Catholic Diocese of Koforidua @ 25th : Renewing our Faith in the Light of the New Evangelization

This is my remarks as Chairman at the 25th anniversary of the Catholic Diocese of Koforidua. I will get a copy of the key note address of His Grace Archbishop Palmer Buckle, 1st Bishop of the Koforidua Diocese

I count it for joy to be summoned by my Lord to join you in this celebration of your silver jubilee, our silver jubilee. I saw Koforidua Diocese come up and I served masses for My Lord when he was Fr. Joseph Kwaku Afrifah-Agyeku.

Also Stheya had a relationship with My Grace when he was them My Lord Bishop. Koforidua has come a very long way from November 21^st 1992 when it was established from the Accra Archdiocese. To God be the Glory – Join me sing from Ps 94:2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving & make a joyful noise to Him with psalms

In 25 years, Koforidua has come very far, we need to thank God for the battles that we have won for the Lord and let us join Simon in 1 Maccabee 13:51 “ And they entered into it the third & twentieth day of the 2^nd month in the year one hundred and seventy-one (For us we enter into our 25^th year, in the year 2017) with thanksgiving, branches of palm trees, harps, cymbals, and psalteries, and hymns and canticles, because the great enemy was destroyed out of Israel (out of Koforidua)

Again lets join Machabeus as he praised God after they recovered the temple and city again under God’s protection – yes God has been with you My Lord and the people of Koforidua, you have toiled through out the 25 years and you have recovered the City of Koforidua and its people for Christ – so it is apt to do as in 2^nd Maccabees 10:38 And when this was done, they (we the people of Koforidua) blessed the Lord with hymns and thanksgiving, who had done great things for Israel (Koforidua) and given them (us) the victory.

Our Jubilee is by the grace of God and we thank Him for the achievement that He has done with us.

Our Theme – Catholic Diocese of Koforidua @ 25th : Renewing our Faith in the Light of the New Evangelization – is fitting and requires that we all ponder over it.

It should speak to us through out the celebration of the jubilee

It is what should spur us on to the next 25 years.

Without faith we can do nothing. The 1^st miracle of Christ was ignited by the faith of our Mother Mary, the Mother of God, in John 2:4 And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? My hour is not yet come. Our Mother being a woman of faith made Christ hour come when she said in verse 5 of John:4 “His mother saith to the waiters: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do yea”

That is what faith can do, beyond moving mountains it causes Christ’s time to come.

So within our lives what can’t be brought to life by faith?.

What mountains can we not move by faith?

What dry bones need to receive to life?

Believe and have faith in Christ Jesus who is alife and working in the Holy Roman Catholic Church. In this celebration of the jubilee that whatever mission God has given to you by faith He will grant you the provision to discharge it, all you need to do is belief and renew your faith in Him and open up to the Holy Spirit.

New Evangelization was first used, in relation to the Church, by St. Pope John Paul II in 1983 when he raised concerned about the failing methods of evangelization because they no longer were effective. Yes our old way of evangelizing has not been as effective as has should.

We need to change strategy, use the new tools and technologies to deal with today’s evangelization challenges.

So we are all called to the New Evangelization and it starts with evangelizing ourselves first by the renewing of our faith and being on fire for the Lord. It is only when we have evangelized ourselves can we then go out and deal with the other 3 people who need the new evangelization. The Vision of our Diocese sums up what we need to do with the new evangelization – Evangelizing through self reliance.

We need to evangelize

1. Those whose faith is flourishing
2. Backsliders
3. Those do not know the Gospel at all, who the Pope prescribes primary proclamation,

The need for faith in the life of the Church to spur us on be able to do more in the next 25 years cannot be over stated. St. Paul teaches us in Roman 10:17 “ Faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing the word of God” For us Catholics who belong to the Church that Christ died and founded Himself, we need to know that the Scriptures are only part of Word of God. This we should teach others and let them come to this saving realiszation.

The teaching of the Church from which the New Testament came from is available to us. Lets build our faith by reading and searching the Teachings of the Church and the scriptures.

I cannot fail but take advantage of this great platform to further the fight to stop illegal mining – galamsey. Listen to this

“I would like us all to make a serious commitment to respect and protect creation, to be attentive to every person, to counter the culture of waste and disposable, to promote a culture of solidarity and of encounter. Thank you.” Pope Francis. General Audience June 5th, 2013.

My passion to lead the fight to Stop Galamsey is rooted in my Catholic Faith. Pope Francis in his 2nd encyclical Laudato si’ (Medieval Central Italian for “Praise be to you”) has the subtitle “On Care For Our Common Home“. In it, the Pope critiques consumerism and irresponsible development, laments environmental degradation and global warming, and calls all people of the world to take “swift and unified global action“.

My Lord and the people of Koforidua we are failing His Holiness if we do not speak up and stop the degradation of our water bodies, the Brim and other river bodies are dying, our lands are being degraded, our people are being poisoned and some of them are dying in the pits. Lets use our homilies to preach against illegal mining and call for sustainable mining.

Thanks to the Catholic Bishops Conference for lending its support to the Media Coalition Against Galamsey’s call to stop Galamsey. But we can do a lot more as we celebrate the 25^th Anniversary of our diocese lets call on our Priests and Catechists to dedicate their homilies to preach Laudato si and support the fight to protect our today and our future

I pray we will be of one mind and one heart – be focused on this celebration and allow the Holy Spirit the Paraclete to take control over today’s celebration and use me and all who will plays roles that at the end, our faith will be renewed and we will be empowered to embark on new evangelization through self reliance

God Bless us all

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