A 53-year old Apostle of the church of Pentecost has been elected chairman to replace Apostle Opoku Onyinah who retires in June.

At the church's 43rd General Council Meeting, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, who is also the Koforidua Area Head passed a two-level electoral test to emerge the sixth leader of the largest pentecostal movement in Africa.

He was presented to the College of Apostles and Prophets by the church's 15-member Executive Council for a vote.

He pulled a convincing 147 'YES' against 4 'NO' in the 151-member College.

Passing the first test, he was presented to a larger body - the General Council which consists of ministers of the Church, Regional/Area executive committee members, national deacons, trustees, chairmen of boards and Committees and Movement Directors.

Eric Nyamekye who was called into full-time ministry in 1991 won the vote by an overwhelming margin. He got 994 out of 1009 votes representing 98%.

With 27 years experience in full-time ministry, the Apostle, a known bible expositor, rose to become an Apostle in 2011.

It has been a meteoric progress since then as he became a member of the Executive Council, two years later in 2013 and Koforidua Area Head in 2015.

Three years later, the Apostle is now in charge of steering the affairs of a church of more than three million for the next five years.

He became the first leader of the church not to have personally known the founder Pastor James McKeown.

In a prophecy, outgoing chairman of the church Apostle Opoku Onyinah received in 1979, it was revealed to him, that then pastor Opoku Onyinah would be the last of the greatest.

'You will become the mouth and eye of the church and the last of the greatest....', he recalled in an interview on HARD TRUTH.

Apostle Opoku Onyinah explained, he understood the prophecy to mean he would be the last of a pioneering generation of great men of God who walked which the founder of the church.

The last of the greatest ends in August when he draws down the curtain on 42 years of full-time ministry.

The Koforidua Area Head born in 1965, three years after the church was renamed Church of Pentecost from Ghana Apostolic Church.

He is married to Mary Nyamekye, a union blessed with children.

PROFILE OF APOSTLE ERIC NYAMEKYE

Apostle Eric Kwabena Nyamekye was born on October 21, 1965, to Mr Stephen Antiedu Nyamekye (late) and Agnes Owusu in Asokore-Ashanti. 

He completed Tema Secondary School in 1983 and proceeded to Nyankpala Agric College in the Northern Region, where he obtained a certificate in General Agriculture in 1986.

He also holds a diploma in Human Resource Management from the Institute of Commercial Management, U.K., a post-graduate Diploma in Applied Theology from the University of Manchester, U.K., and a Master of Arts Degree in Religious Studies from the University of Ghana, Legon.

He is currently a PhD student at the Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

Apostle Nyamekye worked with Technology Consultancy Center, KNUST, for three (3) years before he was called into the full-time ministry of The Church of Pentecost in 1991 and stationed at Daboase in the Western Region between 1991 and 1995.

He was later transferred to Agona Nsaba in the Central Region (1995- 1999), where he was ordained as a Pastor in 1996.

Between 1999 and 2005, he was sent on missions to the Republic of South Africa. He was recalled home in 2005 and stationed at East Legon, where he served as a District Pastor till 2008.

He also became the Resident Minister of Atomic branch of the Pentecost International Worship Centre (PIWC) from 2008 to 2011. He was later called into the Office of Apostle and transferred to Tamale as Area Head from 2011 to 2015. 

Currently, Apostle Eric Nyamekye has been the Area Head of Koforidua Area since 2015. He was elected into the Executive Council of The Church of Pentecost.