The Anglican Communion in Nigeria recently celebrated the 108th
year of the coming of the Church to Nigeria. It was celebrated on Saturday 17th
December, 2022 in Badagry at port of entry of the Church to Nigeria.
The Archbishop Metropolitan and Primate Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion Most Revd Henry Ndukuba led the House of Bishops, House of Priests and House of Laity to Badagry to celebrate the 180th Anniversary of the Advent of Christianity and Anglicanism in Nigeria.
In his opening address on the Primate Ndukuba described the event as monumental and “a celebration of God with us”. He saw it as a seed sown in the holy land of Badagry which has grown over the years, and “It is the seed that
is changing lives, communities and societies,” praying “it will grow and bear more fruits to the glory of God”
He said, “It is indeed a celebration of God with us, Emmanuel, our Anglican experience,” quoting Isaiah 61:1-4, he explained that the seed which was sowed in the holy land of Badagry had grown over the years, and the seed “have been changing lives, communities, societies,” as he prayed that the seed would grow and bear more fruits to the glory of God.
The Primate Henry noted that the fight against slavery was the beginning of the new dawn which led to the establishment of Freetown of Sierra Leone by the British government and the freed slaves were resettled in Freetown.
He also recalled how the missionaries joined free slaves in building a community, and the seed of the Gospel was sown among the freed slaves which made many to give their lives to Christ, while some made their way back home to Badagry, Abeokuta, and other parts of the country.
“Badagry was the exiting point of many slaves and the point of no return which marked the nursery of the new dawn. God turned things around; the place of mourning and weeping became a place of new things happening and raising a new dawn. Samuel Ajayi Crowther who was a former slave, alongside other pioneer missionaries became God’s Agents whom he used in rebuilding the old rules and cities into a new generation, they were indeed agents of a new dispensation.”
He also spoke of the essence of the gathering. “This gathering is to celebrate God’s faithfulness in turning Badagry from a place where many mourned into a place of celebration, the birth is the church, and a new nation. This
has led us to two major waves of God’s moves; the first wave is the mission activities and enterprise of the early missionaries in which God used people like Thomas Batch Freeman, Henry Townsend, Ajayi Crowther and so many unsung heroes of the Christian faith. They started a new beginning through missions, education, health mission work, agriculture, trade, commerce, politics, and civil service.
“The most impactful are missions being carried out in the principle enunciated by the administrator of missions for the Church Mission Society (CMS) who propounded the principles of a national church that be self-propagating, self-supporting, and self-governing. These principles were executed by Bishop Ajayi Crowther and those who worked with him.
Through the mission, education was used as an instrument of mission and building people, health missions were established not only by the establishment of early mission hospitals but also training, empowering, and helping those who were in need thereby preparing them for a great future.”
The Primate noted that one could not speak of a great Nigeria without thinking of the negotiations that Bishop Ajayi Crowther had with Paramount Rulers of different communities; from the east, south, north-central, and all other parts of Nigeria.
Going down the memory lane he continued, “The second wave began on the 24th of February 1979 which was the birth of the province of the Church of Nigeria.
The first Archbishop, Bishop Timothy Olufosoye from 1979 -1989; the Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion grew beyond measure, there was the expansion of the Diocese and the strengthening of the mission of the church.
“Bishop Joseph Adetiloye from 1989-1999 was a Missionary leader, Evangelism was proclaimed and fully executed by him which led to the creation of a missionary diocese with his slogan “where there is a governor, there should be a bishop”.
He worked hard to see that the national church was fully funded. He established the eminent Anglican Group and ways of raising funds to run the Church of Nigeria.
“Archbishop Peter Jasper Akinola’s leadership from 2000 to 2010, brought great expansion to the church and his impact was felt in the Church of Nigeria and the Universal Church. The diocese of Badagry also benefited from this impact, on September 24, 2004 it was created out of the Diocese of Lagos West. It was a tremendous impact by rebuilding where the gospel was first preached in Nigeria. He also worked on funding the National Church by establishing the endowment of the Church of Nigeria, and the National headquarters of the church was moved to Abuja.
Archbishop Akinola, with all the church fathers, battled against homosexuality and western heresy. Through him, God founded the GLOBAL ANGLICAN FUTURE CONFERENCE (GAFCON), strengthened the global south, and gave it direction.
During his tenure the first All African Conference of Bishops was held in Lagos West, Ikeja. During his leadership, the National Church administration was stabilized due to the constitutional changes that shaped the image of the church of Nigeria.
Archbishop Nicolas D. Okoh led the church from 2010-2020. The Lord strengthened the mission of the church, the missionary diocese through the establishment of St Mathias House to help fund the struggling missionary diocese, the spirituality of the church was deepened through DIVINE COMMONWEALTH CONFERENCE (DIVCCON) and other spiritual programmes.
“Our fathers in God, the next 180 years begin now and today being the 17th of December marking exactly 180 years, we look up to God as He takes us through it. The next 180 years will be vital in preparing a church that remains true towards the authority of the word of God”
“A church that is true to her faith and God’s calling to mission in a very hostile world, a church that is blameless and ready for the coming of Jesus Christ in a digitalized agnostic generation. The church needs to dig deep into our inheritance of faith and engage in intentional discipleship.”
The church missionaries fought the darkness of their days with the light of the gospel the word of God; engaging in meaningful and true worship of God also teaching and nurturing people through intentional discipleship, building relationships and character of values that are rooted in scriptures.
Primate Henry implored Christians to position the church to remain relevant to both the spiritual, social, economic, political, and other needs of the people without losing sight of our eternal calling and destination.
“Nevertheless, we must be mindful of some begat influence of our missionary heritage for example poor political participation of the people i.e people saying politics is so worldly that those who want to be spiritual need not be involved in politics” this narrative needs to change, for there is no power that can be established if it is not ordained by God. Therefore, if this world and governments belong to God, then we as believers/ Christians must engage with the politics of our day.
“The church has the responsibility of disciplining people of good character, integrity, and godly values to engage in politics. If we refuse to participate, those who have no business leading people will lead us and it will be a pity for the people to be led by those who hate them.”
The cleric also had his words on the 2023 general elections in Nigeria. On this he said, “As we all know 2023 is around the corner, we dare not key our guards down, we need to mobilize our people to engage in the challenge of our time as our predecessors did.”
On materialism, the Primate also lamented the mixture of materialism with wealth. “As a church, we are still struggling to understand riches, wealth, and contentment. Wealth is God’s gift to humans we need to better ourselves.
He also took a swipe at tribalism in the house of God, on which he also said, “Cultural bias has manifested itself in different ways, the seed of tribal and sectional sentiments has grown to feel among us especially in our world today be it; a priest’s posting, bishop’s election, or leadership in the church, such behaviour ought not to thrive in the church of God, if indeed we are the people of God for the new dawn.
“There is this Anglican inherent tactic attitude; we are so hard on ourselves but very lenient and accommodating to others even those who are so different from us, our respect for authority and the need to work together united to achieve a common goal is fast eroding” he concluded.
The celebration was held between Friday 16th December through Sunday 18th December 2022 featuring arrival of anniversary dignitaries from different parts of the world on Friday, Welcome Service on Friday at the Cathedral of St. Thomas, Badagry, Anniversary Lecture on
Saturday, at ASCON and Consecration of Bishops and Anniversary Thanksgiving on
Sunday at St. Thomas Cathedral, also in Badagry.It was rounded off with the cutting of the anniversary cake after thanksgiving service and consecration of the Bishops.
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