Contents:
For those interested religious change in Africa and in the dynamics of life in modernizing continent generally the emergence of such spiritual leader on this occasion raises interesting problems More particularly it raises problems of the persistence of traditional religious world views and the relevance of religious leaders and religion to contemporary ruling elites and their task of mobilization and modern ization Of course there has always been readiness to believe in the resurgence of Old Africa For example during the Nkrumah period.
Personality cult The fact that one of the anthems rendered at the castle was in extravagant praise of the religious leader of the ARS shows the kind of hero worship or personality cult which was one of the most dangerous pitfalls presented by the Nkrumah regime and which is an abomination within Christianity where public worship can only be given to God and God alone.
Polygamy Though within Christianity monogamy remains the stand- dard Scripture specifically demanding that the priest or pastor should have one wife only this does not appear to be the case with the Apostles Revelation Society. Though they claim he tells us to have renounced the traditional African resources of spiritual help yet they have carried over several significant factors of this background and in fact really represent convergence of Christian and indigenous African religious influences.
Prophet Wovenu who feels that he has spent all his life fighting against fetish would very bitterly deny this convergence In this disagreement rest problems of orthodoxy and more important of pressures towards the Africanization of Christianity The larger question is the relevance of the particular beliefs prac tices and objectives of the ARS to the national government which invited it to participate in ceremony of Rededication to nation re construction This government it must be remembered has set its face against the personality cult of the former regime with its rhetorical sycophancy and praise singing its Zionist Pan-Africanism its ritualiza- tion of charisma and its creation of monarch-president.
The highest form of worship. As result of fervent prayers to God for his sympa thy God covenanted with hiin and promised that if the Society and the present generation would hearken to his words and repent then he would send to them glorious change courage comfort life and many other good things He said in addition that he would increase their population and horrors of war and sickness would no longer be known to them. When he asked young apprentice who had been giving him much help what wages he wanted he was answered that if was going to give him his daily bread then what we ought to be doing was to be praying to God for safety and for the successful carrying out of my business rather than discussing money. Hence the need for sacrifices The more you give the more you receive He who gives grudgingly shall reap in poverty The Holy Duties of Insurance or preservation of belongings under God are extolled Things like life wealth land vehicles and others too many to mention can be insured because it is only God who can preserve Prophets can easily perform the insurance ceremony for life and property and the Lord accepts the responsibility because his Prophets are regarded by Him as His faithful servants. On 24th February the day of the coup group of women going here and there in merry making in kind of assembly was revealed to the Prophet This was taken to be reference to the opening of the gates of Usher Fort prison and the release of political prisoners to their wives Prophet Moses Jehu Appia the engaging and intelligent leader of the Musama Disco Christo Church who also prophesies and who in calendar issued yearly makes prophecies for the membership of this Fanti Church has tended to commit himself unambiguously to apocalyptic events The failure of these to take place has caused his group some embarrassment. The difference in metaphor between the corporate redemption of the Old Testament and the New Testament redemption of the individual in the Body of Christ is discussed in SHEDD Christians surely used their worship as an occasion for building sense of community represented as spiritual body of the risen Lord cf Oscar CULLMAN Early Christian Worship London But the focus in the Old Testament was upon the welfare of the corporate entity in relation to Deity and in the New upon individual salvation in relation to the career of an individual God become man. In all the study challenges Ghanaian Pentecostals to re-examine their spirituality in order to make their faith meaningful to the Ghanaian public life.
Wovenu organized sanitation and prayer groups built tabernacle and journey ed in evangelization from village to village Presently the fire of enthusiasm began to flare and to signal successful beginning. Witnesses of the Kingdom. Though the translation of the Ewe word Apostolowo is it has frequently been translated and earlier publica tions this was done by the Society itself The term Apostles came in revelation and has never been clearly justined But the Society and Wovenu understand it in the sense of messengers of the word of God.
What these figures show is that although the average age of the pastors and leaders is 47 years virtually the age of the Prophet himself the Society itself is not top heavy at this age the age of those who as young men would have founded the cult in the early forties In other words the Society is successfully recruiting young people as members and has considerable strength at the lower levels of the pyramid Indeed the strength of the membership at the young mature level is striking The ARS is not clearly religion that appeals simply to the older generation Other figures important to the assessment of the membership of this church are levels and distribution of education and spectrum of occupations It is frequently said that the ARS and churches similar to it appeal primarily to illiterates and people otherwise of very low educational level Taking the male membership as the most realistic in assessing this question2 we find 53 of illiteracy-to-education rate among the membership.
This distribution while differently broken down than that given in the Census2 insofar as comparable with caution shows that in the ARS branches those who have only attended primary school constitute higher percentage and 60 versus 35 of total past school attendance than is the case with Ewe men in the Census This is to say that among the literate in the ARS there is large percentage of people with primary education only In view of the Protestant ethic which some have found at work in the ARS and which we consider below it is relevant to examine economic activity and economic categories represented in the Church Only three men and these in Accra out of queried declared themselves unemployed All the rest laid claim to an occupation which they were more or less active This fact should not be over- interpreted although it may reflect Wo emphasis on hard work and his frequent attack on laziness Total all-tribes unemployment in Ghana is 5.
Women of the Apostles. It will be recalled that one of the chief criticisms of the ARS is its attitude towards plural marriage It is useful to consider this problem in relation to some of the population characteristics of the Society which we are discussing When proposed discussing the issue of plural marriage with Wovenu in November of in the light of the letter circulated against him in May he replied that it was superficial matter used by his enemies to confuse people about the work of God in which he was engaged do not encourage polygamy simply permit it in order to get on with our Christian work.
Lately it appears that in fact Wovenu has ceased to take strong position on plural marriage There are more important things for Christian to worry about than polygamy said one of his pastors at Tadzewu There appears nothing in the Jubilee Book on the issue But earlier on Wovenu took strong clear and scripturally supported position It is this.
He refers to Mark God said that man is the greater and the head of woman Yet the membership is to be reminded that woman is most precious heritage and as the best women are priceless gems let us know that we cannot own them with money but we can with the fear of God noble living and constant fasting and prayer to God.
In this statement is bound up quasi-Calvinistic notion more clearly set forth in the defense of polygamy that wives are somehow divine recompense blessing that testifies to state of election What know as man of God is that polygamist does not get access to his several wives because of his riches or handsomeness but the women are gift to him just as riches are to the rich Surprisingly the polygamous life of some men does not emanate from their wealth or handsomeness but it is only the love of God for them that draws the women to them.
Conversion to the Apostles. ARS morning greeting The growth of the Society from nucleus of schoolboys led by Wovenu in to membership of some souls in the rests largely upon conversion The sources of the membership are of course either the established Christian churches or the pagan population The former predominate. That angered me because in our language that means that person has been killing people But in the circumstances remained calm and he instructed me to go out with his elders into the cool air where would be given the meaning of the revelation left the church in company of one of the pastors and as was going out the door cool draft struck me and with shudder understood the meaning of the revelation For when was younger had gotten young woman with child Family complications caused me to have her seek an abortion Thus it was that my hands were bloody for had destroyed this soul When had under.
Surely the Lord God will do noth ing but he vevealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. Amos The casual visitor to the ARS impressed by the orderliness and forethought with which the daily spiritual activities proceed and with frequent signs of compulsive sense of organization in the Church will not appreciate the importance of Revelations these unpredictable products of exceptional psychic activity Yet the frequency with which they occur and the members sense of the way they actually foretell coming events is one important source of assur ance to them that their Church is among the Chosen and they them selves among the Elect In one respect the visitor is quite right to overlook the revelations for ostensibly all activities religious and otherwise are conducted with such sobriety and order that there would seem to be no room for that exaltation of spirit so often associated in the new African religions with visionary experiences and revelations.
Revelations usually come at night and often in dreams but if they are very important they come during the day First of all the Prophet says they come in the form of symbol nukpokpo and then you must pray for the meaning which will come later Perhaps one has question to be addressed to God Later on in dream the answer will be given. The Prophet is the only one in the Society who has revelations and interprets them directly Others may have visions but in order that they be interpreted the member must come to the Prophet and ask that they be revealed There is thus differ ence struck in the Society between vision accessible to all and Revelation which contains and manifests Holy Intelligence Visions may contain Holy Intelligence but the Prophet or at least the elders of the Church must sit on that vision going through it very carefully to see that it is really of God The presence is important because only he has the gift of the Spirit of Judgment as in Corin thians The actual revelation with its pretension of universal relevance is interesting for the symbols which carry the content and for its attack on those high in academic knowledge and degrees but low in good character frequent anti-intellectual theme in preachings This revelation brought Wonevu knowledge of Great Transition Period in which men would have chance to prepare themselves for the scraping off of coarse things Feast of Transition was held at Tadzewu from the 4th of October to the i8th of November There was mild millenarian promise bound up in this feast of change totroyiza God told his servant Wo venu that he would remove all coarseness from the earth As result of fervent prayers to God for his sympa thy God covenanted with hiin and promised that if the Society and the present generation would hearken to his words and repent then he would send to them glorious change courage comfort life and many other good things He said in addition that he would increase their population and horrors of war and sickness would no longer be known to them.
The property of people who do not fear God or do his will will be seized from them and their lives too will be cut short. Who has the great sun in the White Sea Know that am the world All things are from me Whether the sun rises or not Whether its rays are strong or weak WTiether the wind is blowing or silent Whether the sea is boisterous or calm Whether neighbors in their compounds are mourning or full of song Whether men of music play or whether there is war When fires burst forth When the earth is split asunder and great floods rise Know that all these things come from me am the only one to be heard in the tumult My horses are fiercer than my enemies On that day those who dislike will look out finally for the good and they will not find it Good will be finished for them They are the naked who shall run to their rooms for their clothes and find them not The disrespectful will look up for someone to respect and find him not The rulers will run away from those they rule in whom will be no support Great men will take to hiding and those hidden and formerly despised will come out.
Morning communal labor before the chapel itself built by the volunteer labor of the Society members.
The ambivalence we have pointed up concerning material and spiritual objectives is plentifully evident in this pamphlet On the one hand citing Matthew 7: Hence the need for sacrifices The more you give the more you receive He who gives grudgingly shall reap in poverty The Holy Duties of Insurance or preservation of belongings under God are extolled Things like life wealth land vehicles and others too many to mention can be insured because it is only God who can preserve Prophets can easily perform the insurance ceremony for life and property and the Lord accepts the responsibility because his Prophets are regarded by Him as His faithful servants.
On the other hand gratitude must be shown for the efforts So the client must be prepared to sacrifice in order to obtain tenfold what he desires The preacher then made an involved examination of the symbolism of sacrifice after the two principles if you want life sacrifice something which has life if you want health sacrifice something which has health Recent sacrifices in the Society of male and female sheep preceded by ceremonial purification of these animals it was shown brought life and cleanliness upon the Society The reasons for sacrificai offerings of coconut honey and salt in connection with fire were also shown We use fire It is spiritual It leaps high and is bright And these foods sweet and flavorful we want flavor in our life In every thing we do we must understand we are praying to God with symbols Does God need these sacrifices He does not Does he eat We use water because we want to be as calm and indispensable as water We sacrifice these things to God.
The nature of this trance is not very dramatic It has simply the appearance of profound prayer The Prophet insists that he has no power apart from God and that he is only tool in His hands But he recognizes that his membership persist in believing that there is power apart from that of God and that of prayer1 and that this power is bound up in the Prophet himself The uncertain concept of charisma may be useful again here At least it should be said that there is capacity credited to Wo venu hich troubles the Prophet as to its proper interpretation When the problem of prophesying is explained to strangers by head pastors of the ARS two biblical passages are generally referred to Amos 3: These passages are used it appears because they embrace in the minds of the leaders the possible modes of the relationship to God The Old Testament verse highlights the obligation of the Lord God to reveal his secrets to his Prophets The passage from Peter on the other hand frees God from any suggestions of obligation While Prophet Wovenu may under questioning adhere in an intellec-.
The Prophet goes on in this passage to specifically accept the utility of sacrifices Some people say that sacrifice with lambs was ceremony of ancient times Do they mean that the use of this holy animal given to man by God is sinin our festivals If this sacrifice ceases then there is no passover because the lamb is the sign of the passover In all festivals we slaughter animals to prepare our souls.
However Wo venu may seek to commit himself to the sacrificial element in the Old Testament the question remains as to what prophetic tradition he adheres Margaret Field who goes to some length to point up the similarities between Ashanti and Hebrew spirit possession as depict ed in the Old Testament identifies three kinds of Hebrew prophets. The almost proprietorial proximity of Wovenu to God in this passage should be read in relation to the prophetic role as portrayed in the Old Testament which Wovenu knows so well We should note the emphasis in that part of the Bible upon the compact between God and his Prophets as well as upon the non-individualistic and symbolically representative character of the prophet become priest In the knowledge of that compact or covenant man like Wovenu who is fundamentally Old Testament orientation can speak famil iarly of My God At the same time we understand that the posses sive pronoun stands for the entire community for which he is the anointed priest and vicarious substitute.
The tribes of Ewe settle down together. The Prophet has kept steady eye on the modern world in which his religious community exists and he has been constantly concerned to adapt to it From the earliest period he has tried to involve the Society in business enterprises which would be of profit to it and its membership His Jubilee Book testifies to his attempts to establish petrol filling stations chicken farms animal husbandry kente cloth cooperative and other businesses and enterprises that would give the Society fully participant place in the modern world as well as provide it with resources.
Max Weber in his discussion of the charismatic personality argues that such critical achievement is the establishment of sense of corporateness among his followers an emotional form of communal relationship.
The Organization of the Society. The body of the Prophet. Wovenu has ordained 84 ministers in the first 25 years of his prophethood. JAMES FERNANDEZ sion with me contemplated Bible study the United States He conjectured that the church organization could carry on satisfac torily without him under the direction of his cousin the Rev James Arnega would observe though that the organization however bureaucratized it appears is still personalistic enough in operation as to create real turmoil in the absence of the Prophet.
Holy sacrifices which increase strength. Because of this emphasis on spontaneous sacrifice in favor of the Prophet and the Society noy early statement of income and expend itures is made at least made public All depends on what God. When he asked young apprentice who had been giving him much help what wages he wanted he was answered that if was going to give him his daily bread then what we ought to be doing was to be praying to God for safety and for the successful carrying out of my business rather than discussing money.
Teaching the lost Christians and the pagans fooled by the devil.
If the Prophet worries about the moral climate of the modern world and envisions scraping off of all coarseness from the earth this worry is felt most sharply in respect to the children of the Society Youth today are coming under unfortunate non-Christian influences and the ARS must do everything in its power to counteract that. Hold fast to praying unceasingly. The Prophet constantly stresses the importance and the power of prayer Not the nodding and semi-conscious speaking in tongues that is prevalent in other African churches but the fully conscious directing of oneself and community to attention Worship must always therefore be the vehicle for prayer Children are taught to pray from very young and the best cure for the sick and ailing is steady program of prayer eight times day if possible large part of worship is public prayer major aim of the ARS is that the Society should hold fast to praying unceasingly.
M with chapel bell This is moment for silent prayer throughout the awakening community though those gathered together in the school in the young quarters or already in the chapel on night long vigil will follow this silent prayer with the Prayer said out loud The bell rings again at 5: M at which moment the electric plant is cranked up and the neon lights go on in the chapel in the guest house and in the Story House At 5: M At midday there is short public service primarily intended for the school children who are marched up from the school to the chapel in several contingents singing brave hymns and preceded by drums There are also prayers for the.
M It follows pattern familiar to Protestants and particularly those of Presbyterian persuasion. Denying the spirit of self in the corrupted world. In the Silver Jubilee Book Wovenu lists twenty sacraments that he has performed from the inception of the Society up to the present Baptism Confirmation Anointment administration of the Healing Oil Vowing to God protection of conceptions Outdooring of Children protection of babies Casting out of Evil Spirits mourning ceremony to widovs and widowers ceremony of Foundation Laying of Buildings ceremony of Sanctifying Buildings ceremony of Acquiring the Spirit of Profession Spiritual Insurance of Property and Lives Marriage burial the Supper installation of kings or chiefs ceremony of the Protective Ear-Ring and Ordination of Church Officers In view of the general tendency in Protestantism to reduce sacraments this slow accretion by revelation over twenty-five years testifies to range of needs in the Society for visible signs of divine grace not found in the mission-derived churches or if found there handled very differently.
Knowledge of the sacraments builds us and lets our face shine in the light of the word of God Thus the Outdooring of Children sacra ment which has its corrolary in traditional African practice3 has its virtue in the literal presentation of the child fully to God It gains His protection from those who can kill the body the destruc tion of invisible evil spirits and undue worries. Anointment is practiced elsewhere in the Society in matters of consecration and ordination.
Wovenu feels that as it was written so he has experienced it in present-day Ghana So cried unto the Lord and He heard me and answered Vovs are made to me for righteous living and give out freely unto man and his generation Wovenu then leaped before the Lord and said So long as you live shall re-establish the ceremony of Vowing to you and the children of the world who love asking favors of you shall vow unto you and you shall be pleased and make people happy by showering on them their various demands. The reference is to the covenant between Jacob and Laban. The highest form of worship.
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