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[ACNS] Church of Nigeria says it will not commence the


From Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>
Date Fri, 18 Mar 2005 12:56:56 -0800

ACNS 3961 | NIGERIA | 18 MARCH 2005

Archbishop Akinola: A Pastoral Letter to the Church

>From Church of Nigeria News

The Church of Nigeria says it will not commence the ordination of women
but the issue may be revisited in the future.

This is contained in a Pastoral letter issued by the Primate of the
Church, Archbishop Peter Akinola, on behalf of the Standing Committee of
the Church, which ended its meeting in Kaduna last Saturday.

The Primate called on members of his church to approach the mission
agenda of the church, Vision 1-1-3, with the spirit of obedience for
fruitful results.

Under Vision 1-1-3, the Church of Nigeria hopes to double its present
size of 17 million by 2007. It believes in the planting of more churches
and places of worship as a strategy.

The Pastoral Letter of Archbishop Akinola follows:

Our beloved people of God,

The Standing Committee brings you greetings of love, peace and joy of
our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ from its meeting here in Kaduna. A
number of events, some pleasant and memorable, and some others
unpleasant, have occurred since we met last in Enugu. In all things, we
thank God for life and health, and we glorify His name. The Standing
Committee focuses on "TO OBEY IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE" (1 Samuel
15:22).

After many years of fruitful ministry, Samuel was growing old. He
therefore appointed his sons in his place as judges over Israel. His
sons proved to be unfaithful and disappointing leading Israel to request
for a king as was the case with the surrounding nations. Saul was thus
appointed and made king, but his performance turned out to be
disastrous. Saul failed to carry out to the letter, the Lord's command
to destroy Amalek. That failure of Saul attracted these words from
Samuel to Saul: ....."to Obey is better than sacrifice". With these
opening words, we come face to face with daily choice in our lives as
individuals, families, congregations, peoples and nations, whether to
obey God or our own selfish desires. Examples of these situations that
decide our choice of God or self, abound and a few examples will
suffice:

*Church of Nigeria has the mission with Vision 1-1-3. We need to
approach this with the spirit of obedience for fruitful results.
*Church of Nigeria has the mission fund tagged, "Endowment Fund". The
spirit of attaining its goal is obedience to the letter.
*The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) has a choice to either give
leadership to the Church in Africa or to carry on only with our own
domestic mission agenda. We, under God, chose the former resulting in
the first African Anglican Bishops' Conference (AABC) between October 25
and November 1, 2004 in Lagos, which was a huge success. This obedience
brought honour to God.

Bear in mind that obedience always has its sacrifices along the path,
which should not be underrated. AABC was successfully hosted but it cost
money of varying amounts from the Dioceses, with some Dioceses, bearing
somewhat heavy burden more than others. But together and with total
obedience to the will of God for the Church in Africa, the event was a
joy and glory.

On our main task of evangelism, the time has come when each Diocese
requires to rise up, mobilize and empower the laity for large-scale
mission. This in the spirit of obedience will call for substantial and
adequate provision for funding in Diocesan Budget.

We will continue to thank God for some of our brothers and sisters who
in obedience to God give generously for the work of evangelism. Worthy
of special mention is the magnanimity of Mr Alex Ibru, who has made
available to our Church a multi-million-naira retreat centre. We
encourage all to emulate this worthy example.

The Standing Committee for now has resolved that the Church of Nigeria
(Anglican Communion) shall not commence the ordination of women.
However, the issue may be re-visited in the future.

Our dear people of God, we entreat you to apply this principle of
obedience in all your endeavour as individuals, families, people,
congregation and State.

With prayerful wishes and warm regards.

Your Primate and friend,

The Most Revd Peter J. Akinola, DD, CON
Primate of All Nigeria

Anglican churchmen converge in Kaduna:

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/39/50/acns3954.cfm

Bishop elected, applications for more dioceses:

http://www.aco.org/acns/digest/index.cfm?years=2005&months=3&article=344
&pos=#344

Ten new bishops consecrated for Church of Nigeria:

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/39/50/acns3957.cfm

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