Accra, 11 December, 2019 / 12:26 am (ACI Africa).
As missionaries belonging to the Society of African Missions (SMA) in Ghana launched, Sunday, December 8, their yearlong celebration to mark 140 years since the arrival of their first members in the West African nation and the official unveiling of the new SMA-Ghana Province, previously a Regional circumscription, leaders in the Society of Apostolic Life have expressed their joy and termed it a moment for the members of the congregation to reflect on their missionary work.
“We think that celebrating this elevation and at the same time launching 140th anniversary of SMA presence in Ghana is going to motivate us and therefore put us ahead that we have reached a point of maturity,” the immediate former Regional Superior of SMA in Ghana Fr. James Yeboah told ACI Africa in an interview.
“It is an opportune time to honor the past, celebrate the present and plan for the future,” Fr Yeboah added in reference to the December 8 event, which coincided with the celebration of the founding of the Society of Apostolic Life by Bishop Melchior Marion de Brésillac in 1856.
“It is also the time to appreciate our forefathers for the wonderful work then we take up from them the commitment, the sacrifice that they made and we emulate such then forge ahead,” Fr Yeboah said.
Acknowledging that realities have changed since May 18, 1880 when SMA Priests, Auguste Moreau and Eugene Morat arrived in Gold Coast, as Ghana was previously known, Fr. Yeboah said the jubilee celebration “is also a time to look into our state of evangelization, most especially approach to evangelization in our new world of the 21st century.”
