Several hundreds of Catholics and non Catholics from all walks of life, on Easter Monday, April 5, thronged the Agormanya residence in the Krobo District to give thanks to God and celebrate the 100th birthday of Most Rev. Joseph Oliver Bowers, SVD, the second Bishop of Accra.Born on Easter Monday, March 28, 1910, Bishop Bowers was joined by some of his colleagues Bishops, Monsignori, and other Priests, the religious and large number of lay faithful donned in a 100th anniversary cloth.The Sisters of the Handmaids of the Divine Redeemer Congregation and the Society of Divine Word Missionary (SVD) were also at the Mass in their numbers.The prelates who participated in the celebration were His Eminence Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace who flown in purposefully for the celebration.
Most Rev. Leon B. Kalenga, Apostolic Nuncio to Ghana, Most Rev. Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle, Archbishop of Accra, who presided over the Mass; Most Rev. Joseph Afrifa-Agyekum, Bishop of Koforidua, Bishop of Koforidua and Most Rev. Gabriel Kumordji, Apostolic Vicar of Donkorkrom Vicariate.
Also concelebrating the Mass were Rev. Msgr. Hope Homeku, Vicar General of the Keta-Akatsi Diocese; Very Rev. Fr. Thomas D’mello, SVD, Provincial Superior of the Ghana Province of the Society of the Divine Word.
Traditional leaders and politicians also graced the occasion including Nene Sasraku IV, Acting President of Manya Krobo Traditional Council; Nene Agoa III, Chief of Akvewenor; Nene Asadahor I, Chief of Akuse. Mr. Felix Owusu Adjapong, former MP of Akim Swedru; Mr. Isaac Osei, MP for Subim.
In attendance were the President of the Commonwealth of Dominica, Dr. Nicholas J.O. Liverpool, family members of Bishop Bowers including Irma Lawrence, niece and husband Wendele Lawrence, Kay Polydore and Hannah Claredon, a Dominican working in Ghana.
Archbishop Palmer-Buckle in his homily described Bishop Bowers as a great and illustrious father of the Church in Ghana, who sowed the seed for the Church in the Krobo area of the Koforidua Diocese in particular and the country in general.
He praised the centenarian for availing himself to do the work of God, which has transformed many lives.
He said Bishop Bowers sowed the seed in the Manya and Yilo Krobo area, trekking from village to village and crossing rivers in order to evangelise the people.
He said the institutions and establishments now thriving in the Accra and Koforidua Diocese as well as the Donkorkrom Vicariate were the works of “this remarkable and dedicated man of God we are celebrating today.”
With his experience, the Archbishop said, the centenarian has left a vast legacy to the church in Ghana especially as the founder of the Handmaids of Divine Redeemer.
Amidst laughter, he said Bishop Bower, though in his ripe age of 100 was still a good conversationalist, sharp and alert in mind, saying that “What can we render of God for his goodness to us.”
Archbishop Palmer-Buckle said Bishop Bowers in an illustrious person and a role model thanking God for keeping him in good health.
At a durbar later, there were good will messages from Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican, the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the SVD, the HDR Sisters, the Dominican Republic and other well wishers.
The Pontiff congratulated Bishop Bowers, saying “on the recurrence of the 100th birthday and while the associates himself to his rendering of thanks to Christ, the Good Shepherd for the numerous gifts received in the ministry for the edification of the people of God, invokes, under the protection of the virgin Mary, a renewal effusion of divine favour and heartily imparts a special Apostolic blessing.”
Proposing the toast, Bishop Archbishop Palmer-Buckle, said Ghanaians are very grateful to Bishop Bowers for laying solid foundation out of which we now have the Koforidua Diocese and Donkorkrom Vicariate.
In a brief response, Bishop Bowers thanked all and sundry for celebrating the day with him, wish all God’s blessing to attain 100 years like him.
Prof. George Hagan, former Chairman of the National Commission in culture and an altar boy of Bishop Bowers chaired the durbar together with wife Dr. Mariam Hagan.
He described Bishop Bowers a great Servant of God and thanked him for his eternal love for Ghana.
He said the efforts of Bishop Bowers in building a vibrant Church in the then Accra Diocese was a manifestation that Ghana is his ancestral country.
“We thank God for bringing all of us together to celebrate his spiritual virtues of prudence, humility, wisdom, sense of responsibility,” he added.
Dr. Liverpool thanked God for the Bishops’ life and appealed to Catholics to continue to pray for him.
He said the numerous achievements of Bishop Bowers both in Ghana and Dominica should be appreciated by all.
A planning committee made up of the Accra Archdiocese, Koforidua Diocese and the Donkorkrom Vicariate, constituted by the three ordinaries, presented a of GH¢100,000, signifying GH¢1,000 for each of the 100 years as a seed money to start the construction of a retreat his cherished dream centre in honour of St. Lucy of Fatima.
There were several gifts from societies and individuals to Bishop Bowers.
Bishop Bowers was born on March 28, 1910 in the village of Hampstead, Dominica and Laptised in the Parish of St. Andrew in Vieille case on May 15.
He is the eighth of eleven children of Sherrif Montage Bowers of Antigua and Mary Bowers (nee Thomas) of Dominica.
On January 1, 1940, Fr. Bowers arrived in Accra to take his first Missionary appointment after his ordination in 1939.
As a priest from 1940 to 1953 and a Bishop of Accra from 1955-1971, he established parishes, schools, hospitals and clinics and promoting vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
Some of the legacies he had, is the opening of St. Peter’s Senior High School, Kwahu Nkwantia; Pope John’s Senior High and Junior Seminary, Offiduase-Koforidua, St. Paul’s Technical School, Akim Kukurantumi and St. Rose’s Senior High, Akwantia.
Among the health facilities are St. Joseph’s Hosptial, Effiduase, Koforidua; St. Dominica’s Hospital, Akwatia; Holy Family Hospital, Nkawkaw and St. Martin the Porres Hospital, Odumase-Krobo as well as the Orthopaedic Training Centre at Adoagyiri Nsawam.
He also founded the HDR Congregation and St. Anne’s Vocational School, both in Manya Krobo and he saw the strengthening of the Mount Mary Training College at Somanya.
In recognition of his vibrant leadership and pioneering work in Ghana, when the Diocese of St. John’s Bassetere in the West Indies was created in 1971, Bishop Bowers was appointment its first Bishop Bowers was appointment its first Bishop, becoming the Chief Pasto in Antigua, the land of his father’s birth.
In 1981, he retired from office and returned to Dominica where he lived humbly in his cottage in Mahaut.
The HDR Sisters, some of whom visited him in Dominica from time to time wanted him back in Ghana so that they could care for him in his final days and returned to Ghana in 1997.
Bishop Bowers fluently speaks and reads French, German, Italian, Greek, Latin, English, Ewe, Krobo, Ga and Twi.