I received the news of the call to glory of Rev Prof Kudadjie with a mixture of sadness and gratitude. I was sad at the thought of not meeting him ever again on this side of heaven. I was also sad that he would no longer be around to dispense the wealth of knowledge and experience that had percolated through him during his life and many years of Christian ministry: discipleship, pastoral care, academic mentoring and excellence, intellectual engagement and enterprise, as well as personal relationships. Yet, I felt a deep gratitude for those same qualities that had been expressed in a life of Christian witness and commitment, serving the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I first met Professor Kudadjie in 1995. I would meet him many times afterwards at programmes and conferences organised by the Akrofi-Christaller Memorial Centre for Mission Research and Applied Theology (ACMC), later the Akrofi-Christaller Institute for Theology, Mission and Culture (ACI) and the African Theological Fellowship (ATF) in Akropong and Accra, book launches, Christian programmes, church services and other occasions in Accra. At every meeting, Professor Kudadjie’s gracious and gentle ways ministered to me. He struck me as a very kind and considerate person, one who understood and was already living out Paul’s admonition to the Philippian Christians to ‘do nothing out of selfishness or conceit, but in all humility count others better than yourselves.’ (Philippians 2:3)

Professor Kudadjie’s desire to see Christians grow in virtue and good conduct undoubtedly led to his teaching of Christian values and ethics for every man (and woman) and his preoccupation with such issues as the Christian’s role in national pol­itics and the Christian’s conduct in society beyond morality. His ardent hope was to see moral renewal happen in Ghana and spread through the sub-re­gion to the entire African continent. For him, this was not wishful thinking, but a feasible and achiev­able goal, which he pursued until his call to glory.

Recalling the various times I interacted with him, including the last time during a visit to Ghana in 2019, I am personally thankful to God for his consistently kind, gracious, gentle and generous spirit. It was a great privilege and rich blessing for me to have known him and to have received some of his inspirational teaching ministry. I will remain ever grateful for his input in my life.

May the God of all comfort, whom Professor Kudadjie served and loved dearly, be with his entire family in their grief, and grant Professor Kudadjie’s caring and gentle spirit eternal rest in His peace.