A quiet Easter awaits Ghanaians
The usual bubble that is associated with the Easter festivities seems to be missing in the capital Accra; the Daily Graphic’s checks have shown.
A visit to some known spots in the capital, which are usually awash with billboards and banners of varying sizes announcing Easter conventions and other programmes by churches at this time of the year, painted a picture of a low-key celebration.
So with just a day to begin Easter, it looks like the typical church activities, which come in the form of massive conferences and conventions to herald the celebration of the death and resurrection of Christ, would be held on the quiet.
Our checks showed that although there would be diverse activities and conferences at various churches, billboards, banners and posters had not been the mode of advertising for the the various programmes.
Places visited by the Daily Graphic team, such as the Danquah Circle, Osu, Cantonments, Kawukudi Junction, Spintex, Adabraka and Dworwulu, rather showed a vast display of commercial adverts on billboards of various sizes by companies.
However, there were a few billboards advertising Easter programmes of big churches in the capital such as the Light House Chapel International (LCI), Action Chapel International (ACI), Harvest International Ministries (HIM) and the Maranatha Power Ministries International.
While the LCI which had a number of billboards dotted around the city advertised a miracle service on April 3, Good Friday with the theme “The blood of Jesu still heals. It still saves!”, ACI incidentally had its billboard in front of the church advertising an Easter Convention from April 1 to April 5 on the theme “Appropriating the Benefits of the Cross”. HIM are also organising an annual music programme dubbed Harvest Praise at the Accra International Conference Centre on Good Friday while Maranatha like ACI would be holding a convention from April 1 to April 5 on the theme “If I be Lifted Up”.
Popular churches
Some of the popular big churches in Accra, including the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) and the Perez Chapel International, nonetheless do not have any visible billboards concerning their upcoming Easter programmes.
Placed in front of the Perez Chapel International at Dzorwulu is rather a massive double billboard advertising the December 31, 2014 watch night service dubbed “Night of Prophesy and Power”. Checks by the team showed that there would be no special programme this year, apart from church services to be held on Good Friday and on Resurrection Sunday.
Conversely, at Kasoa in the Central Region, there were few church posters on the walls of some buildings and chop bars advertising church activities to commemorate the occasion.
At Kasoa Galilea, there were about 50 posters of the Omega Evangelical Church promoting some of the conferences and programmes it intended to organise to mark the Easter.
The posters are, however, not big enough to be noticed by the public, especially those travelling on the Kasoa road.
Reactions from Ghanaians
When the Daily Graphic spoke to some Ghanaians on their itineraries for the Easter festivities, most of them said they would spend the entire weekend at their various churches.
Asked whether their churches had posters on the street, most of them said their pastors rather announced the programmes during church services.
A member of Perez Chapel International, Erica Mandio, said her pastor, Bishop Charles Agyinasare, had outlined the programmes to commemorate the Easter during previous church servicies.