By Emmanuel Todd, GNA
Accra, Sept 30, GNA - The Reverend Professor Philip Tetteh Laryea of the Akrofi Christallar Institute, has urged chiefs and traditional leaders to beware of distillery companies sponsoring their festivals and other communal gatherings with hard liquor.
He said they lured traditional leaders by giving them huge financial support just to gain the acess to market their product to the community, leaving them with the destruction effects of alcohol.
He noted that the patronage of alcoholic beverages was on the increase and destroyed the youth.
He said this as he delivered his sermon during a special service held to unite tradition and the church at the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Calvary Congregation, Haatso.
The worship was on the theme "Let Christ be formed in you: celebrating the goodness of God in our Homowo Festival".
He said the taking and use of alcoholic drinks during occasions and traditional rituals was not the practice of old, but an infiltrated tradition of colonial masters especially the Dutch.
"In our olden days, our ancestors before the coming of the white, ancestors did not use alcoholic drinks for libation, they used fresh dew from the heavens, schnapps, dry gin and others was not the true order”, he said.
He called on chiefs to put in measures to restore the lost traditions over the years.
He said our traditions and festivals were ways by which God revealed himself to his people and should be practiced to glorify him and not be an avenue to introduce our communities to destructive habits such as alcoholism.
The Presbytarian Senior Minister testified of a senior of his in school whose life was destroyed by alcohol meeting after 30 year when he visited his village.
"It was sad, I could hardly make him out as he had changed", he said.
Nii Samuel Adjetey Mohenu,Abokobi Mantse, Chairman of the Ga-East Traditional council urged the youth to value their traditions and desist from habits such as alcoholism that destroyed their future.
He encouraged the speaking of the Ga dialect and that the Ga East council had set up an educational scholarship fund to support persons interested in the language.
He commended the Presbyterian Church for their initiative and pledged the backing and support of the traditional council to drive the Agenda.
He called on the Presbyterian Church to once again organise retreats for the chiefs as they had done in the past to equip them with Christian values to aid in their Governance.
Reverend Dr William Morley Quaye, the Minister in Charge of the Calvary congregation said the society should be made aware of the dangers accompanied with the consumption of alcohol because it destroyed the human potential of the community.
He called on stakeholders within the trade and industry sector to regulate the operations of alcohol distilleries which were speedily taking over the market space.
He advised the general public against the intake of alcoholic beverages.
The District Minister prayed for God to deliver from drug abuse and help the people to be delivered from the influence of alcohol.
GNA
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