<P> Methodist Church Ghana is one of the largest Methodist denominations, with around 800,000 members in 2,905 congregations, ministered by 700 pastors . It has fraternal links with the British Methodist and United Methodist churches worldwide . </P> <P> Methodism in Ghana came into existence as a result of the missionary activities of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, inaugurated with the arrival of Joseph Rhodes Dunwell to the Gold Coast in 1835 . Like the mother church, the Methodist Church in Ghana was established by people of Protestant background . Roman Catholic and Anglican missionaries came to the Gold Coast from the 15th century . A school was established in Cape Coast by the Anglicans during the time of Philip Quaque, a Ghanaian priest . Those who came out of this school had Bible copies and study supplied by the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge . A member of the resulting Bible study groups, William De-Graft, requested Bibles through Captain Potter of the ship Congo . Not only were Bibles sent, but also a Methodist missionary . In the first eight years of the Church's life, 11 out of 21 missionaries who worked in the Gold Coast died . Thomas Birch Freeman, who arrived at the Gold Coast in 1838 was a pioneer of missionary expansion . Between 1838 and 1857 he carried Methodism from the coastal areas to Kumasi in the Asante hinterland of the Gold Coast . He also established Methodist Societies in Badagry and AbeoKuta in Nigeria with the assistance of William De-Graft . </P> <P> By 1854, the church was organized into circuits constituting a district with T.B. Freeman as chairman . Freeman was replaced in 1856 by William West . The district was divided and extended to include areas in the then Gold Coast and Nigeria by the synod in 1878, a move confirmed at the British Conference . The district were Gold Coast District, with T.R. Picot as chairman and Yoruba and Popo District, with John Milum as chairman . Methodist evangelisation of northern Gold Coast began in 1910 . After a long period of conflict with the colonial government, missionary work was established in 1955 . Paul Adu was the first indigenous missionary to northern Gold Coast . </P> <P> In July 1961, the Methodist Church in Ghana became autonomous, and was called the Methodist Church Ghana, based on a deed of foundation, part of the church's Constitution and Standing Orders . </P>

Western theater began as a form of worship of the god