The National Cathedral is an albatross

E. Ablorh-Odjidja
Sept 01, 2018

Since the building of the National Cathedral is about religion, let’s start with just a thought. And that thought can be found in a Christian Hymnal:

“The heavens are telling the glory of God,
The wonder of His work displays the firmament.
In all the lands resounds the word.
Never perceived, ever understood,
ever, ever, ever understood.”

"Never perceived... ever understood," the hymn says. That's worthy of some thought.

The awareness of God's presence in our nation’s affairs is good. But mere symbolism, without the right attitude, cannot express gratitude for God’s greatness.

The idea of a National Cathedral must be one of the most uniquely expressive symbols of a nation’s attachment to the Almighty. However, as proposed in our present circumstances, could it also be a superfluous venture and a waste of land and resource?

To be blunt, the proposal to build a National Cathedral is not a demand from God. For all the time we've known and worshipped Him in Ghana, no one has ever heard from Him the order for a home.

We in our traditional past decided to set homes for the Almighty in natural settings.  And this thought must be the thought to start the setting for a special place to be known as National Cathedral.

A clean and open environment should be the first clue for such a setting and structure.

We had the right ideas in the past.  Our rivers, streams, and lagoons were once the shrines for the deities we employed in our devotions to the Almighty.  The devotion helped to keep these natural resources clean and unpolluted. And made our gratitude to God expressively natural.

But our approach to worship these days is vastly different, which is why the very environment and resources around us are polluted.  And the dirt around us is expressive of our contempt for nature and its Creator.

And suddenly, amid all this sacrilege, we want a National Cathedral.

A paradigm shift must happen first.  The building and proper utility of a National Cathedral will demand a change in attitude unless someone is privately rich enough to build the cathedral on his own as Houphouët-Boigny did for The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast.

In President Akuffo-Addo’s proposal for a National Cathedral in Ghana, I sense hubris, love for a ceremony, and glamor. These alone are not enough to justify the building of a National Cathedral.

Today in America I am watching on television the burial ceremonies of the late Senator John McCain at the commonly known National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

The Cathedral belongs to the Episcopal Church of the United States.

The Church erected the cathedral, according to Wikipedia, “under a charter passed by the United States Congress on January 6, 1893.[5] Construction began on September 29, 1907….. Decorative work, such as carvings and statuary, is ongoing as of 2011.”

The late Senator McCain's service reminds me of what we must want with a National Cathedral in Ghana - a useful place for honoring God and Ghana’s greats - real greats as happens in America.

I do not doubt that we would honor our greats.  But in the process, we would end up honoring many fraudulent greats too, a parade for the so-called "honorables."  And more of the ceremonies will be for hubris rather than gratitude to God:

This will happen because, at our National Cathedral, when built, our governing body and administrators will show the lack of discipline that must go to govern and keep places in resplendence, such as done for the National Cathedral in Washington.

The lack of maintenance discipline, coupled with other factors mostly political, will spell trouble for us.  Have you been to the State House or the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum, and the Dubois Center lately?

The maintenance culture of all the above places is very depressing and does not go very well with the purpose for which they were built.

All these national monuments are abused with a shrug, and at the expense of anything bordering on sophistication.

Also, the typical nonsense surrounding our current state of funeral arrangements must warn us of the disaster to come.  Everybody with a little connection and money would like to go out in the style of the Head of State.

And in terms of priorities, there is also this thought.  A Vice President dies for lack of a defibrillator and then to go on and give him a state burial service in our grand National Cathedral, as would happen?

As an Akan would say, “The success of the game is determined early in the morning.”

That morning is already reflected in our circumstances of today.  We need a National Cathedral, but not in a hurry.

But with all said and done, it is not lacking the physical wherewithal to finish the construction of a National Cathedral that is the problem.  As we have always done in the past, we can get a loan from the Chinese and ask them to build it for us.  In the end, we will be left with the management.  And all the fears already demonstrated will spring up.

The Chinese with all the glory of structural engineering will not be able to build in the required reverence of a National Cathedral.

The building will be left in place with the debt.  The grounds will be unkept.  And problems in our culture and society will rev up.  We know the National Cathedral will be ecumenical. But does the meaning include or exclude Islam?

Will there be a resident pastor, priest, minister, imam, or a traditional priest?

Also, about the physical ambiance and milieu, inside and out, a Christian church building or a mosque?

Will the head position be a sinecure, granted with the executive order of a political president of a party?

All told, there is the sad part.   Religion and worship in Ghana are in free fall - a large portion now being a national disgrace!

With all this in mind, there is not much to say than to conclude, that to build a National Cathedral in our current circumstances and attitudes will be truly a simple act of artifice and a symbolic denial of our shortcomings.

For now, we need a different National Cathedral that is defined at the moment the service is taking place - worship of God in the vast open, with the sky as its cathedral dome.

In this case, the Black Star Square will be a perfect fit for all real ecumenical assemblies.

Until then, we must read that hymn again:

“The heavens are telling the glory of God,
The wonder of His work displays the firmament.
In all the lands resounds the word.
Never perceived, ever understood,
ever, ever, ever understood.”

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher ww.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, November 26, 2021.
Please feel free to publish or reproduce, with credits, unedited. If posted on a website, email a copy of the web page to publisher@ghanadot.com. Or don't publish at all.