Emmanuel Awari-Jalingo
The President, Choir Ministry of the Southern Conference of the United Methodist Church UMC, Elder Ezra Ranti has call on members of the Ministry to be united.
He made the call in his speech at the 39th Session of the annual Choral Convention which took place at United Methodist Church UMC Camp ground along Apawa – Zing road.
“It has been our obligation to advocate for true love, unity and above all living a holy life to help navigate choir ministry towards greatness.
“I therefore challenge you to imbibe the spirit of giving, ”blessed is the hand that giveth, than the one taketh it”
“We should therefore do good to one another, for one good deserve another. The good we do to our fellow men today is an investment that we or our children will reap tomorrow. That is why we must be careful how we treat people (leaders) today.
He appeal to his Exco and District Chairmen to always portray maturity in the time of disagreement and exhibit patience, adding that patience produce peaceful and beneficial fruits of righteousness, divine favor and renewable outcome of decisions taking while allowing God to has His way.
He appeal to songs competition jugdes to do everything humanly possible to invoke God while carrying out their assignment to avoid favoring some groups or group.
“Be fair, accurate, just and extremely based on perfection. And to the Choristers, I beseech you to accept the verdict of the judges in good faith.
“We should also be respectful to the Church authority, for it is only doing so that we will progress.
He mentioned major activities of the Choir to include, Convention, Music workshop in month of August each year, Mega carol, Leadership training, Thanksgiving, attending district conference and council on ministries and Wedding and funeral service.
He also pointed out challenges to include, Poor response to offering competition during annual Choral Convention, Lack of budget remittance from Districts and other conference entitlement amongst others.
According to him, the turnout of this year’s conference is so marvelous than previous years, adding that out of the 40 Districts, 36Â are in attendance.
In his goodwill message, the Director Connectional Ministries, United Methodist Church UMC, Rev Dr. Micah Dopah, commended the Choir Conference President, Elder Ezra Ranti for his Leadership quality.
He said that the Choristers are here not by mistake but in fulfilment of God’s prophecy.
He call on Choir members to continue to be productive, faithful, Holy for without Holiness no man shall see God.
On the coming Census exercise, he said:
“Census exercise is in the Bible. Any Southern Conference member that refuse to be counted will not see God.
“All tribes be it Wurkun, Yandang, Jenjo, Mumuye amongst others must be counted so as to come out with their real population.
“Pastors should go house to house and mobilize their members on the forthcoming Census exercise, this is the only way that they can be know that they are Nigerians.
According to him, some states are getting more allocation from the Federal Account Allocation Committee FAAC, due to their population and urge Tarabans to ensure that they are counted.