The early church quickly discovered that although persecution by pagan world powers was deeply painful and distressing, a far bigger and more dangerous threat was posed by ungodly arguments and divisions within the Christian community.  The first documented instance of this is in Acts 6, when a disagreement stemming from tribal sympathies arose.  The apostles saw the danger and acted quickly to find a positive and creative solution.  Throughout the centuries the story has been the same.  Schism, heartbreak and unhealed wounds have been caused by arguments emanating from within the church, rather than from persecution from outside.

The church in Nigeria knows much about suffering from persecution, but the stories have not generally been brought to the attention of the world’s media.  We are now, however, faced with vilification, bullying and unfounded accusations from fellow Christians, and while we struggle to understand why this should be, these stories are blown up into world headlines. 

May I make the following comments and observations:

1. The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) thanks God for those missionaries who brought the good news of the gospel of Christ, and is determined to continue to preach, teach and practice in daily life the Christian faith as contained in the Bible and set forth in the Creeds.  As we do this, the church is growing by leaps and bounds.  The Lambeth Quadrilateral, with its emphasis on the Bible, the Creeds, the Sacraments and historic episcopate is an essential part of our life.

2. We are saddened and worried that some Churches and Christians now find these teachings and standards unacceptable.  However, we will never seek to bring any person or persons to our way of thinking and believing by using violence, force, slander or blackmail: to do so would be to contradict the gospel which we proclaim.  Should anyone bring a case against us in this respect we will most certainly investigate it and deal with it.  I would have hoped that the accusations made concerning the attack on Mr. Davis Mac-Iyalla could have been properly presented in this manner, with evidence: it would then have been dealt with swiftly.  This was not done, and it would be helpful to consider that there may indeed be other reasons why certain individuals felt they had a score to settle with Mr. Mac-Iyalla. All my attempts so far to discover the place or the nature of these attacks and threats have proved unsuccessful.

Simply to accuse the Anglican Church of being the perpetrator of a physical attack on the streets of a large city, does not make sense.  If a Nigerian Bishop or church leader were mugged in England, would the Archbishop of Canterbury, or even the Church of England in general, be blamed for this?  That the Archbishop of Canterbury, backed by a group of English bishops should – without evidence being presented – choose to accuse any other person(s) of resorting to violent crime and illegal acts, is in fact to resort to the unchristian bullying and behaviour which they so abhor.

3. May I note that I was invited to speak at a fringe meeting of the Church of England Synod last year.  Mr. Mac-Iyalla was present at this public meeting, and at the end of my paper he made comments to which I responded. This all took place without there being any feeling of aggression, or any indication that the Church of Nigeria is homophobic or violent.

4. The Church of Nigeria will do all in its power to maintain the unity of the Body of Christ, but we shall not compromise or “dilute” the gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  We shall continue to move forward not in a negative but in a positive way, not through violence, slander or abuse, but by continuing with the task of mission and evangelism as commanded by Christ.  Our prayer is that the whole Christian church would join together on this journey.  Those who do not wish to come will sadden us by their choice, but we shall continue.

5.  I speak for myself and I believe my colleagues in the Church of Nigeria in saying that the Church of Nigeria is committed to the human rights of all people and will work to defend the human rights of every citizen of the country. We will not condone violence against people even though they behave in a way that is not acceptable to us and none of us wishes to be responsible (either directly or indirectly) for murder or violence perpetrated on another person.

The Most  Rev. Dr. Benjamin A. Kwashi

Archbishop of Jos Province

Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion