Accra, Aug. 1, GNA – Apostle Dr Eric Nyamekye, Chairman of The Church of Pentecost, has urged judges to uphold conscience, integrity and values in the administration of justice.
He said judges must allow their decisions to be guided by truth, moral principles and a clear conscience, as they determine matters affecting people’s lives.
Apostle Nyamekye made the call at a thanksgiving service in Accra to mark the 150th anniversary of Ghana’s Supreme Court, held on the theme: “Honouring the Past, Celebrating the Present and Defining the Future.”
“As judges adjudicating on behalf of God, in passing judgments and determining people’s fate, determining the truth in every matter, your integrity should not be in question at all.
“You should be people supremely concerned about conscience, holding time-tested values and subjecting them in all decisions,” he said.
Apostle Nyamekye said the future of the country’s justice system would depend on the quality and character of judges produced, urging them to conduct themselves in a manner that would leave positive legacies for future generations.
He said conscience was closely linked to the values people upheld, adding that values guided decision-making, especially in difficult circumstances.
“Values do more than just help us to decide on what is wrong or right. When we live by conscience tied with principles and values, they help us do three things,” he said.
He said values acted as a filter that made choices easier, provided inner strength and purpose, and enabled people to live authentic lives.
Apostle Nyamekye said the world needed judges and Christians who were committed to living by their convictions.
He noted that “people with conscience subordinate’s feelings, appetites, desires, ambitions, situations, and circumstances to values just to please God and preserve a clean conscience before him.”
“If you violate your conscience, soon it will be mortified, and your conscience will be subjected to great indiscipline and you would lose all sensitivity and give yourself to all vices,” he said.
Apostle Nyamekye said people guided by conscience did not make excuses for their actions but remained committed to their convictions regardless of circumstances.
“For Christians who are concerned with conscience they do not go against their convictions no matter the circumstances.
“People of conscience operate from God’s perspective,” he said.
Apostle Nyamekye encouraged Christians and public officials to apply the teachings of God in their daily lives.
“Our knowledge of God should not be mere theoretical orthodox. We should seek to reduce to practice all that God teaches us. We need to yoke our conscience well. Discipline ourselves, bringing all the activities we are involved in under the scripture.”
Apostle Nyamekye said people with a well-formed conscience matured in the grace of God, adding that “they have reverential fear for God. They know that God reads deeds, he reads motives and tests the heart.”
“At the end of the day, posterity will remember you not for the worth you had, not for how smart you were but how faithful you serve God and this institution in the discharge of your duties,” he said.
Apostle Nyamekye also called on the church to uphold the values, principles and lifestyle of the kingdom of God.
“If today’s church is all about anointing, oil and water then we are in trouble,” he remarked.
Apostle Nyamekye appealed to the public to desist from falsehood, saying “we are in a community where when people lie, we laugh over it but in the western world lying is a serious offence”.
The thanksgiving service was attended by clergy, serving and retired judges of the Superior and lower courts, representatives of the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana Immigration Service.
Mrs Patience Baffoe-Bonnie, Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service, and Dr Johnson Asiama, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, also attended the event.
Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, General Overseer of Action Chapel International; Right Rev. Dr Abraham Nana Opare Kwakye, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana; and Rev Eastwood Anaba of Eastwood Anaba Ministries offered prayers for the nation and its arms of government.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey
Reporter: Joyce Danso