Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
May 07, 2013 News
By Leon Suseran
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Guyana (ELCG), the oldest Christian Church on these shores, began its highest decision-making forum—the 70th Annual Convention—on Sunday in the town of New Amsterdam.
The church, which brought Christianity to British Guiana some 270 years ago, and started several miles up the Berbice River, opened the special session of the convention with a grand Service at the first church to be established in Guyana, the Ebenezer Lutheran
Church in New Amsterdam. The convention is being held under the theme “If our Gospel be hid…”.
Secretary of the ELGC, Mr. Samuel Goolsarran, speaking with Kaieteur News on Sunday, said that at the convention, the “national business of the church” will be discussed and debated. “We have had a long history; we have some 45 congregations in some 13 parishes.”
This convention, he said, is “one of worship as well as one of conducting business.” The opening service of the convention brought together over 500 persons from across the country. In addition, the Convention will see the ordination of four new pastors in the church: Deacons Shirley Jaundoo, Amanda Singh, Compton Barran and Conrad Plummer.
Goolsarran added that during the next two days, the President, Vice- President, Auditor and Treasurer will all present their reports to the 26 delegates (one male and one female) or parish representatives at the convention. “It deals with the broad international relations with other churches abroad and government by a 9- member Executive Council comprising of four pastors and five lay-people.”
He added that the ELGC is governed by a constitution and incorporated under the Laws of Guyana in 1948 as a corporate body.
While Goolsarran agreed that the oldest church in Guyana is not so visible in the media and other public spheres, the ELCG, he said, is indeed active throughout Berbice and Demerara “in Sunday schools, young people meetings, women’s meetings and so we touch the lives of many people. We have over 200,000 baptized members of the church” even though many have migrated.
“We are a growing church and the challenge has always been to have enough pastors to service in a detailed way the many congregations and parishes that we have, but with the involvement of the lay people and we have a new group of active deacons who help in the pastoral ministry too…”
Among the other parts of the two-day convention are debates among pastors on the issue of baptism, “is water baptism necessary for salvation?”
He stated that the deacons will be debating “is Lutheran form of worship outdated?” which will be followed by discussions and interactions from the audience, all of which will take place at Ebenezer.
Another reason why 2013 is a special year for the ELGC, Goolsarran explained, is that it marks 270 years of existence of the church which started on October 15, 1743 several miles up the Berbice River.
The church was then physically moved to New Amsterdam; Ebenezer church structure is part of that building. He explained too, that the 270th anniversary celebrations were launched on Sunday and will be marked by 7,000 postage stamps for overseas and local postage with the Lutheran symbol and logo (the swan, open bible and cross). Additionally, some lapel buttons and wall plaques will be made especially for the occasion. A big national rally is also planned for October, for which he hopes the media will give coverage.
The Lutheran church was formed as a result of a split from the Roman Catholic Church by former Catholic priest, Dr. Martin Luther in 1517, in Germany, after Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church after he denounced several corrupt practices by the then popes and church leaders.
He then formed a church of his own, which also gave way to the formation of several hundreds of thousands of Christian denominations through the centuries that followed.
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