Methodological God at Work

The Methodist Church at New Weija, determined not to cede an inch of its land encroached on by the Assemblies of God, has perforated the original wall of Assemblies of God auditorium to erect their own fence wall in order to methodologically secure their land.

The space in contention is less than two feet and residents of New Weija in Accra, are wondering what may have compelled the Methodist Church to break and build through the Assemblies of God walls for encroaching on just less than two feet of their three plots of land.

Even though the leadership of the Assemblies of God admitted to an architectural error on their part and made various overtures to the Methodist Church to solve the issue amicably, their pleas were not considered.

A lay preacher of the Methodist Church, Jerry Mpraim on July 4, 2012 led some members of the church who ignored petitions from colleague pastors from the other church, to perforate portions of the Assemblies of God Church and constructed a fence wall about 9 feet tall through the church of the Assemblies of God at night.

A frustrated Rev. Justice Akwasi Agyei, Head Pastor of the Assemblies of God church, Power Centre at New Weija, expressed shock his colleague ministers and fellow Christians took such drastic measures. “It’s rather unfortunate that this thing is happening here, most especially, in the house of the Lord,” he said.

“The portion that they are demanding now is less than two feet, we spoke to them in so many ways but still they chose to do their own thing.”

Residents described the incident as “shameful and disturbing”. And for a church of the standing of the Methodist faith to take such an “inappropriate” measure to resolve such a ‘harmless’ miscalculation involving another church, some residents have even threatened to prevent their friends and relatives in the area from worshiping with the Methodist Church there.Expatiating on the issue, Rev. Justice Agyei, admitted that the architect they contracted to work on their church building made a “genuine mistake” and encroached on about two feet of Methodist Church’s plots. The two churches sit on a four plot of land: one for the Assemblies of God with the remaining three belonging to the Methodist Church.

Immediately the attention of the church was drawn to the encroachment when they were about roofing the building, he said, he and the leadership of the church quickly made proposals to the Methodist Church to enable them to coexist, but to no avail.

“We agreed [that we have encroached on their land] and since we are all Christians and on the same land, there shouldn’t be any problem, we have to solve any problem amicably. They came to us and we also went to them, and then we presented our options to them: either we compensate them or they should allow us to stay on the land because in the next two or three years the building would be broken down and a new one put up. Or they should lay their wall to close our main door that opens to their land or they should lay the wall so that people would not know that we have encroached into their land.”

He said not even the intervention of the Regional Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, Rev. George Annan, and another senior pastor Rev. Theresa Klottey could persuade the Methodist Church to tempter justice with mercy.

Appeals to the Superintendent Minister of the Methodist Church Dansoman Circuit, Very Reverend George Mensah, who has a supervisory role over the branch of the church at New Weija, for an intervention to save the situation did not yield any results.

Members of the Methodist Church connected light from their church to the Assemblies of God church, broke the padlock to the rear door of the church and entered the building. They then broke the two sides of the church building and laid their wall through on July 4, 2012.
They did not demolish the portion of the church sitting on their land; the builders only cut through the wall of the Assemblies of God auditorium and raised their own wall. The greater portion is where they worship now and the other inaccessible part - which is just about a foot-long - still standing on the Methodist land.

The Steward of the Methodist Church, New Weija, Yaw Boateng explained that his outfit started discussion with the Assemblies of God over a year before taking that step.

“We asked the Rev. of the Assemblies of God to remove the portion so that we can fence the [part] that belongs to the Methodist, and the Rev. told us he doesn’t have problem at all, so we can do it [in a manner that] will bring peace.”
He said the action was a unanimous decision by the entire church: “Even Rev. Justice went to our headquarters to apologise that we can leave that portion for them, but you see it can’t be possible like that. The church is not for one man, the church belongs to the majority, so when we discussed issue like this and majority agree that we use this or sell the portion for the Assemblies, I don’t have nothing to do. So we all agree to fence our fence wall which belongs to the Methodist.”