By Emmanuel Nyatsikor, GNA
Ho, Feb 17, GNA – The Reverend Jean-Paul Agidi, Minister of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church Ghana (EPCG) is challenging the leadership of the Church for what he says is “unconstitutional transfer of Presbytery Synod Clerks of the Church.”
He noted that the continued transfer of serving Synod Clerks to another Presbytery violated the Constitution of the Church.
This was contained in an open letter to the General Assembly Executive Council of the Church titled “A formal challenge to the unconstitutional transfer of Presbytery Synod Clerks in the EPCG” and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Ho.
The Rev Agidi noted that the Constitution of the EPCG stood as the supreme law of the Church, establishing the mandatory limits which all administrative powers should be exercised.
He continued that central to this governance was the absolute obligation that a Presbytery Synod Clerk “shall” serve a guaranteed six-year term, a provision designed to shield the office from administrative whim and ensure institutional stability.
He disclosed that the constitutional provisions on the Presbytery Synod Clerk Article 31 (3) stated that the clerk shall be elected by the Presbytery Synod from among the qualified Ministers in the Presbytery.
The Rev Agidi said Article 31 (3) stated that “the Clerk shall hold office for a term of six years only and shall not be eligible for re-election to the same office.
“Article 31 (5) (1) states that the office of the Presbytery Synod Clerk may become vacant by reason of the expiration of his or her tenure of office, resignation, death, removal from office for gross misconduct or permanent incapacitation due to protracted ill-health.”
The Rev Agidi said under established legal principles, the word “shall” functions as a term of absolute obligation which created a binding mandate that the Clerk shall hold office for a guaranteed six-year tenure and was shielded from administrative whim and immune to transfer or arbitrary removal.
He stated that to permit a transfer before this period expired would be to nullify the mandatory nature of the law and undermine the very foundation of the EPCG’s governing document.
According to Rev Agidi, despite these clear mandates, the current administration of the Church has sanctioned the premature transfer of elected Synod Clerks, an act he said constituted both blatant Constitutional breach and a categorical demotion of the clergy.
“This trend is not merely an administrative error but a profound injustice that undermines the rule of law and erodes the morale of those called to serve,” he said.
The Rev Agidi cited what he described the unconstitutional transfers of the Rev Samuel Nyonyo, an elected Synod Clerk of West Volta Presbytery in 2022 and The Rev A.B. Ankutse in 2025 which were sanctioned by the administration of Rt. Rev. Dr. Lt. Col. (Rtd) Bliss Divine Agbeko to buttress his case.
He stated that it was most troubling that Right Rev Dr. Lt. Col. Agbeko who now presided over these transfers once vehemently refused his own transfer from his post as the Presbytery Moderator of the Meridian Presbytery to the Mamprobi District of the Church under a previous administration.
He continued that the now Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church then labelled his transfer “as a demotion, unconstitutional, and a damage to his integrity” so to see the Moderator complicit in the very grievance he once championed was not only more than a contradiction but a betrayal of institutional integrity.
The Rev Agidi said the Church was now at the crossroads and therefore called on its leadership to restore administrative sanity and uphold the sanctity of its constitution or “face irreparable damage of a leadership crisis that ignores the very laws it was sworn to protect.”
He called on the leadership of the Church to immediately cease and desist from the unconstitutional transfers of elected Synod Clerks.
“The Moderator and the Standing Committee must be held to the same constitutional standards they are sworn to uphold,” he added
The Rev Agidi appealed to the church to correct these violations internally to avoid “the irreparable damage” of public litigation and the intervention of secular courts.”
He noted that failure to act now signified that the Constitution was subject to “administrative whim” rather than the rule of law.
Rev Dr Lawson Kwaku Dzanku Clerk of the General Assembly of the Church when contacted by the Ghana News Agency noted that he has not yet seen the letter but said transfers of Synod Clerks was not a “novelty” by the current administration.
He stated that it was no crime for the leadership of the Church to transfer a Synod Clerk from one station to the other once it was in the same Presbytery that he or she served as a Synod Clerk.
The Clerk of General Assembly noted that The Rev. Agidi has “no case” as even during the administration of his father, the late Very Rev. Dr. Seth Senyo Agidi, Synod Clerks were transferred.
The Clerk stated that the leadership of the Church committed no crime or violated the Church’s Constitution because Synod Clerks that the Rev. Agidi mentioned were transferred to pastoral districts within the same Presbytery.
Rev Dr Dzanku said for example The Rev. Mrs. Ankutse, Ho East Presbytery Synod Clerk was a Chaplain of Mawuko Senior High School but retired from the Ghana Education Service and was posted to Abutia Amesianyakope District of the Church in the same presbytery.
He appealed to both the clergy and laity of the Church to feel free to approach the General Assembly Standing Committee for explanation on issues that pertained to the constitutional, administrative and integrity of the Church.
GNA
Edited by Maxwell Awumah/Benjamin Mensah