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City Hall engages mission from Philadelphia
– Support for several departments forthcoming
Members of the Philadelphia Mission at City Hall yesterday
The Mayor and City Council of Georgetown (M&CC) has held talks with an overseas mission, a move which is likely to see aspects of the municipality’s operation gaining substantial support.
Headed by Bishop C. Milton Grannum and his wife, Dr Hyacinth Bobb-Grannum, the mission comprising of 20 persons arrived in Guyana last week and is expected to depart by next week.
In order to highlight the potential support that could be offered to the municipality, the members of the mission yesterday paid a courtesy call to the Mayor and the Councillors of the Georgetown municipality.
The interface between members of the mission and city officials occurred during the municipality’s statutory meeting and was lauded and endorsed by City Mayor Hamilton Green.
Recounting the genesis of the collaboration, Deputy Mayor Robert Williams disclosed that it was during a visit to Philadelphia, United States, about three weeks ago he was made a guest of the Bishop, and his wife at the New Covenant Church of God.
The Bishop and his wife founded the church, which has a membership of more than 2,500 persons, more than two decades ago.
According to Williams, he was able to observe the fantastic operations of the church in terms of it being an institution which provides educational, spiritual, business, and social developments.
It was during his stay, too, Williams said, that he learnt that a mission from the church was coming to Guyana and therefore he decided to invite the Bishop and his members to visit City Hall to share with the council some of its developmental strategies.
“This morning we met as a committee and we discussed and agreed on some of the things we will be addressing, including areas such as the Day Care, Maternal and Child Welfare, the City Engineer’s Department, human resource and leadership training, and so far the response has been extremely good,” Williams noted.
According to Bishop Grannum, this is the third time that his church has brought down a work team to Guyana. And the current team, he said, is made of up of a number of different professionals who will help to develop and serve the city and the nation as a whole, using a five-part strategy called SHEEF.
In explaining the strategy, the Bishop noted that S represents spiritual development, the H is for health and human development, the first E is educational development, the second E is economic development while the F represents family life.
“We believe that the five components are absolutely fundamental in the developing of individuals with a sense of value, balance, direction, future and destiny. So we are doing a fact-finding right now on how we can serve within the context of those five focus areas. Each year we are bringing down larger teams of professionals doing a variety of conferences, seminars and retreats, so that we can focus on helping Guyanese move towards their potential in the five target areas.”
Bishop Grannum noted that while the mission has sought and has received the blessings of the municipality, it is also hoping to secure the blessings of a wider segment of leadership in the country and at the same time identify the specific needs within the mission’s context.
As such, the Bishop will also be meeting with governmental officials, members of the religious body and other stakeholders as part of the fact finding drive.
For now the professionals of the mission will be collaborating closely with those at City Hall before formal agreements are made.
According to Pastor Hyacinth Bobb-Grannum, “It is good to let others know that in the midst of all that is going on that might not be pleasant, people are still making a difference – one life, one family, one community at a time. We are here to help mobilise the efforts of many persons here in Guyana as well as in Philadelphia so that together we may be able to do better what we cannot do apart.”
The members of the mission are also here to participate in the Church of God Annual National Ministries Convention which commenced last Sunday and will culminate this Sunday.
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