Most Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana, on Thursday stated emphatically that the Methodist Church is non-partisan and therefore it was wrong for anybody to connect it to any political party. The Presiding Bishop, who made the remarks at the opening of the 44th Sixth Biennial Conference of the Church at the Wesley Cathedral in Cape Coast, said individual members, including himself, had their political persuasions but no one had the right to speak politically for the church as an entity. "The Church is not apolitical and will speak its mind when the need arose but it was not right for anyone to speak on behalf of the church for any political party," he declared to the obvious delight of the congregation which applauded in support of the Bishop. The comments were made apparently in connection with the recent openly partisan utterances made by the former Presiding Bishop, Most Reverend Dr Asante Antwi that the NDC government was running down the economy and failing to continue good policies initiated by the erstwhile Kufuor administration. His comments generated a lot of public debate in the media. The week-long conference on the theme; "Connexionalism and Oneness in Christ," is being attended by a large number of people, including the clergy and laity, government officials as well as traditional rulers. Touching on the theme, Bishop Asante underscored the important role of the church to the development of the nation and called on it to remain focused and strategize to achieve its mission of spreading the gospel of God to every part of the nation. He said the conference was to enable the Church to take "a critical review of the past, make a careful assessment of the present and ensure a realistic projection into the future to facilitate its growth". Bishop Asante bemoaned the recent actions by some congregation who locked up churches in protest and urged ministers of the gospel who were behind such actions to put a stop to it because they were destroying the tradition of "Methodism". He pointed out that the "conference" was the sole governing body of the church and that when bishops or leaders were elected by it nobody had the right to oppose them. Bishop Asante said the church must be mission focused and carry out its core function of being committed to evangelism which, he said, 'still holds." He urged the well endowed churches to support the weaker ones particularly in the rural areas by adopting and helping them to put up simple structures for worship and to check unbalanced development of the church. Bishop Asante, the Lay Chairman, described the conference as unique because it marks the 175 years of Methodism in Ghana and it was also being held in Cape Coast where Methodism first emerged. He asked that they drew inspiration from the founding missionaries whose commitment, zeal and dedication instituted the Methodist church in the country. Mrs Ama-Benyiwa-Doe, Central Regional Minister, reminded Ghanaians that they could not build a strong nation if they were not united. She urged all to be prayerful so that God would make the "Better Ghana Agenda" a success. Source: GNA