5 - The Enchantment of the United Ghanaian Community Church, Philadelphia

Summary

The primary mechanism for establishing deliverance practices among Ghanaian Presbyterians in North America has been the New York deliverance workshop, held annually since 2004 by Abboah-Offei, with the goal of standardizing these practices among the various Ghanaian Presbyterian congregations. As I demonstrated in the previous chapter, this goal has been generally successful, particularly since the Ghanaian Presbyterians in North America combat the same malevolent forces.

One area of difference within the North America Ghanaian Presbyterian community, however, is the development of prayer teams across the member congregations of the Conference of Ghanaian Presbyterian Churches, North America. By 2008, the Brooklyn church had not installed a formal prayer team, but invited all members to participate during prayer services on Wednesday and Thursday nights. In Columbus, Ohio, a group of six people frequently gather to pray, although a formal and organized prayer team had not yet been formed by 2010. Alternatively, in Philadelphia, a formal and structured prayer team has developed as a result of the evangelizing and training efforts of Abboah-Offei. The development of the prayer team of the Ghanaian Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia—called the United Ghanaian Community Church (UGCC)—as well as the healing and deliverance practices performed within its congregation, is the subject of this chapter. The UGCC is a particularly enchanted congregation within the Conference of Ghanaian Presbyterian Churches, North America.