Members of St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Sherigu in the Bolgatanga municipality in the Upper East region experienced an unusual but inspiring start to their Sunday worship when the priest led them in a cleanup exercise before the celebration of Mass.
On Sunday, March 15, 2026, Rev. Fr. Maxwell Atuguba arrived at the church to celebrate Mass with the congregation as part of the Catholic observance of Lent.
However, instead of entering the church through the main gate in the usual procession with mass servers, Rev. Fr. Atuguba entered through the sacristy and briefly greeted the congregation.
Moments later, he surprised worshippers by asking them to follow him outside for a short exercise before the start of Mass.
Obediently, members of the congregation followed the priest outside the church premises. At the entrance of the church, Rev. Fr. Atuguba encouraged them to walk around the church compound and pick up rubbish scattered in the area.
The congregation, made up of the elderly, youth, choir members dressed in their choir uniforms, mass servers in their cassocks and members of various church societies in their respective outfits, joined the exercise enthusiastically.
Together, they moved around the church premises collecting waste and depositing it into waste bins in a brief but impactful cleanup activity.
After the exercise, Rev. Fr. Atuguba commended the congregation for responding positively to the call.
He reminded them that caring for the environment is part of the Christian responsibility and urged them to make cleanliness and environmental protection part of their daily lives.
The priest noted that such actions are particularly important during the season of Lent, when Christians are encouraged to reflect, sacrifice and adopt practices that promote positive change in society.
The initiative was described by members of the church as the first of its kind in the parish, as congregants had never before been asked to clean the church surroundings before the celebration of Mass.
Rev. Fr. Atuguba has on several occasions used his homilies to preach about the importance of protecting the environment and has consistently spoken against destructive practices such as illegal gold mining, popularly known as “galamsey.”
Church members said the exercise served as a practical demonstration of the priest’s message that faith must be reflected not only in words but also in actions that protect and preserve the environment.
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