Rev Canon Charles Amankwah, a Ghanaian who served as a Catholic Priest for 17 years before switching to become an Anglican priest has recounted how difficult it was for him to get married and get intimate having been celibate for the better part of his life.
Rev Canon Amankwah was on The StandPoint show recently together with his wife, Ruth Amankwah and they shared their marriage story in a lovely interaction with the host, Oheneyere Gifty Anti.
The couple has been married for the past ten years after the man of God cross-carpeted from the Catholic church to the Anglican church.
He is currently the diocesan evangelism director and also the director for the choir at St Mary Anglican church at Atechem, Dunkwa-On-Offin in the Central Region.
Before then, he was an assistant parish priest at the Holy Trinity Parish at Agormanya in the Eastern Region. He was later appointed parish priest of the St Barbara Parish at Akosombo in the Eastern Region.
It is reported that Rev Amankwah decided to leave the Catholic church because he established a prayer ministry and its activities were not in alignment with the church’s doctrines.
When he decided to get married after exiting the Catholic church, he said it was difficult expressing his love for Ruth, a teacher and mother of three, so his father had to woo her for him.
“Proposal was difficult. I couldn’t propose to my wife, it was my father who proposed to Ruth for me,” Rev Amankwah recalled.
The couple said they had not gotten intimate before their marriage which is now nine years old and counting.
Just like it was hard for Rev Amankwah to profess his love to Ruth, he said when the time came to get intimate, it was tough as well, and the first night was remarkable.
“My first night as a married man was not easy. I just couldn’t imagine going naked before my wife. I had to pray to muster the courage to have canal knowledge of my wife. And since then, anytime we’re going to have an affair, I pray before the act,” he disclosed.
While in the Catholic church, Metropolitan Archbishop of Cape Coast Charles Palmer-Buckle mentored him in his early years.
Rev Amankwah has authored many books including “God has not finished with you yet”, with his 15th one being scheduled to be launched this month.
He holds a Master’s Degree in Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry from the Catholic University College of Ghana, Sunyani, a Post Graduate Diploma in Education from the University of Cape Coast and a Diploma in Theology from the University of Ghana, Legon.
