The Minister of Social Welfare, Melrose Karminty has on the 1st April, 2024 launched the centenary celebration of the council of churches in Sierra Leone at the Bintumani Hotel in Freetown.

It was noted that the CCSL was Founded in 1924 which exists to facilitate and capacitate its Membership in promoting the prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ for the benefit of the community. The theme of the program was “celebrating our past, committing to the present and inspiring a hopeful future.”

The Minister  affirmed that her ministry has a statutory mandate to coordinate and monitor the operations of all religious bodies in the country, noting that for a century, through trials and triumphs, challenges and successes, the CCSL has continued to march gallantly towards the fulfilment of its mission of facilitating and capacitating its membership in promoting the prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ for the benefit of the Sierra Leonean society.

She said that supporting various deprived communities on long-term programs to mitigate poverty and bring about community empowerment; supporting farmers and small-scale entrepreneurs to increase their productivity; advocating for human rights, justice, equality, good governance and a peaceful Sierra Leone, complementing the efforts of the Government in ameliorating the sufferings of survivors of both natural and artificial disasters, providing support towards the education, health and other related social sectors are by every standard a huge achievement that deserves commendation.

The Minister called on  the Council to do more in a bid to collaborate with her ministry, since her Ministry is committed to improving the lives of vulnerable groups, adding that the celebration of this historic milestone is marked during a period when our nation is confronted by a number of development challenges such as unemployment among our youth as well as street begging among persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups.

She said that the Church must do this as a strategy of evaluating the effectiveness of its Ministry adding that they need to jointly work towards the better Sierra Leone that they all desire.

She congratulated the CCSL on their centenary celebration and assured them of her Ministry’s unwavering commitment to supporting them in fulfilling their mission in the best interest of the Council on one hand and the Sierra Leone society on the other.

She thanked them for maintaining the stands of Religious tolerance in the country as well as encouraging all faith-based organisations in the country to always keep that trend.