Accra, April 15, GNA – Adorned in black and black and white attires in typical Ghanaian funeral fashion, worshippers thronged the Osu Ebenezer Presbyterian Church to mark Good Friday.
The service was one of the events marking Easter by Christians around the world.
Good Friday, otherwise known as Black Friday, is used in remembrance of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.
Christians also remember the death and resurrection of Christ to complete the Easter festivity.
It is a solemn atmosphere, as congregants reflected on the pains Christ endured to “save their lives,” through hymns and prayers.
Professor Benhardt Quarshie, Rector of the Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture, delivered the sermon on the theme: “Dying with Christ.”
He spoke to the Ghana News Agency after, and encouraged Christians and everyone to use the occasion to reflect on the legacy of Christ—dying to save lives.
He said: “We should be mindful of the legacy we live behind; material things were not the most important things that Christ left behind. But today, we’re focused on acquiring material things like houses, land, and cars, only to live them behind for people who do not toil for them to inherit them, to the extent of it, sometimes, being a source of conflict.”
He added that: “Let’s not focus on material things for after all, the garment of Jesus went into the hands of total strangers. What should preoccupy us is the need for us to build relationships.”
The Rector emphasised that: “Our legacy should involve building relationships and ensuring that we live in peace with one another.”
He, therefore, urged all Ghanaians and Christians in particular to make sacrifices that would bind people together and maintain good relationships.
He noted that dying with Christ also required that people lived in readiness of death by obeying the will of God, and identify and fulfil one’s mission on earth.
Prof Quarshie said: “We must die in the will of God, knowing that as children of God, everything will not be rosary for us, so we need to live our lives going through suffering just as Christ did.”
GNA