The Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) of the Cape Coast Archdiocese, recently organized a Workshop for some delegated members of JPC Committees in the various Parishes of the Archdiocese at the St. Peter’s Regional Seminary, Pedu.
Sir Dr. Lawrence A. Honny, Archdiocesan President of the Commission, said the Workshop was to empower Commissioners to carry out their core mandate of helping people to live in peace with one another and ensure that Commissions were established and functioning in all the Parishes of the Archdiocese.
He called on all to work hard to promote Justice and Peace whereever they found themselves because “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.
Dr. Honny said that last year, a similar Workshop was held during which Deanery representatives were selected to form Justice and Peace Committees in the various Parishes and Rectories and train members to help tackle issues of justice and peace in their communities.
The Workshop, according to him, was also to assess the performance of the Committees, discuss their Reports and look out for ways of making them active and relevant in the Church.
One of the reports from Sacred Heart Parish, Winneba, stated that the Committee under their ‘Societal Harmonisation Project’, discovered that members of the various Societies had more allegiance to their societies than the Church.
The situation according to the Report, led them to investigate the issues in order to foster harmony among the societies and individuals, to create a more unified body of worshipers and also to help them appreciate their roles in the church.
The outcome, according to the report was a great change in the attitude of the people in relation to their roles in the Church and in their societies.
Most Rev. Matthias Kobena Nketsiah, Archbishop of the Cape Coast, lauded the Commissioners for their good work and urged them to pay particular attention to environmental issues especially the activities of ‘galamseyers’ that were destroying water bodies.
As part of the activities of the day, Rev. Fr. Patrick Appiah took participants through the various chapters of the Encyclical, Laudato Si in which Pope Francis seeks to raise the consciousness of humankind to the harm being caused to the environment.
He taught them how to study the book in small groups in order to propagate the message therein.
The Vicar General, Very Rev. Fr. Bonaventure Annan, who chaired the function, thanked the participants and charged them to champion the cause of justice and peace in their communities so that people everywhere would enjoy justice and live in peace.
Some other participants at the workshop included Chiefs and Students from Holy Child Secondary School, St. Augustine’s College and Seminarians from the Pedu Seminary.
