President Akufo-Addo will today March 5, 2020, break the ground to signify the beginning of construction works on the much-awaited National Cathedral.
The US$100 million national cathedral which is expected to be completed in four years is not only expected to signify a physical embodiment of unity, harmony and spirituality; but also boost Ghana’s tourism potentials.
The Board of Trustees of the Cathedral has so far supervised the demolition of structures within the earmarked area for the construction of the cathedral including houses of some judges.
In a interview, the Secretary of Board of Trustees for the National Cathedral project, Rev Victor Kusi Boateng, said the structure will depict the Garden of Gethsemane and the Wailing Wall in Israel.
He said the idea of the two significant places is to enable people who cannot afford travelling to those sights to have a feel of it in Ghana.
“And so, we are placing a foundation stone at where the altar will be laid. And to make it very significant, we flew the foundation stone from Israel from the wailing wall. We brought it in here and we are laying it here. The reason is, as much as we are building this to the glory of God, we also want to give it an economic dimension,” he said in the Accra based Joy News interview.
“Israel because we want the very presence they enjoy to be enjoyed here. Israel because we want the situation whereby somebody is in Nigeria he wants to go to Israel, he doesn’t have $2000 he has $300, he still can come here and experience the presence of God right in this place,” he explained.
He continued by saying “We are doing something that is very interesting. We are building a garden that is like the garden of Gethsemane that is going to have the Wailing Wall and all that right here on this land. And we are going to bring every fruit and vegetable in the Bible in our garden so that people can come and see what they’ve read of and been taught of in their Sunday school,”
Aside from that, Rev Boateng said, “there will be a designed restaurant that will feed people that want to taste the fruits and the vegetables and the kind of food that there is in Israel.”
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Menawhile, President Akufo-Addo has been strongly criticised over the project with many arguing that it is not a priority project taking into consideration the country’s developmental needs.
But the president, in an indirect responses to the criticisms, insisted that the state will not fund the construction but rather it has facilitated the process by offering the land in question to be used, while stressing that the decision to build a national cathedral was a pledge.
The cathedral will accommodate close to 20,000 Ghanaians during national programmes such as swearing-in of presidents-elect, state burials and major Christian programmes among others.
At the moment, the National Theatre, which is Ghana’s most preferred edifice for use in national activities, can only accommodate 1,400 Ghanaians.
Background
On March 6, 2017, President Akufo-Addo set the ball rolling for the construction of a National Cathedral to be sited close to the State House in Accra.
He described the Cathedral as an inter-denominational worship project in thanksgiving gesture to God for the blessings God has bestowed on Ghana on the occasion of its 60th anniversary.
The architecture of the National Cathedral was designed by British-Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye, the founder and principal of Adjaye Associates.
The National Cathedral will house chapels and baptistery, 5000-seat in the main auditorium, expandable to 20,000 people for national events and celebrations.
It will also include among others, a grand central hall, a music school, and will house Africa’s first-ever Bible Museum and documentation centre.
