03/08/2021
NATIONAL CATHEDERAL - A NATIONAL MOMUMENT OR NATIONAL MOURNING?
(The Significance And Importance of A National Cathedral In Our National Conversation)
‘’God bless our homeland Ghana, and make our nation great and strong…’’ are the very first and second verse of our national anthem. The last verse ends like this: ‘’and help us to resist oppressors rule with all our will and might forever more.’’ Basically, our anthem is a prayer to the God Almighty. In almost all our national life and conversations, we acknowledge God. This means that this nation believes and acknowledges God and actually prays or calls on Him. So then, I can safely say that the Almighty God is the nation’s God regardless of what some individuals’ beliefs are.
When we sing this anthem or hear it being played and sang, we sing with pride. Most often when Ghanaians sing or hear this awe-inspiring national anthem during a national event or an occasion, some receive goose bumps; some even share tears of national pride; and some feel an awe-inspiring sense of pride and love for our homeland Ghana.
Why are we proud and why do we love our country in spite all our horrendous problems? In spite of the fact that this is our homeland and we have no other else, we are proud and love our country because God which we acknowledge in our everything had been extremely good to us as a nation. Ghana is most probably blessed than any other country in the World. God has endowed us with everything that a country can be blessed and boast of. Blessed and endowed with both natural and humans resources which are all what a nation need to develop and advance, and before I forget, let me also be quick to add that we have been blessed with peace which probably is the most important of all our blessings. This is why I believe our nation’s fathers recognized and acknowledged the God of Israel in our national affairs as our God.
When God chose Israel as a nation and as a people to put His name on, to be their God and to bless and protect them, the nation Israel was built around God. God was the center of Israel’s national affairs and indeed, God had blessed this small nation that today, it is a super power. Psalm 33:12 says ‘’Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.’’
How was God the center of Israel’s life as a nation? God dwelled with them. God said in his word, ‘’I dwell not in temples made by human hands (Acts 7:48) but as a symbol of His presence with the nation and the people, He commanded the people of Israel to build Him a house, a tabernacle which would later become the pattern of the temple which would to be built in all of Tabernacle’s principal components on a grand scale. God gave Moses all the patterns and the intricate designs of the Tabernacle and Moses and the Children of Israel built it with pinpoint accuracy according to all that God had shown to Moses. Even as they were journeying in the wilderness before they settled on the Promised-Land, they carried the Tabernacle which could be dismantled and be mounted again at any time with them because of its significance to them as a nation and a people. Later, king Solomon came to build the magnificent Temple which was the original idea of God base on the patterns of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle or the Temple became the symbol of:
1. God presence with Israel
2. God’s majesty, God’s glory, God’s blessings and God’s peace
3. God’s holy land
4. The spiritual life of Israel
5. The unity of the God’s people
The Temple was also A National Monument, the most Recognizable Landmark of the Holy Land (Israel) and A Permanent Spiritual/Religious Center of the World.
Any National Cathedral or Temple symbolizes these and as a matter fact, any nation whose God is the LORD God Almighty has a National Temple or Cathedral which symbolizes God’s presence, His majesty, His glory, His peace and His blessings. It also signifies God’s holy land and the spiritual life of that particular nation. A National Cathedral usually is also a national monument, a national pride, a national landmark, the center of the spiritual life of that particular nation and the unity of all of the people of that nation. This is the significance of a national cathedral to any nation whose God is the LORD God Almighty.
If God is the God of Ghana as we acknowledge in all our national affairs (the national anthem, the national pledge and in all our national gatherings etc.) where then is our national symbol that symbolizes the presence of God, the spiritual life of the nation, the majesty, the glory, the blessings and the holiness of God in the country?
The idea of a national cathedral is good and a blessing. It takes people who are spiritually discerning to build or support the building of such spiritual monument. However, in Ghana right not, the most heated argument currently is about the proposed building of the National Cathedral by the current President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo. Whiles some Ghanaians are in favour of the proposed building, some are outraged including some Christians. This has given some pagans, heathens, people from other religious divide and some ‘’so called Christians’’ alike the opportunity to vehemently criticize and even mock the project and the government.There are also some Ghanaians who also believe that the project is a misplaced priority arguing that there are more begging social, economic and political issues to deal with than to build a National Cathedral.
I don’t think that people would have vehemently protested the proposal by the President Nana Akufo Addo if it were to be a national museum, theater, park, stadium or any other social or political project but because of the sensitive nature of spiritual and religious issues, people have serious issues and are fueled up with rage against it, politicizing it and questioning why the president has made it a priority over the provision of social amenities, all in the name of trying to defeat the whole idea of the Cathedral and to bring it into disrepute. But truth be told, it is mainly due to some people’s disregard for and hatred against anything spiritual or Christian. Building or not building a National cathedral does not affect social amenities. If the government wants to build or develop social amenities, it is not the National Cathedral that will stop it. Not building the National Cathedral as well is not going to build or develop social amenities in this country. So, such comparison is a mere propagandists’ method to criticize the idea of building the Cathedral and the government. Let me also remind critics, that the life and affairs of the people in this country do not only revolves around socio-economic and polical development but also spiritual and religious development and enlightenment. The Christian Community or the Church in Ghana has contributed significantly to Ghana's socio-economic development of this and has be the base it's moral and spiritual fibre.
So my humble apeal to all-well meaning, spiritually descerning Ghanaians, Ghanaian expatriates, foreig nationals, and people, coperate institutions and governments around the world who have the national and spiritual interest and well-being of Ghana at heart to contribute significantly to the building of this all-important national monument which signifies the presence of God in the center of our national life and affairs.
Today, The National Cathedral Secretariat and the Government's request for us to contribute financially to the building of the Cathedral is generating another controversy but you must understand that not everyone is spiritually descerning enough to understand what this mean to a nation like ours.
When God asked Moses to build the Tabernacle, He asked the children of Israel to give for the building and they gave more than were need for the building of the Tabernacle.
Exodus 25:1- 8 says "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 25:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. 25:3 And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass, 25:4 And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair, 25:5 And rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and sh*ttim wood, 25:6 Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense, 25:7 Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate. 25:8 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them."
And let them make me a ; that I may dwell among them say the LORD God Almighty.
So to the uninformed critics who are fun of using even scriptures to oppose the building of the Cathedral, God actually asked the people of Israel to build Him a Sanctuary/Tabernacle/Temple/Cathedral so that He will dwell among them. Did you hear that?
So whenever God wants His temple to be built, He asked His people to give willingly. This is why God wants us to give to the building of this Cathedral. He wants us to build Him a national Sanctuary/Cathedral so that He will be in the center of our national affairs. After all, it is evidently and conspicuously clear that our politicians cannot manage our national affairs to be betterment of the well-being of the Ghanaian citizenly.
God bless you
You can share this article to encourage studying to show ourselves approved onto God. The Lord bless you!
~By Rev. Michael Sarfo
General Overseer - The Firstfuits Church
President -Temple State Theological Seminary
