The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) at its Episcopal meeting held at IBRU Centre Agbarha-Otor has elected four new Bishops and an Archbishop.
The new Archbishop for Aba Province is the Rt Rev Ikechi Nwosu, the incumbent Bishop of the Diocese of Umuahia.
This is an encouraging reminder of the huge growth that the Anglican Church in Nigeria has experienced since the late 1970s. Today it has ten archbishops and over 90 bishops (and these are not “bishops-without-portfolio” as are many in the west, but truly reflect the number of active Nigerian Anglicans).
Yet, in 1978 when a Nigerian bishop (who would later be Primate of Nigeria) stood up at the Lambeth Conference and insisted that he be heard, the Anglican church in Nigeria was much smaller. Nigeria has seen an explosion of evangelism over the last thirty years that is an example to the rest of the Anglican world, a reminder of the potential for expansion inherent in orthodox Anglicanism.