Archbishop of Canterbury opens clinic, meets with Asante King in Ghana

Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, right, meets with Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, king of the Asante people, left, July 29 at Manhyia Palace in Kumasi, Ghana. Photo: Nana Osei Adu-Boahene/Lambeth Palace

[Episcopal News Service] Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally opened a new clinic at St. Monica’s Nursing and Midwifery Training College in Mampong, Ghana, with a commissioning ceremony on July 29 in celebration of the college’s centennial. The clinic was named in her honor.

The visit and celebration were part of Mullally’s 10-day visit to the Church of the Province of West Africa, her first visit to Africa as archbishop of Canterbury. Earlier in the trip, she preached at a church service at St. Joseph the Worker Anglican Church in Accra, Ghana, which was led entirely by female clergy in honor of her visit.

The Anglican Diocese of Kumasi operates the college, which is also home to Mampong Babies Home, an orphanage, and St. Monica’s College of Education.

“I can touch and see the kingdom of heaven this morning in this place,” Mullally said during a special service celebrating the school’s anniversary after the commissioning ceremony.

More than 1,000 students from the three institutions joined Mullally for the service.

During the service, Mullally told the students that they must believe in themselves and that “God has loved you and calls you by name.”

“Know that each of you has the ability to shine like lights in the world, to be salt, to be yeast, to be that mustard seed that affects everything, by what you do and how you do it,” Mullally, a former oncology nurse, said. “Knowing that as you follow a career in nursing and midwifery, you have the difference – the difference that can change people’s lives in the ordinary things that you do, it will transform lives and your community. Never underestimate what you do.”

After the service, Mullally visited Mampong Babies’ Home and then met Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, king of the Asante people, at Manhyia Palace in Kumasi.

Mullally and Tutu exchanged greetings and gifts and discussed their shared Anglican faith. They also reflected on the Asante Kingdom and Anglican Communion’s deep, longstanding spiritual bond dating back to the early 20th century, when Asantehene Prempeh I and his mother, Asantehemaa Yaa Akyaa, were baptized into the Anglican Church in 1904 while politically exiled in the Seychelles.

In the evening, Manhyia Palace hosted a special Evensong service. Mullally preached and the Rev. Akua Ofori-Boateng, a priest in the Anglican Diocese of Accra, presided.

In her sermon, Mullally reflected on Ephesians 3:15-16: “According to the riches of his glory, may you be strengthened in your inner being with power through his spirit, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith as you are being rooted and grounded in love.”

“Asantehene, as followers Christ, and fellow pilgrims in the way of Jesus, we are also custodians of the treasure of the kingdom of heaven, ‘the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge’ and ‘all the fullness of God’ and the ‘riches of God’s glory,’” Mullally said. “Asantehene, brothers and sisters in Christ, fellow pilgrims, we are invited to seek this treasure of the kingdom, to discover in Christ Jesus the breadth, length, height and depth of the love of God for us.”