HISTORY

INTRODUCTION:

The story of UIC began at a time of a crisis in Ghana in the mid-1970s and early 1980s that saw severe shortages of the so-called “essential commodities”. The shortages affected many daily food and personal items including fuel for vehicles. People had to keep their ears open for news about the sale of such items in the shops and markets and rush to form lines to purchase these.

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The fuel situation got so bad that at times people had to join queues for days before being able to buy a few gallons for their vehicles. At the time, the University petrol station sometimes could give senior members with vehicles only one gallon of petrol a week! It got so bad that getting a vehicle to go to church on Sundays became difficult, and resulted in worshippers from campus arriving late or even having to go back home after standing at the roadside for a long time waiting for transport.

The Beginning: It was in these conditions that some Christians at UCC considered organising Sunday worship services on campus rather than struggling to go to town to join their “mother churches”, as they had been doing up to that time. So finally, sometime early in 1980 three families - the Owusu Sekyere family, the Moses Antwi family and the Agyarkwa family - decided to start worship services on Sundays in one of the lecture rooms in the Science Faculty building. The first service came on in LT 21 on January 13^th 1980. As this continued, others began to join them. And in that inauspicious way, what has become the University Inter-Denominational Church (UIC) began.

The services in the Science Faculty continued with more and more people attending them, some on a regular basis, while others turned up from time to time. This went on until numbers grew and the number of children was such that separate services had to be organised for them. In the circumstances, the leadership found that it would be more convenient to move to the University Practice Secondary School (now University Practice Senior High School) whose classrooms could be utilized for both the adult services and the children’s. After a time, with increased numbers, the adult services were moved to the open foyer in front of the Headmaster’s office.

At this stage in the early 1980s, the church, called the University Residents’ Church (URC), operated with a simple constitution under which a Committee with Bro. Moses Antwi as the Chairman, organised the services, invited preachers and generally saw to the running of the affairs of the Church.

In 1985 Bro. Moses Antwi handed over the chairmanship to Bro. Thomas K. Buxton, at the time a lecturer in the Department of Economics. During his period the Church continued to grow as more residents and even others outside came to the services. Apart from the Church’s Central Committee other Committees were formed to take charge of various areas of the Church’s life, like the Welfare Committee and the Children’s Service Committee.

In 1987, Bro. John Micah succeeded Bro. Buxton as Chairman with the services still being held at UPSHS. The Church continued to experience growth.

Period of Stability: By the time Bro. Yaw Opoku Asiamah took over in 1989, the Church had grown to such an extent that a bigger place for the services had become urgent. The leaders therefore looked round for a more suitable place and identified an abandoned electricity generator building located in the northern section of the University campus as a possible site. The Church therefore went into prolonged negotiations with the University, at the time headed by the Interim Administrative Committee. In the end the authorities gave the Church permission to use the old generator building. The Church thus refurbished the place into a suitable meeting place and moved in.

Under the next chairman, the late Bro. N. K. Asare Boamah, 1991 – 1993, the Church started to plan for more suitable permanent structures as it had become well-established by then. The first structure was the Sunday School Block whose construction began at this time but was completed under the chairmanship of Bro. Samuel Y. Boadi-Siaw who had taken over in 1993. The completion of this building gave the Sunday School its own classrooms. They had been meeting in the nearby home of their teacher, Mrs. Christiana Antwi, since the Church moved to the “Powerhouse” (as the old chapel was called).

In 1995, Bro. Samuel Boadi-Siaw handed over the Chairman’s position to Bro. Fred Odoi who had to hold on until 2000. Under him, one notable development was the decision to incorporate a period of group Bible studies as part of the regular Sunday worship time. This has become a regular feature of UIC which many visitors and others find very helpful. In 2000, Bro. Peter K. Kwapong succeeded Bro. Fred Odoi as Chairman.

Period of Rapid Expansion: Bro. Peter Kwapong’s time saw a great deal of expansion in the Church’s work when a number of initiatives were undertaken. Among these can be listed:

the refurbishing of the Old Chapel and the Sunday School buildings;
the writing and adoption of a new and more elaborate constitution for the Church;
an expansion and deepening of the Committee system to help take care of different aspects of the work, e. g. Committees for Counselling, Assets, Welfare, Education and Finance;
putting in efforts to assess the Church’s work (SWOT Analysis) and planning more systematically;
organising Home Cell Fellowships in different areas of campus and beyond, who would meet during the week for small group fellowship;
continuing the process of building permanent structures by having the drawings for a new Church auditorium finalised under the direction of Prof. Henry Nii-Adziri Wellington of KNUST;
Registering URC as an independent Church with the name University Inter-Denominational Church.
Starting the construction of the new chapel with a sod-cutting ceremony on 7^th October, 2001 performed by the Vice Chancellor at the time Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Adow Obeng.
Instituting the Annual Thanksgiving Day for the purpose of thanking God for His keeping throughout the year and giving special offering.

In 2005, Bro. Kofi Anane Fenin was elected as the chairman of the Church Council (no more Committee). Under his leadership, a Search Committee finally submitted the name of Rev. Dr. Eric Bortey Anum to Council for appointment as the Pastor of the Church. He was duly appointed and inducted into office as the first Pastor of UIC in the new auditorium which was still to be completed.

Bro. Kofi Anane Fenin handed over to Bro. Joseph A. Kwarteng after two years. During the latter’s term of office (Four years in all), much expansion of the membership took place. Many University students were encouraged to worship at UIC on a regular basis. The Church also “adopted” the Protestant students in the UPSHS hostel and encouraged them to come to worship with us on Sundays. The Church gave each of them a Bible and encouraged them to read it by buying them copies of Daily Power (SU Daily Bible reading notes) each year. The Church in addition started organising two services on Sunday mornings, with the first one (from 8:00 a.m. to 9:05 a.m.) specifically meant to cater for these students. At this time also the Church appointed a Prayer Coordinator to plan and encourage prayer in the life of the Church. Half-Night Prayer meetings alternating with All-Night Prayer sessions were thus organised from month to month. Earlier on the Church had Prayer meetings on Saturday evenings and Praise and Worship hour on Thursdays.

Bro. Joseph A. Kwarteng duly handed over to Bro. Eugene A. Johnson in 2011. During his time a second pastor was appointed in 2012 to assist in the expanding work. The ordination service for Pastor Nathan Adu Gyimah took place on 8^th July, 2012 in the new church auditorium at a joyful and colourful ceremony presided over by the Regional Apostle of the Church of Pentecost, Apostle Albert Amoah. This was the culmination of a process started by an Ordination Committee appointed by the Church Council to find out and recommend a way UIC could have a pastor ordained specifically for her.

Bro. Eugene A. Johnson duly completed his two-year term in 2013 and Bro. Daniel Kweku Thompson took up the position of Chairman of the Church Council.