Aggrieved Presby members to close down church in protest against autocratic, corrupt pastor

Some aggrieved members of the Domeabra Trinity Congregation under the Asante Akyem Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana are threatening to close down their Church building on Sunday 3rd January 2021 following an unending tension mounting between the members and the Minister-in-charge, Rev. Ebenezer Nana Mensah Kumah.

The members who are fuming with excessive rage insist they can no longer work with or guarantee the safety of their autocratic and corruptible resident pastor, Rev. Ebenezer Nana Mensah Kumah and his wife.

According to pieces of information gathered, the over 125-year-old church will be placed under several padlocks and surveillance by the aggrieved members on Sunday in protest against Rev. Ebenezer Nana Mensah Kumah.

The Domeabra Trinity Presbyters are demanding the leadership of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana to remove Rev. Ebenezer Nana Mensah Kumah from the area with immediate effect before things get out of control.

A copy of Report dated 19th November 2020 from a six (6) member Presbytery Fact-Finding Committee, constituted by the Chairperson of the Presbytery Standing Committee, Rev. Dr Anokye Nkansah to investigate the feud between Rev. Kumah and the Domeabra Presbyters exposed several secret dealings and unruly behaviour of Rev. Ebenezer Nana Mensah Kumah.

The Committee chaired by Rev. Frank Amuzu, – Presbytery Clerk was convinced after their investigations that based on Rev. Kumah’s own confession, almost all the allegations levelled against him [Rev. Kumah] were true, and also recommended for his removal.

The aggrieved members who appeared before the committee reaffirmed their allegations in their earlier petition to the Presbytery Standing Committee.

According to the Six (6) member Committee’s Report, the congregation alleged that Rev. Kumah unilaterally collected an amount of GH¢ 60,000.00 from Mr. and Mrs. Boateng to purchase a vehicle without the consent of the Session members.

The report affirmed that Rev. Kumah individually invited a so-called Prophet to the church to give false prophecies to project him as a powerful man of God who cursed his former church members who rebelled against his authorities and they actually died; an act the Committee considered was to put fear into the members of the church in order to override them.

“The Minister’s wife normally picks quarrels with the workers of the Salem Water Project which attracts crowd from outside to separate them….The latest one was on 14th November 2020 that led to the closure of the church by some members….This attracted a lot of town folks to the mission house to separate the fight”.

According to the report, the Reverend Minister connived with the Treasurer of the Church and took church money to develop a store for his wife without the knowledge of the Session members.

It indicated that the Minister on his own accord sacked the only security man the church has employed without paying him upon which the man is threatening to sue the church. The absence of the security man the report further indicated had resulted in the missing of several items including desktop computers and flat-screen TVs, which the Minister had unjustifiably refused to officially report to the Session members or the police.

The Committee’s report revealed that Rev. Ebenezer Nana Mensah Kumah had also “not accounted for the 2019 Annual Harvest proceeds; has locked up ongoing morning devotion offerings in the box and kept the key; two weeks in the month of September 2020 of the Salem Water Project is still unaccounted for by the Minister and his spouse and has also refused to pay off borrowed monies taken towards the 125th Anniversary celebration”.

It further revealed that he had inexcusably stopped the church financial committee from using computers for the church records and accounting, and mysteriously the desktop computers are now missing.

The report indicated that the Session members had made it clear that they will not allow Rev Kumah to officiate any activities in the church whiles awaiting his final removal by the leadership of the Church.

The 6-member committee in their observations emphatically stated that “The Committee sees a breach in complying with the article 9 (17(b)) of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana that states that all funds shall be administered by the Session especially where the Minister solely contracted a loan from an individual from the church to purchase a vehicle, licensed it without informing both the current Session who were sworn in on 17th October 2020 or the old Session members whose term of office ended on 10th October 2020”.

The report stated that “The Constitution permits the Session to meet once every week but the Minister ever since assuming responsibility had not met the Session to take any official decision.

They described his administrative style as that of a one-man church and not as stated by the Presbyterian Church of Ghana’s Constitution.

It said that Rev. Ebenezer Nana Mensah Kumah does not respect the members of the Domeabra Trinity Congregation, and lacks transparency in his management of the church affairs.

The 6-member committee recommended that he steps aside and submits himself for proper counselling and that within a period of one month, he should read the handing over notes he received from his predecessor and decisions from it be implemented. He is also ordered to render 2019 financial year accounts to the congregation.

Further checks by this reporter revealed that Rev. Ebenezer Nana Mensah Kumah put up similar recalcitrant behaviour and placed his personal interest above the interest of the Presbyterian Church when he was heading the Church at Wasa Akropong.

He allegedly ordered some youth from the town to pull down ongoing school Library, Staff common room, students’ urinal and classroom block of the RIIS Presby Model Basic School to establish his own private school.

Source: Edmond Gyebi, Contributor