2007 EPISCOPAL RETREAT HELD AT THE IBRU ANGLICAN RETREAT CENTRE, AGBARHA OTOR, DELTA STATE,

January 12, 2007

PASTORAL LETTER

Dear People of God,

The Peace of the Lord be always with you especially at this time as we recall the Epiphany when the Lord Jesus Christ was revealed as the Saviour of the world and not just the Jewish Messiah. We pray for renewed commitment and empowerment as we proclaim Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).

The Fathers in the Lord, the Bishops of our Church met for our annual retreat at the Ibru Retreat Centre, Agbarha Otor from Monday 8th - Saturday 13th January 2007 with our meditations and reflections focused on the theme, EMPOWERED LEADERSHIP. We were amazed at how God was pleased to refresh and renew us for our calling through the various sessions of the retreat.

Looking back over the past year, our hearts were filled with thanks to God for your high level of dedication to God’s service and your support for the ministry. We believe this will always ascend to heaven as a sweet smelling sacrifice before God. We pray that He will reward you always and bless you abundantly.

Among the major aspects of blessing at this retreat was the reminder that God appoints all levels of leadership from the family to the national, for the specific purpose of bearing fruit that will last. (John 15:16). We must always bear this important truth in mind so that we can deal effectively with whatever hinders maximum fruitfulness in our lives.

Furthermore, special attention was devoted to the important role the youth play in the life of the Church. We resolved that more effort should be made to give the youth ministry of our Church more attention.

Following up on the decisions reached at the Standing Committees of our Church, which took place at Ibadan and Port Harcourt in February and September 2006 respectively, new Bishops were elected for the 19 newly created missionary dioceses and the vacant See of Ife. A new Archbishop was also elected for the Niger Delta Ecclesiastical Province.

We are grateful to God for the cheering report of our Brother, the Rt Rev Martyn Minns, Bishop of CANA - on the success of our outreach to Anglicans in North America who have chosen to remain faithful to historic Anglicanism rooted in Biblical orthodoxy. We also have encouraging reports about our outreach to the Church in Congo through our missionary Bishop, the Rt Rev Abiodun Olaoye. We reaffirm our commitment to ensuring the success of these outreaches through increased financial support to the Church of Nigeria Missionary Society (CNMS) programmes, as well as our earnest prayers.

Our dear nation is currently going through another process towards the emergence of a new leadership profile at all levels to direct our affairs for the next four years. We encourage our members to pray fervently not only for the emergence of God-fearing leaders, but also to participate actively in the electoral process that will lead to the realisation of this goal. Dear people of God, let us resist every temptation to sell our votes to greedy and self-serving politicians who will like to buy our votes and mess up with our future and those of our children. We must avoid participation in all forms of violence and thuggery in elections as these do not have the blessing of God or man.

We are not unaware of the threat to life of the average Nigerian. The pain of loosing one’s job or house as a result of some on-going reforms in the country, the suffering occasioned by poverty and diseases, the incessant and ever increasing rate of armed robbery in our homes, on our roads and our banks which has claimed so many innocent lives are there buffeting us from every side.

The activities of fraudsters who endanger the lives of impoverished Nigerians who in an attempt to improve their lot economically jump on vandalized oil pipelines only to be consumed by fire have made an already bad situation worse. In the face of all these, we want to assure you that our God still reigns! He is aware of all these and will not delay in coming to our rescue. We should therefore approach our activities this year with faith and confidence in full assurance that He will deliver us.

Finally, may we encourage you to make God’s service your delight always and your wants shall be His care. We commend to your prayers one of our brothers - a fellow Anglican, who has donated handsomely to our endowment fund, as well as the Ibru family that has made this wonderful facility available to the Church, that God may bless them and us as we jointly serve Him in newness of life this year and in the days ahead.

May God bless, protect, defend and keep you now and always. Amen.

Yours in Christ’s Service,

Signed

  The Most Revd. Peter J. Akinola, CON, D.D.

Archbishop, Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria