflect our new membership of The Methodist Church Ghana. Through a thorough democratic process the name GHANA METHODIST CHURCH SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA was selected among a host of others.

The inaugural ceremony was conducted by the then Presiding Bishop of The Methodist Church Ghana… THE MOST REV. TITUS KOFI AWOTWI PRATT.

The Sydney congregation wish to thank him for the special occasion and his efforts to assist us after the inauguration.

AMEN.