wfn.org | Episcopalians: Chaplaincy to expatriate Nigerian Anglicans launched in US

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

March 11, 2003

2003-053

Episcopalians: Chaplaincy to expatriate Nigerian Anglicans 
launched in US

by Jan Nunley

(ENS) When the Rev. Gordon Okunsanya meets the bishops of the 
Episcopal Church during their spring retreat at the Kanuga 
Conference Center at the end of this week, an idea born at 
Kanuga just two years ago will have come full circle.

Okunsanya, interim rector of St. Paul's in Flint, Michigan, 
begins his ministry as the Episcopal Church's chaplain to 
Nigerian expatriates this month, offering bishops across the US 
opportunities to consult with him about the best way to minister 
to Nigerian and other African immigrants living in their 
dioceses.

Son of the Nigerian bishop of Ondo, the Oxford-educated 
Okunsanya is uniquely equipped to understand the issues bishops 
face, said the Rev. Patrick Mauney, director of the church's 
office of Anglican and Global Relations. Okunsanya is trained in 
both conflict management and church growth. He's also 
experienced as a deployment and transition officer, serving in 
the Diocese of Milwaukee as the bishop's deputy for 
congregational development, deployment and pastoral care and as 
canon administrator for the Cathedral of St. Paul in Detroit.

An American-African partnership

The idea for a specifically Nigerian chaplaincy in the US grew 
out of conversations between American bishops and the Archbishop 
of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, following the Primates Meeting at 
Kanuga in March 2001. Akinola later toured four US 
dioceses--Texas, Southern Ohio, Michigan, and Chicago--where 
there are significant Nigerian immigrant populations. The 
chaplaincy program is firmly established in the UK, where there 
are already Nigerian-focused student chaplaincies at such 
locations as Lancaster University and the University of 
Greenwich.

Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold visited Nigeria in January 2002, 
conducting a retreat for the Nigerian House of Bishops that 
allayed fears about the American leader's "liberalism" fueled by 
Internet gossip. In April 2002, Akinola met with the bishops at 
Camp Allen for further conversations. There, and in subsequent 
gatherings, Akinola laid out his plan for the chaplaincy as a 
partnership between ECUSA and the Church of Nigeria, in which 
the chaplain is jointly responsible to the Primate of Nigeria 
and to the Presiding Bishop of ECUSA. 

As it stands today, the chaplaincy is funded through a 
three-year commitment from four major donors: the dioceses of 
Texas and Southern Ohio, the Church of Nigeria, and the 
Presiding Bishop's discretionary fund. Other US bishops have 
been asked to contribute. Currently Okunsanya serves on a 
contract basis, but an "optimal budget," said Mauney, would 
enable him to work in the chaplaincy full-time. He'll be 
accountable "to the bishop he's working with, to the Presiding 
Bishop through the Office of Anglican and Global Relations, and 
have conceptual accountability to the Primate of Nigeria," 
Mauney explained. The chaplaincy will also maintain connections 
to the Black Ministries office, currently being restructured, 
and to the Africa Partnership Office.

In his address to the Church of Nigeria's 7th General Synod in 
September 2002, Akinola announced the establishment of the 
chaplaincy "to look after the religious and spiritual interests 
of Nigerian Anglicans" in the US. "We do not intend to stop in 
America," Akinola told the gathering. "Plans are fast afoot to 
establish similar chaplaincies in other parts of the globe." 
Akinola cited South East Asia (including Singapore, Malaysia, 
Thailand, and Indonesia), Europe, Russia, and other parts of 
Africa as potential sites for similar Nigerian Anglican 
chaplaincies.

Largest Anglican church in the world

Christianity came to Nigeria in the 15th century through the 
efforts of Augustinian and Capuchin monks from Portugal. 
Anglicanism followed in 1842, brought by the Revs. Henry 
Townsend and Samuel Ajayi Crowther (a Yoruba ex-slave) of the 
Church Missionary Society. Crowther was elected bishop in 1864 
and posted to the see of the Niger. The sixteen dioceses in 
Nigeria were constituted into the Province of Nigeria in 
February 1979, and the fast-growing church was split into three 
provinces in September 1997. 

Now with 18 million members, the Anglican Church of Nigeria is 
estimated to embrace some 12 to 15 percent of the total 
population of Nigeria, said Mauney, so it's possible there are 
"an extraordinary number" of Anglicans among Nigerian immigrants 
to the US. "A lot of our bishops had noticed an increasing 
number of Nigerian parishioners over the years in places like 
Chicago, New York, Houston, and other urban centers," said 
Mauney. "I was stunned to hear that there could be as many as a 
couple of million Nigerian expatriates in this country."

Many Nigerians in the US don't know that ECUSA is "their 
church," Mauney said. Those who do may not be comfortable with 
the predominantly Anglo-Catholic worship style of churches in 
Chicago and other urban centers, which does not reflect the 
evangelical emphasis of Nigerian Anglicanism. There is also 
concern that lonely Nigerians may seek out local expressions of 
one of the so-called "prosperity churches" exported by US 
televangelists to Nigeria in the 1970s, charismatic 
congregations which emphasize wealth and healing as signs of 
God's approval and are especially popular in southern Nigeria.

The American way has been to establish minority-language 
congregations, but Akinola prefers that the chaplaincy keep 
worship in English, which is Nigeria's official language, Mauney 
said. Nigeria is one of Africa's most culturally and 
linguistically diverse countries, with eleven major 
ethnolinguistic groups and 350 or more languages spoken. "Where 
he is coming from is a real issue within Nigeria, which is the 
dangers of fragmentation of the church there and their witness 
because of the ethnicities and linguistic groups," said Mauney. 
"He did not want to see that exported."

But other Anglophone Africans would be welcome too. "We're 
starting with Nigeria and Nigerians. But what about all the 
Kenyans and Ghanaians and Liberians?" Mauney pointed out. "Where 
we wound up was, let's begin with the Nigerian community because 
it's large and this is where the initiative came from, but 
gradually we're hoping that the chaplain will be able to assist 
the bishops with Africans in general." Whether the chaplaincy 
would encourage church plants with a distinctive African worship 
style or incorporation into existing congregations would depend 
on the situation in each diocese.

Working through the Episcopal Church

Akinola "has been very clear that he wants to see this as a 
partnership with the Episcopal Church, rather than an overseas 
branch of the Church of Nigeria," Mauney said, adding that 
Akinola has little sympathy for the tactics of the Anglican 
Mission in America. In an July 2001 interview conducted by Canon 
Emmanuel Adekola of Church of Nigeria News, the archbishop 
explained that his initial reaction to the AMiA idea was 
positive, but that as time went on he did not see "any tangible 
effort being made" by AMiA leaders towards reconciliation with 
the Episcopal Church. "I will not support any schismatic or 
separatist agenda for any Church, be it America, Singapore or 
Uganda or anywhere for that matter," Akinola said.

A subsequent trip to four US dioceses convinced him that "if 
what I saw [in those dioceses] was what obtained in other parts, 
then I don't know what people are talking about, in terms of 
crisis in the American church." To the insinuation that his 
change of heart was motivated by "favors" from American 
Episcopalians, Akinola pointed out that he was "one of the few 
leaders who spoke out vehemently against General [Sani] Abacha 
at the risk of my own life...There is no price tag on my head. I 
am not leading a beggar Church." 

During his 2001 trip, Akinola also met with the Rev. Augustine 
Ogbunugwu and his dissident congregation in Houston for three 
days. The group grew out of a Sunday afternoon worship for 
African immigrants established by the Diocese of Texas at 
Houston's Church of the Epiphany in 1999. "But because of their 
hidden agenda, no sooner had I left Houston than they pulled out 
of ECUSA to join AMiA," he said. "To be an Anglican in part 
means you are in communion with the See of Canterbury. AMiA is 
not in communion with the See of Canterbury as a church. So, by 
breaking away from ECUSA, Augustine Ogbunugwu has broken 
communion with the Church of Nigeria." 

In January of this year, Benjamin Nwankiti, recently retired 
Archbishop of the Church of Nigeria's Province Two, attended the 
AMiA's winter conference in Pawleys Island, South Carolina and 
announced his intention to take up residence at the Houston 
congregation. Nwankiti apparently did not contact Texas bishops 
Claude Payne or Don Wimberly in advance of his decision. In 
February, Griswold wrote to Akinola at the latter's request 
describing the situation.

"The reason [Akinola] asked for this letter was that he had 
gotten word that this retired archbishop was coming to do this 
and was at the AMiA conference in January, and he wanted to 
bring it up with his council and say 'We don't approve of 
this,'" Mauney explained. "And so he told [Bishop Griswold] and 
said it would be helpful to have a letter. He says, 'If we're 
going to work with Nigerians in this country, it has to be 
through the Episcopal Church.'"

------

--The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of Episcopal News 
Service.