Thousands of Catholics and well wishers all over the country are expected to join the Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of Accra, Most Rev. Charles Palmer Buckle today, Saturday December 2, to open the 125th anniversary celebrations of the Church in Accra at the Holy Spirit Cathedral.
The year long anniversary, launched on September 21, will open at 4pm and
is on the theme “125 Years of Catholic Mission in Accra: Renewing our commitment to Evangelization”.
According to the Archbishop, the theme was inspired by the theme of the Second Synod of the Archdiocese of Accra celebrated in February 2009. “Renewing the Church and fulfilling our Vocation and Mission in the Catholic Archdiocese of Accra in preparation for its 125th Anniversary”.
The Archbishop also revealed at the launch of the anniverary that for the past ten years, the Church in Accra have been implementing recommendations that were given for the strategic development of the Archdiocese. Thus, piritual, financial, material and institutional.
The 125th Anniversary celebrations will start on Saturday, December 02, 2017, with advent vespers as well as other ceremonies and close on Sunday, November 25, 2018, on the Solemnity of Christ the King with Holy Mass to climax it at the Black Star Square in Accra..
In view of that, there will be Rosary prayer processions (dubbed "Prayer-Jericho Walk") by all the deaneries starting at 2:00pm at designated deanery meeting points.
The processions are expected to reach the Holy Spirit Cathedral by 4:00pm.
On Sunday November 3, the anniversary will be opened in all Churches in the Achrdiocese with Masses are to be said for the Anniversary celebration.
HISTORY
The Catholic Church in Accra began with the first Holy Mass said on January 31, 1893, by Rev. Frs. Otto Hilberer and Eugene Raes, two priests of the Society of African Missions, (SMA) sent from the Elmina Mission that had started in 1880.
In the same 1893, the first Catholic Baptism in Accra took place for Mr. Louis James Buckle on May 25, and the first Holy Matrimony celebrated between Herbert Cheetam and Rose Mary Quaye on August 12, 1894.
However, in 1895, the Accra Catholic Mission had to be closed down for Frs. Hilberer and Raes to return to Elmina to take up priestly duty there as a result of the successive deaths of their SMA confreres in that Mission due to tropical illnesses of malaria and yellow fever. The Catholic community of Accra was, therefore, left in the care of a Church committee led by Messrs Andoh, Brown and Yankah.
It was only in 1924 that Rev. Fr. Joseph Stauffer SMA was posted to Accra, and he purchased an old cocoa shed situated on the Derby Avenue, which he later refurbished and turned into a chapel that was dedicated in 1925 as the Sacred Heart Church (of today), the premier Church and parish of Accra.
The SMA Fathers ministered to the growing Catholic community here until 1939 when they handed over the then Eastern Province of the Gold Coast colony to the Society of the Divine Word Missionaries (SVD). Rev. Fr. Adoph A. Noser SVD became the first Superior of the Accra Mission.
In 1947, Fr. Noser was appointed the first Bishop of Accra, and on February 08, 1953, he laid the cornerstone of this magnificent Holy Spirit Cathedral. In the same year, Bishop Noser was transferred to Papua New Guinea to be the Archbishop of Alexishaven.
He was succeeded as Bishop of Accra by Rev. Fr. Joseph Oliver Bowers SVD, JCL., an African-Caribbean from the Commonwealth of Dominica, who became the first black bishop of the Gold Coast.
After three decades of solid, foundational missionary work here, in 1971, Bishop Bowers was transferred to the West Indies, his hometown, and he was succeeded by the first Ghanaian Bishop of Accra that same year, in the person of the Most Rev. Dominic Kodwo Andoh DD., JCD,
It was during Bishop Andoh’s episcopacy that the Catholic Diocese of Accra was elevated to the status of a Metropolitan See in 1992, and the Catholic Diocese of Koforidua was created by Pope (now St.) John Paul II.
The year long anniversary, launched on September 21, will open at 4pm and
According to the Archbishop, the theme was inspired by the theme of the Second Synod of the Archdiocese of Accra celebrated in February 2009. “Renewing the Church and fulfilling our Vocation and Mission in the Catholic Archdiocese of Accra in preparation for its 125th Anniversary”.
The Archbishop also revealed at the launch of the anniverary that for the past ten years, the Church in Accra have been implementing recommendations that were given for the strategic development of the Archdiocese. Thus, piritual, financial, material and institutional.
The 125th Anniversary celebrations will start on Saturday, December 02, 2017, with advent vespers as well as other ceremonies and close on Sunday, November 25, 2018, on the Solemnity of Christ the King with Holy Mass to climax it at the Black Star Square in Accra..
In view of that, there will be Rosary prayer processions (dubbed "Prayer-Jericho Walk") by all the deaneries starting at 2:00pm at designated deanery meeting points.
The processions are expected to reach the Holy Spirit Cathedral by 4:00pm.
On Sunday November 3, the anniversary will be opened in all Churches in the Achrdiocese with Masses are to be said for the Anniversary celebration.
HISTORY
The Catholic Church in Accra began with the first Holy Mass said on January 31, 1893, by Rev. Frs. Otto Hilberer and Eugene Raes, two priests of the Society of African Missions, (SMA) sent from the Elmina Mission that had started in 1880.
In the same 1893, the first Catholic Baptism in Accra took place for Mr. Louis James Buckle on May 25, and the first Holy Matrimony celebrated between Herbert Cheetam and Rose Mary Quaye on August 12, 1894.
However, in 1895, the Accra Catholic Mission had to be closed down for Frs. Hilberer and Raes to return to Elmina to take up priestly duty there as a result of the successive deaths of their SMA confreres in that Mission due to tropical illnesses of malaria and yellow fever. The Catholic community of Accra was, therefore, left in the care of a Church committee led by Messrs Andoh, Brown and Yankah.
It was only in 1924 that Rev. Fr. Joseph Stauffer SMA was posted to Accra, and he purchased an old cocoa shed situated on the Derby Avenue, which he later refurbished and turned into a chapel that was dedicated in 1925 as the Sacred Heart Church (of today), the premier Church and parish of Accra.
The SMA Fathers ministered to the growing Catholic community here until 1939 when they handed over the then Eastern Province of the Gold Coast colony to the Society of the Divine Word Missionaries (SVD). Rev. Fr. Adoph A. Noser SVD became the first Superior of the Accra Mission.
In 1947, Fr. Noser was appointed the first Bishop of Accra, and on February 08, 1953, he laid the cornerstone of this magnificent Holy Spirit Cathedral. In the same year, Bishop Noser was transferred to Papua New Guinea to be the Archbishop of Alexishaven.
He was succeeded as Bishop of Accra by Rev. Fr. Joseph Oliver Bowers SVD, JCL., an African-Caribbean from the Commonwealth of Dominica, who became the first black bishop of the Gold Coast.
After three decades of solid, foundational missionary work here, in 1971, Bishop Bowers was transferred to the West Indies, his hometown, and he was succeeded by the first Ghanaian Bishop of Accra that same year, in the person of the Most Rev. Dominic Kodwo Andoh DD., JCD,
It was during Bishop Andoh’s episcopacy that the Catholic Diocese of Accra was elevated to the status of a Metropolitan See in 1992, and the Catholic Diocese of Koforidua was created by Pope (now St.) John Paul II.
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