Serve “in simplicity, humility, charity,” Newly Ordained Deacons in Ghana Told

A day before, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, John Bonaventure Kwofie had delivered the same message of “service” during the ordination of seven deacons in Accra.

“Diaconate is a ministry of service," Archbishop Kwofie said Friday, January 10.

Addressing himself to the seven candidates he was ordaining as deacons, the Ghanaian Prelate who is a Spiritan said, “You will proclaim the word of God, you will prepare the altar for the sacrifice of the Mass and give the Lord’s body and blood to the community of believers.”

“Unfortunately, I think that the transition period of service is too short. But remember, whether it is short or long, doesn’t really matter as to whether or not you will integrate the spirituality of service in your overall priestly ministry, whose basis, after all, is service, nothing but service,” he emphasized during the celebration held at St. John the Evangelist Church at Adenta, Accra.

According to the 61-year-old Archbishop, deacons should emulate Jesus Christ who did not come to be served but to serve, by not departing from their “core duties of preaching the gospel, bringing healing to the sick as well as comforting the afflicted and making themselves servants to all."

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He underscored, “We are ordained to heal the sick, to preach the kingdom, to comfort the afflicted, to bring God to the lonely and those who are in despair, to preach the message of hope.”

“You make yourself servants of all - the rich and poor, the young and old, the socially recognized and the socially marginalized, the sick and strong, the haves and have nots,” the Archbishop of Accra who doubles as the Apostolic Administrator of Ghana’s Sekondi-Takoradi diocese told the candidates to the diaconate and emphasized, “You will be servants of all and of course, if you do not serve as deacons, you become really a disgrace to the ministry.” 

Speaking on January 6 during the ordination of three deacons at the St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Kwesiminstim in Sekondi-Takoradi Diocese, Archbishop Kwofie urged the candidates “to do the will of God generously, serve God and humankind in love and joy and look upon all unchastely and avarice as worship of false gods.”