The Agortime traditional area would soon collaborate with the Church to promote and spread the gospel, as well as promote traditional and cultural practices.
The collaboration would ensure that the celebration of Rata –Twins festival established by the Ascend Church of Christ, would be celebrated by the church and the traditional area, few weeks after the celebration of the Agbamevorza (Kete festival).
The Traditional Priest of Agortime Traditional Area, Togbe Gbedesi Adzakpa made this known at the Rata –Twins festival organised by the Ascend Church of Christ at Agortime-Akpokope in the Agortime-Ziope District.
He observed that there were no much differences between tradition, culture and the Christian way of worshiping God, but only the methods varied slightly.
Togbe Gbedesi Adzakpa said, it was time Christian leaders recognised the fact that tradition and culture are not fetish as some of them always wanted their followers to believe.
The Traditional Priest pointed out that both Christian religion, tradition and culture practices had many things in common including the desire and efforts to promote peace, love and unity in society. He pleaded with Christian leaders to appreciate these facts and stop referring to tradition and culture as evil.
He said the performance of rites for twins, was a traditional practice many decades ago and that it is good that the Ascend Church of Christ had identified the practice as Biblical and established the Rat-Twins festival.
Togbe Gbedesi Adzakpa, therefore, urged leaders of the church to educate their members on aspects of the Bible relevant to their development because most of the teachings in the Bible were practiced as part of tradition and culture before Christianity came.
He stressed that the Agortime Traditional Area would soon join the Ascend Church of Christ to celebrate Rata-Twins festival to help bring the church closer to society, promote peace, love and unity among the people.
The Founder and Leader of the Ascend Church of Christ, Prophet K. Kugbe, said the Church was mandated to propagate the gospel and the leaders also have an assignment of spreading the message.
Prophet Kugbe continued that through the propagation of the Bible, and the help of the Holy Spirit, he established the Rata-Twins celebration to create the needed awareness of the fact that performing rites for twins was Biblical and should not be regarded as evil.
The Founder of the Ascend Church of Christ said, the Bible makes it clear how rites for twins should be performed and failure to do so has negative effects on the twins, their families and the community, hence the establishment of the festival to create the needed awareness.
Prophet Kugbe said, the church in general is performing its duties of propagating the gospel, but in so doing leaders of the church should provide holistic education to the people and should avoid concentrating on preaching prosperity messages alone.
He said prosperity messages were equally good for the soul, but more attention should be paid to salvation and that after prosperity, the soul and spirit should be fed with the word.
The Warlord of Agortime-Akpokope, Nene Nabam III said the time had come for all to contribute meaningfully towards the development of society by upholding tradition and culture.
Nene Nabam commended Prophet Kugbe, for his undiluted propagation of the gospel, which had revealed that God is peaceful, lovely and united in all aspects of creation.
