A priest in the Anglican Communion in Ghana Obeng Larbi has appeared in a video kissing three female students during church service.
Each time he kissed the women the congregants wailed.
The incident happened on Sunday at St. Monica’s College of Education in the Ashanti region.
The video of the incident has since gone viral on social media.
An unnamed female student said the priest kissed the girls as “a show of appreciation,” Ghanaian news website Star FM reports.
The report did not address what the appreciation was meant for.
It also quoted the female student as saying that the school authorities were looking for the student who recorded and shared the clip.
She said, “We were not comfortable with the situation, that’s why we were shouting. This is the first time he’s doing this. He gave the school chaplain a kiss and then did (the) same to the three female Bible readers. The third girl the father kissed is a virgin and that’s why she gave her cheek to the father to kiss but he forced and kissed her lips.”
However, in a statement on Tuesday signed by George Dawson-Ahmoah, the executive director to the Metropolitan Archbishop of Ghana, the church said it was “saddened” by the development.
“The Church is saddened by the news and wish to state expressly that thorough investigation has immediately been instituted into the matter and the action of the said Priest would be dealt with in accordance with the norms and values of the Anglican Communion where morality is extremely revered in the Church,” the statement read.
It also stated that efforts had begun to have the students counselled to forestall psychological issues that may arise over the incident.