The Most Rev. Matthew Gyamfi, President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, has said that the Ghanaian Church’s journey of synodality, manifest in her pastoral outreach, advocacy, and partnerships, testifies to the transformative power of walking together.
In a Keynote Address to officially open the 2025 Plenary Assembly of the GCBC in Damongo on Monday, November 10, 2025, he said, “Amid political tension, environmental decay, and social division, the Church continues to choose dialogue over division, collaboration over apathy, and moral leadership over indifference.”
Speaking on the theme of the plenary, “Jubilee Year: A Time to Proclaim Christ, Hope for the Church and Ghana” (cf. 1 Tim. 1), he stated that guided by the chosen theme, this year’s Plenary Assembly is deliberating on a range of pressing national and ecclesial issues.
Bishop Gyamfi, who is the Local Ordinary of Sunyani Diocese, said the theme invited “us to renew our faith in Christ as the living centre of the Church’s mission and the wellspring of authentic hope for our nation.”
“We celebrated the Jubilee not as mere remembrance but as a call to conversion, reconciliation, and renewal. It was a moment to proclaim Christ as the one true hope who restores meaning, integrity, and direction to both the Church and the Ghanaian society,” he alluded.
According to the GCBC President, in line with last year’s theme, many activities have taken place in the course of the year to proclaim Christ, hope for the Church and Ghana, not least, the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the hierarchy of the Church in Ghana, with the elevation of Cape Coast as an Archdiocese and the creation of its then suffragans: Accra, Keta, Kumasi, and Tamale.
Building on that foundation, this year’s theme, “Synodality in the Service of Justice and Peace in Ghana,” will guide our reflection and deliberations. If the Jubilee called us to proclaim Christ as our hope, synodality challenges us to embody that hope together—to listen, to discern, and to act as one body animated by the Holy Spirit.
“It reminds us that the Church is not an institution that commands from above but a pilgrim people who walk together, translating faith into works of justice and peace within our national context.”
By Celestine Gbologah//Newswatchgh.com
