The out-going Primate, His Grace Akinola, while commenting on the election, said that the new Primate would be sworn in, in Abuja, next year, stressing that the way the election was conducted was an indication that the Church of Nigeria was moving forward.

“Let us just say God has been leading and guiding us and we have been following His leading. This election has taken us five hours of serious prayer to come to the stage we are. It is not a child’s play and we should see it as what God has done and I feel it is coming with a lot of blessings”, he said.

Akinola said he was happy he was leaving the headship of the Anglican Communion when the ovation was loudest, stressing that he was convinced that the new Primate would take the Anglican Communion to greater heights.

Read it all.

Check it out.

If an achiever or an accomplished man is one who pursues set goals and accomplishes same; then the man, Peter Akinola is an undisputable achiever and an accomplished man. No sooner was he elected Primate than he undertook a frank and introspective appraisal of the church’s situation, a visualization of the desired situation and charting a course.

Believing in a shared vision, the new Primate, Peter Akinola, used the occasion of his presentation in Abuja on March 25, 2000 to flag off the process of articulating the vision of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion). Just two days after his presentation (March 25 -27) Akinola embarked on a 2-day visioning exercise with over 400 leaders of the church made up of all the bishops, some clergies and laities representing all the Dioceses of the Church of Nigeria. He brought in some experts in visioning process including Chief Ernest Shonekan, former Head of State and Chairman, Vision 2010 and Prof Alele Williams, Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin as facilitators. The propositions of this body which were based on the vision which the Primate sold to them were harmonized and eventually adopted as the Vision of the Church of Nigeria by the Church of Nigeria Standing Committee on June 5, 2000 at Owerri. The Vision states that:

The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) shall be Bible based, spiritually dynamic, united, disciplined, self supporting, committed to pragmatic evangelism, social welfare and a church that epitomizes the genuine love of Christ.

Read it all.

Nine priests and six deacons were, yesterday, ordained by the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Oleh Diocese, Delta State with a charge on them to affirm their loyalty to the Christian faith.

Giving the charge while ordaining the clergies at the Cathedral of St. Pual, Oleh, Bishop of the Diocese, Rt. Revd Jonathan Edewor told them to uphold their ministries, adding that they were ordained for the service of God.

He told them to help converts in order to bring about peace through the teaching of the word of God and said the diocese, which was created about 10 years ago, was growing to the glory of God.

Read it all.

This great gathering is significant in several respects:

i) It is a clear demonstration of the fact that the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) held in Jerusalem from 22-29th June 2008 was divinely mandated;
ii) That the organization, execution, decisions and declarations which came out of it were inspired by the Holy Spirit and they reflect the mind of God for our dear Anglican Church in this generation;
iii) It shows that the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) is divinely chosen and called to be the channel of continuing this work of reviving, reforming and transforming the Anglican Church in the UK and Ireland in particular, and in God’s wide world in general. This is with a view to repositioning it to restore “what the locust had eaten” in this great land, for the salvation of mankind, and all of God’s creation.
iv) Furthermore I see the significance of this gathering against the background of Acts chapter two ”“ the great gathering from all over the world, and the descent of the Holy Spirit, to inaugurate God’s New Testament Church, empower men and women to evangelize and do the work of mission. Thus I see this gathering as a people assembled, as the Jerusalem gathering before it, by the finger of God, to receive fresh power and a saving message for the broken, hurting, confused and confusing world all around us.
v) Moreover it is gratifying to note that this crowd has assembled in the city of London ”“ not Lagos, Nairobi or Kampala. It thus answers to the derogatory remarks of some who say that the faith, commitment and zeal of African Anglicans is borne out of uneducated minds and flawed missionary enterprise in Africa. I am happy that men and women like you who have received sound ediucstion in the British tradition and the gospel ”˜from the feet of Gamaliel’, can assemble under the umbrella of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. Indeed wise men and wise women still seek Jesus.

Read it all.

Recently, it was celebration galore at the Gospel Anglican Church, Ajagbadi, Lagos. The occasion was the ordination service for new ministers of the church. The new clerics were resplendent in their white robes which, according to them, stood for purity.

The ordination service commenced at 9.am when the bishop and other ministers walked in amid songs of praise by the choristers and the entire congregation.

The church wore a solemn look as the candidates to be ordained were presented at the altar by the Gospel Anglican Bishop of Lagos, Rt. Rev. Chukwuereka Iheanachor. The man of God prayed for the glory of God to overwhelm the new ministers of the gospel and for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Read it all.

The Standing Committee of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) has resolved unanimously to be “in abiding and full communion” with the emerging Anglican Church in North America. The Church of Nigeria, which counts more than a quarter of the world’s Anglican Christians as members, is the first Anglican province to formally accept the Anglican Church in North America as its North American partner within the Anglican Communion.

In making their decision, the leaders of the Church of Nigeria’s more than 140 dioceses also recommended that their province send a delegation to the Anglican Church in North America’s inaugural Provincial Assembly, to be held June 22-25 in Bedford, TX, “to demonstrate our enduring partnership in the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”

Read it all.

An Anglican priest, Venerable Emmanuel Ejianya, has been abducted by unknown gunmen in Anambra State.

A police source told Daily Champion that the clergyman was kidnapped last Sunday when his abductors trailed him from Eziowelle in Idemili North Council area to his official residence at Anglican Church, Ogidi in Idemili North Area Council of the state.

The incident is coming barely two weeks after his brother, Mr. Mike Ejianya, slumped and died while preaching on the pulpit. Mike is yet to be buried. It was gathered that Venerable Ejianya was returning from a one-day crusade organized by members of the Anglican community at Eziowelle late in the night when the unidentified hoodlums trailed him to his official residence and abducted him.

Read it alll.

By: George Conger.

“Signs and wonders” should become the mark of the Anglican Church in Africa, the Archbishop of Lagos, Dr Ephraim Ademowo said last month at service marking the collation of two archdeacons.

He urged a “return to apostolic tradition practiced in the early church characterized by miracles, signs and wonders;” saying it should become “the new direction of the Anglican Church today.”

The Anglican Communion’s largest church with an estimated 18,000,000 active members, the Church of Nigeria has been challenged by the equally fast-growing Pentecostal churches of West Africa. In recent decades it has taken on board many of the elements of the charismatic renewal movement as well embarking on a programme of African enculturation, drawing upon African resources for liturgical renewal.

One of the pillars of the Gafcon movement for the reform and renewal of the Anglican Communion, the Church of Nigeria’s cultivation of charismatic gifts, critics charge, will lead to splits with Gafcon’s Anglo-Catholic and conservative evangelical wings.

Read it all.

Read it all.

In preparation for the meeting I asked The American Anglican Council to prepare the attached report on the continuing situation of The Episcopal Church to enable people in the wider Communion to have a fuller perspective of the circumstances in North America. I shared it with my colleagues in the Global South but did not release it more widely in the hope that we would receive assurances from the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada that they were willing to exercise genuine restraint towards those Anglicans in North America unwilling to embrace their several innovations.

Sadly that did not prove to be the case. Instead we were treated to presentations that sought to trivialize the situation and the consequences for those whose only offence is their determination to hold on doggedly and truthfully to the faith once delivered to the saints. In addition I have learned that even as we met together in Alexandria actions were taken that were in direct contradiction to the season of deeper communion and gracious restraint to which we all expressed agreement. For example, in the days leading up to our meeting, the Diocese of Virginia declared the “inherent integrity and blessedness” of same sex unions and initiated a process to provide for their “blessing”. While we were meeting, The Diocese of Toronto also announced that it will start same sex blessings within a year and The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia filed further costly legal action appealing the court’s decision in twenty cases favouring nine Virginia congregations. These and many further actions are documented within the report.

Please read it all and the attachments in the pdf links underneath the letter.

All through our gathering at the recently concluded Primates’ meeting I kept wondering whether we were the ones to whom John was writing. We have a glorious reputation ”“ a worldwide communion of millions with a glorious history and beautiful heritage, fluid structures, grand cathedrals, “infallible” canons, historical ecclesiology and ”˜flexible’ hermeneutics ”“ but we are in danger of forgetting what we have received and heard and replacing it with the seemingly attractive gods and goddesses of our age. We are in danger of becoming the ”˜living dead’ by giving the outward appearance of life but in reality we are no more than empty and ineffective vessels. In parts of our Communion some have merged the historical gospel message of Jesus the Christ with seductive ancient heresies and revisionist agendas, which have resulted in an adulterated and dangerous distortion of the gospel. The call to obedience and repentance is one that we must declare but we refuse and instead we replace it with a polite invitation to empty tolerance and endless conversation. Sometimes we think that we can replace the need for repentance with activities, programmes, endless meetings, conventions and communiqués — we are wrong!

Our world is in turmoil desperately looking for hope and we have been given that hope in the life and person of Jesus the Christ who sets us free from the slavery of sin to the new life of the Spirit — that is our message, that is our assurance, that is the holy life to which we have been called. It is a life of costly commitment where we reject the false gods and promises of this present age and embrace the one true God and His righteous claims upon our lives. It is a life of obedience to the revealed Word of God which must never be compromised. It is a gospel message which is to be fully proclaimed unfettered and undiluted. It is a life worth living and a life worth dying for. It is a life of true freedom that was birthed in this land and one we dare not forget.

Read it all.

“We applaud their consistent stand for biblical truth and the importance of reconciliation between all peoples and their Creator.

“We welcome the Primates’ unanimous reaffirmation of the entirety of Lambeth 1:10 as the Church’s teaching on human sexuality although we are disappointed that they were not unanimous in their call to repentance for those who continue to defy this teaching.

“We also welcome a period of gracious restraint as the Primates describe it but are distressed by the reality that The Episcopal Church continues to initiate punitive litigation on a massive scale. To date, there are at least 56 lawsuits initiated by The Episcopal Church, or its dioceses, against individual churches, clergy and vestries across the country.

Read it all.

There is now a more detailed schedule available via this parish newsletter on page 2.

AT least fourteen new bishops were yesterday in Ughelli, Delta State , consecrated by the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion with an exhortation to be good shepherds and not a wolves to the flocks of Christ .

Making the clarion call while consecrating the bishops during the service held at the All Saints Cathedral Church, Ughelli, the Archbishop and Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, the Most Revd Peter Akinola told the new bishops to abide by the discipline of Jesus Christ in the discharge of their duties as clergies.

Read it all.

5. GLOBAL CONCERNS

a. As a result of a presentation of a mission survey in the Sudan we were humbled by the remarkable faith of the bishops, clergy and congregations in a country that has been devastated by war for more than two decades. We embraced the Primate’s call for a continuing Sudan Mission Initiative and as initial steps appointed the Dean, Archbishop Maxwell Anikwenwa, as the interim Sudan Mission Coordinator to work with the leadership of the Church of the Sudan so that we might discern together the next steps for this partnership. We resolved to continue the work of the Church of Nigeria Mission Society locally and in the francophone countries of West Africa including Benin Republic, Cote d’Ivore, Chad, Niger, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Mali and Togo and individual dioceses are urged to take an active role in specific projects.

b. Following the Primate’ report on the meeting of the GAFCON Primates Council with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the House of Bishops, while expressing support for this effort to build bridges, stressed that in any effort to bring restoration to the Communion there can be no compromise on the need for genuine repentance by those who have walked away from the ”˜faith once delivered to the saints’. We are, however, delighted by the continuing fruit of GAFCON, the developing Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans around the world, the work of the GAFCON Primates Council and the emerging Anglican Church in North America.

Read it carefully and read it all.

Read it all.

CHRISTIANS in northern Nigeria have said that inaccurate reporting of riots in Jos at the weekend could fuel further Muslim violence against them. The worst sectarian violence in recent years claimed around 400 lives, a figure which the Bishop of Jos, the Rt Revd Ben Kwashi, said was likely to rise.

Confusion surrounds the events. First reports in the international media said that the attacks on businesses and homes, which began in the early hours of Friday morning, were the result of spontaneous post-election violence after electoral workers failed to post ballot results. The ruling People’s Democratic Party, perceived to be mainly Chris­tian, defeated the All Nigerian People’s Party.

Later reports of “Christian-Muslim clashes” appeared to suggest that Christians had killed 300 Muslims. The rioting was then said to have expanded along religious and ethnic lines. It became clear, how­ever, that the rioters had been well prepared and heavily armed, and that many were wearing fake military or police uniforms.

Read it all.

Read it all.

Archbishop Kwashi reports: “The reports from those I have sent out to collect information are that the Muslims are attacking and burning this morning. It looks well co-ordinated. They are well armed with AK 47 and pump machine guns. This morning they have been at Dogonduste. Quite a number of Christian homes have been burnt. We do not know how many have been killed. The local government has underestimated the vehemence of the militants. At the moment this is all restricted to Jos City.

We ask prayer for knowing the right thing to do. I have moved one of our archdeacons and his family to live in our home. St Luke’s Cathedral is in the middle of the area of violence. We hope we can proceed with our normal services tomorrow.”

Read it all.

We emphasised that ”˜be it by birth or by conversion the men and women in GAFCON which the entire Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion is a part, are people who have grown to be Anglican Christians by conviction, upholding the tenets of Anglican biblical orthodoxy. We have no other place to go nor is it our intention to start another church. Anglicans we are, Anglicans we’ll remain until
the LORD shall return in glory to judge each one according to his deeds.’ Gafcon has been held with a world-wide acclaimed resounding success and with no financial deficit. I call on this holy assembly to express gratitude to all those who made generous donations to help us fund Gafcon. Lambeth Conference too was held. About 263 bishops from around the world including at least three from the Church of England and representing over 45% of the Anglican world chose not to attend. Unlike Gafcon, it ended in huge financial deficit, and there were no clear unanimous declaration or statement[s].

Read it all.

OUR PRIMARY ASSIGNMENT: We were encouraged by the amazing reports of the growth of our Church especially through the Missionary Dioceses. Within a short space of time the new Dioceses have done what is not financially quantifiable by planting over 400 new congregations. We are not yet done as we are regularly confronted by the urgent need to open more mission frontiers within the country. Therefore, it behoves all of us to subscribe wholeheartedly to Christ mandate to the Church to be His faithful witness (Matt 28:19 ff) The early apostles heeded the call and the result was amazingly wonderful. God is still in the business of repeat performance even at greater and incredible result. Let us all resolve to work for the Lord that the vision 1:1:3 will be achieved. How beautiful and wonderful are the feet of those who proclaim the good news (Isaiah 52:7). The Church of God is moving forward and the gate of hell cannot and will NOT prevail against it. Our witness to Christ is our indebtedness to all the people we meet on our life’s pilgrimage. As we wait on the Lord all impossibilities shall become possible.

Read it all.

Primate of the Anglican Church in Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola, has stated that the recent creation of Ministry of Niger- Delta by the Federal Governemnt is a show of the country’s lack of political will to implement government decisions.

“I do not think our problems require more ministries. What this country lacks is the political will to implement decisions. As for me, it is the issue; it is not the creation of more ministries. We have the NDDC. What are they doing? I know where the problem is; evil of corruption, that’s the issue”.

Read it all.

I suppose my background helps me to achieve that. My father died December 12, 1948 when I was barely five years old; my mother never went to any school, and so when I left primary school in 1959 there was no one to even pay my fees to go to secondary school. I was on my own then, struggling through life to get to where I am today. From time to time I ask myself: ‘Peter, who do you think you are?’ and I remind myself of who I know I am. As we say in my country, I have been ‘hewed out of the rocks’. I have no claim whatsoever to glory, to glamour, to superstar syndrome – I’m not into such things – and so I have no choice but to be humble. Let me be blunt with you: I’m a nobody, all right?

Look at Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour, whom I serve, who has called me to serve him, who has made me whom he has made me! Look at the pattern of his life! He stooped to conquer. He had the power to turn the nails on the cross into common thread, but he didn’t do it. He had the power to bring down soldiers from heaven to destroy his enemies. He didn’t do it. Rather, he subjected himself to inhuman treatment. But then on the third day God raised him from the dead and gave him his name that is above every name.

Read it all.

Following the lingering debate on the possibility of same sex married priests holding Church leadership positions, erudite scholar and bishop of Kaduna Anglican Diocese, Rev.Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, has stated that the Anglican Church stood by its determination in rejecting same sex marriages and would not accept at any level, holding of Church leadership by men of such status.

According to Bishop Fearon who spoke after conducting a confirmation service, “The position of the Church has not changed in standing by the standard of the Church which has been on for time.Our position is not different from the one we took in 1998, which we called resolution 110. It is clearly stated there that in this church, as far as we are concerned, marriage is between a man and a woman. It is clear and we have not changed that position.

Secondly, people who have other sexual orientation, which is if you have a man who is living with another man and they claimed they are married, we cannot accept them to be leaders in this church. That is the position of the Anglican community, and that has not changed”.

Read it all.

Leadership at all levels in the Country, including the Church, has been challenged to stand out in condemnation of the quest for materialism and ill-gotten wealth prevalent in the society. Delegates to the 11th Annual Men’s Conference, Diocese of Egbu, Christian Fathers’ Association, (CFA) made the call in a 11point communiqué at the end of the conference held recently at Holy Trinity Church, Nekede in Owerri West Local Government Council. It urged the leaders not only to express disapproval of such vices but also to strive and toe the line of moral rectitude and proper Christian living.

Conference delegates who also expressed dismay over the problem of homosexuality in Christendom, contrary to biblical teachings and practices, associated itself with the philosophy of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) held recently in Jerusalem. It commended the vision of the Primates Council of GAFCON and called on all Christians, irrespective of their denominations, to uphold the teachings of the Bible.

It noted with regret that such unbiblical and false gospel has paralyzed the Anglican Communion world-wide and called on all GAFCON Bishops and Churches to remain resolute in ensuring that the Communion was reformed around the biblical gospel and mandate to go into the world and present Christ to the nations.

Read it all.

Finally, I was astonished by your declaration that ECUSA and the Anglican Church of Canada have satisfied the requirements of the Windsor Report. I note that you acknowledge that this is merely your personal view but where is your evidence? In our Dromantine Communiqué we said that “there remains a very real question about whether the North American churches are willing to accept the same teaching on matters of sexual morality as is generally accepted elsewhere in the Communion,” and that because of this, “the underlying reality of our communion in God the Holy Trinity is obscured, and the effectiveness of our common mission severely hindered.” [12] I have seen no change in this and no willingness to fully embrace Lambeth 1.10 as our current agreement on matters of human sexuality ”“ as you know this is the underlying assumption of the Windsor Report.

I was present in Nottingham for the recent ACC meeting and heard both Presiding Bishop Griswold and Archbishop Hutchinson, and their teams, try to justify their innovations. They failed. They made clear that there is no turning back and they did so with little or no reference to the plain teaching of the Holy Scriptures or the devastation that their actions have brought on us all.

While I am grateful that “regret” has been expressed and a temporary moratorium on Episcopal consecrations has been established, same-sex blessings continue to be authorized in some dioceses in both Provinces. And we all know that this is no more than a brief cessation of provocative actions and that no permanent change of mind is intended.

—Archbishop of Nigeria Peter Akinola in an open letter to Archbishop Robin Eames in 2005, highlighting the central problem which existed then, exists now, and which the report about the September 2007 House of Bishops meeting evaluated incorrectly, as Gene Robinson said at the time. It must be addressed this week in Lambeth if the huge breach in the communion is to move toward healing–KSH.

bout a quarter of the bishops in the worldwide Anglican Communion — including most from Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda — are consequently boycotting the once-a-decade meeting this summer in Canterbury.

And the Nigerian church, which accounts for 17 million of the 77 million Anglicans worldwide, is leading the opposition to the communion’s leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

“The issue is not that of gay alone. The crux of it is the revisionist agenda, which is that some people are out to rewrite the Bible,” Archbishop of Lagos Adebola Ademowo said Saturday.

“The authority of the Scriptures cannot be challenged. Old time religion is good enough for us.”

Speaking specifically about Williams, the 60-year-old said: “That man, I don’t know what’s wrong — he should be able to say ‘this is the Bible standard’ and come out and defend it.”

Read it all.

The Archbishop of Canterbury will be told this week to stop conservative clergy leaving their national churches and becoming bishops in other countries.

Dr Rowan Williams is to be lobbied by liberals who are dominating the ten-yearly Lambeth Conference, because more than 200 traditionalist bishops have boycotted the gathering as a result of divisions on gay clergy and women bishops.

He will be told that the process of conservative American clergy opting out of their national body and becoming bishops in African and South American churches goes against tradition and must be stopped.

Dr Williams will also be urged to prevent orthodox Anglicans, who believe the Bible teaches that homosexuality is wrong, from setting up a new province in North America to rival the Episcopal Church of the USA, which triggered the current crisis by electing the first openly gay bishop in the worldwide Communion.

Read it all. So, let us get this straight. None of these transfers to other Provinces in the Anglican Communion would be occurring if the Episcopal Church had not done in 2003 what the Anglican Communion in many different ways asked the Episcopal Church not to do. And, of course, what they did was against tradition.

Also, during the 2003 debate, any outside urging or attempted persusasion, or, even more strongly, intervention by Anglican authorities was seen to be an inappropriate transgression of provincial “autonomy.”

Now, however, that something is happening that the Episcopal Church leadership does not like, what is said leadership doing? Appealing to tradition, and asking for outside influence and intervention from Anglican Communion authorities. Got it? Pot, please meet kettle–KSH.

Angered by their criticism, [Bishop of Washington John] Chane denied that the Episcopal church was guilty of leading the Anglican communion into error.

“I think it’s really very dangerous when someone stands up and says: ‘I have the way and I have the truth and I know how to interpret holy scripture and you are following what is the right way,'” he said “It’s really very, very dangerous and I think it’s demonic.

“The Episcopal church has been demonised. It has been a punching bag, and I’m sick of being a punching bag as a bishop and I’m sick of my church, my province being a punching bag.”

He made the remarks in Battle of the Bishops, a BBC2 documentary to be aired on Monday evening, which follows key churchmen from the US and Africa as they prepare for Gafcon.

In the programme the archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, known in his home country as the Hammer of God, is seen hitting out at figures such as Chane.

“Gafcon is a rescue mission ”“ it is our duty to rescue whatever is left of the church from error,” Akinola said.

Read it all.