Presiding Bishop and General Overseer of the Transformation Assembly Church, Fred Korankye-Mensah, says Jesus will not be pleased if we’re spending $350million on the national cathedral especially at this stage of our development.
According to him, the construction of most national cathedrals across the world were put up when the country was faring better economically, not when they were facing economic woes as Ghana is currently.
He said, “Not at all. Not at this time of our development. Not at this stage. Of course nations like the UK, the United States of America, other nations have built cathedrals, but at what point of their development did they build cathedrals? We’re not there yet, I don’t think that should be a national priority.”
Speaking on PM Express, he called on the President to rather invest in the lives of Ghanaians rather than the building saying that would please God most.
He said, “You see a national cathedral is not bad, it’s a national symbol, I mean, it will help Christianity. It will help in building people’s lives, but not when our areas are flooding; not when people are hard-pressed; not when we’re being squeezed to pay taxes on almost everything; not when prices of things are rising up through the roof. I think that it shouldn’t be our priority now. It should not be.“
“There’s nothing wrong with it, but I think that the timing is absolutely not right. Because in the Old Testament, David was so fascinated about building a temple for God, Solomon was so consumed with that vision, because under the old covenant God lived in buildings so a temple was a necessity, we needed to build the temple for him to dwell in.
“But then under the new covenant, the Bible says that God lives in men so if you want to build for God why don’t you build lives? Why don’t you put that money into lives? Why don’t you just look at people, focus on people and take care of people? I think God will be more pleased with that because God does not live in temples anymore,” he explained.
“Temples are important, but I am the temple of God, so why do you put the money into a building and I go hungry?” he added.
Meanwhile, he has suggested to the President to rather than funding the project with taxpayer’s funds, go on a fundraising campaign to support the construction.
According to him, he was optimistic that should the President lead such a charge, and thoroughly convince Christendom in Ghana on the need for a cathedral, great men and women from the various churches will significantly contribute to the build.
He added that even a single Christian denomination could take up the project and finish it.