Chris Maclay
Ghana

A month on what are my abiding thoughts about Ghana, and in particular St Nicholas' Seminary?

I suppose all my thoughts and feelings are informed by the four and a half years my family and I spent in the 1990's in Nigeria. So, it is almost impossible to avoid comparisons. Why on earth would I expect the people to be the same? We would be quite affronted to have Africans suggest that we were the same as Italians or Germans.

So, the people are not the same. But I have friends in both countries, so it is hard to be too blatant! Essentially, Ghanaians are a more gentle and humble bunch, perhaps reflected in the fact that they are one of the few countries along that stretch of African coastline who are not engaged in any civil conflict. Whereas Nigerians are rather more 'in your face', tell you bluntly what they think, and get on with doing things their way. Interestingly this shows in the character of the church in each country. The Anglican church in Nigeria is heavily into mission and evangelism, and is growing fast amidst considerable and aggressive muslim opposition. In Ghana, however, there seems to be a rather more easygoing attitude, mission is not at the top of the agenda, and there seems relatively little conflict with other religions.

Many people asked me after I came back if I had had 'a good time' or whether I had 'enjoyed it'. I suppose I found the questions slightly hard to answer because I had not gone with the aim of 'enjoying myself'. I do, however, feel that I was doing the right thing, and was in the right place. Since Louise and I love Africa I would have quite happily stayed on out there, had the family been with me. But I'm not convinced that we do prolonged separation very well (nor do we particularly want to!).

The Anglican church in Ghana is at a pivotal moment. It is the slowest growing church in the country (with a rate of growth less than one per cent) and the ordinands I was with were clearly concerned. There was much questioning of what needed to be done. At the same time, there is a new Archbishop of the Province of West Africa, so the Bishops are taking the opportunity to assess their present position and the road ahead. Kairos may have something to offer to the process, but I am not sure that the church is yet that far along the road of change.

What did I do? Essentially I was there to participate in the life of the church. This meant that I moved around various parishes at the week-ends, and was a full-time member of the seminary during the week. I led some sessions on HIV/AIDS one afternoon a week, and some on Community Development on another day. The rest of the time I participated in lectures and discussions as much as possible.

It is tempting to try and exaggerate what I got up to because we in the church in the UK seem to judge so much of our 'spirituality' from what we 'do'. However, I had to constantly remind myself that actually God is far more interested in 'who I am' than in 'what I do'. So, for seven weeks I joined a group of Ghanaian pilgrims on their journey and was enriched by them. I trust that they too received something from their engagement with me. Without their generosity and openness of spirit it would never have worked. Without the support of those at home, and the heroic running of the family by Louise I would be considerably the poorer.

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