Methodist Church Ghana

The Methodist Church Ghana
Methodist Church Ghana logo
Classification	Methodist
Orientation	Mainline
Polity	Episcopal (Connexionalism)
Associations	World Council of Churches,World Methodist Council, Christian Council of Ghana
Region	Ghana
Origin	1835/1961 Cape Coast, Ghana
Branched from	Methodist Church of Great Britain
Official website	www.methodistchurch.org.gh

The Methodist Church Ghana is one of the largest and oldest Protestant denominations in Ghana. It traces its roots back to the landing of Rev. Joseph Dunwell on 1 January 1835 in Cape Coast, Ghana. Rev. Thomas Birch Freeman, another missionary, emerged as the father of Methodism in West Africa, taking the Christian message beyond Cape Coast to the Ashanti Kingdom, Nigeria, and other parts of the region.

By 1854, the church was organized into circuits constituting a district with T.B. Freeman as chairman. Freeman was replaced in 1856 by William West. The district was divided and extended to include areas in the then Gold Coast and Nigeria by the synod in 1878, a move confirmed at the British Conference. The district were Gold Coast (Ghana) District, with T.R. Picot as chairman and Yoruba and Popo District, with John Milum as chairman. Methodist evangelization of northern Ghana began in 1910.

After serving as a district in the British Methodist Conference, the Methodist Church Ghana attained full independence on 28 July 1961. It adopted an episcopal structure at the Koforidua Conference in August 1999. Currently, the Methodist Church Ghana has 15 dioceses headed by bishops. Between 2003 and March 2008, 406 new congregations were started and ministry was initiated in Burkina Faso.

The current Presiding Bishop is the Most Reverend Titus Awotwe Pratt, the forth presiding bishop and the eleventh person to lead the Methodist Church Ghana. The administrative bishop is the Right Reverend Dr. Kweku Asamoah-Okyere, and the lay president is Mr. J. E. K. Pratt.