3 - The Enchantment of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, 1960–2010

Summary

By the early 196os the Presbyterian Church of Ghana was no longer the preeminent church in Ghana's Eastern Region, the area dominated by the Presbyterian Church of Ghana since the Basel Mission established its headquarters in Akropong in 1835. The primary reason was that members, particularly younger wage-earners, had been leaving the Presbyterian Church of Ghana in droves over the previous forty years. These young men and women became attracted to more enchanted forms of Christianity, churches that offered robust healing practices and combated the malevolent forces that caused these Ghanaians great suffering.

This chapter explains how, as a response to this mass exodus of members among other factors, the Presbyterian Church of Ghana became enchanted after 196o. Before I describe in detail the context in which the Presbyterian Church of Ghana became enchanted, let me define the term “deliverance” and discuss its relationship to healing. Deliverance is defined by Catechist Abboah-Offei as setting a person, place, or object free from Satan's control. Deliverance involves deploying the power of the Holy Spirit, particularly with the utterance “in the name of Jesus,” or, alternatively, “with the blood of Jesus,” in order to free people from any illness, affliction, or other problem caused by Satan. Within highly enchanted forms of Christianity—where illness, health, and healing are influenced by supernatural forces and involve relationships between people and spirits—healing is synonymous with deliverance.