SOMETHING TO CHEER

KINGDOM PERSPECTIVE
With REMI AKANO

In this season of perfidy, when bare-faced falsehood and injustice are being paraded as high virtues worthy of celebration; when crude despotism is being touted as solid foundation upon which democracy and good governance can be built, it is yet another evidence of God’s goodness that some good news is coming from abroad. At a time when Nigeria’s presence in the international media consists in the main of video footages of ballot-snatching elites; of ballot papers printed with taxpayers money and abandoned in foreign lands; and of condescending congratulatory messages from world leaders left with the Hobson’s choice of either trying to work with Umaru Musa Yar’Ardua, the virtuous man with a poisoned chalice, or risk loss of access to crude oil, glory to God for a Peter Akinola.

KINGDOM Perspective joyfully joins other Nigerians in celebrating one of our own, Most Rev Dr Peter Jasper Akinola, Primate and Metropolitan, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) and President, Christian Association of Nigeria. For the second time in three years, he has been named in The TIME 100, a TIME magazine list of the 100 most influential persons in the world. These are people, in the words of TIME’s Managing Director, Mr. Richard Stengel who “by virtue of their character, their drives and their dreams change the world and make history”. He first made the list last year”.
Like year, he is listed among the Leaders and Revolutionaries; a category that includes such individuals as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, wife of former President Bill Clinton and a front-runner for the United States presidency, Condoleezza Rice current US Secretary of State, Queen Elizabeth 11 of England and; Pope Benedict XVI. Incidentally Osama Bin Laden also made this list.
In a three-paragraph piece by David Van Biema explaining Akinola’s the magazine wrote as follows:
”If the Anglican Communion, the 400-plus-year-old, 78 million-member fellowship of churches that the British empire seeded around the globe, falls apart, Peter Akinola, the Archbishop of Nigeria, will have been a catalyst, even if he does not end up prince of one of the pieces.
”Akinola, 63, has been a harsh critic of the Episcopal Church (U.S.A.), which elected an openly gay bishop in 2003. The communion‘s current rancorous disunion bears his imprint. When Anglicanism‘s 38 primates recently presented the Episcopalians with demands for a retreat on sexuality and direct communion involvement in Episcopal governance, the church leaders were echoing Akinola‘s impatience with earlier, more deliberate measures.
”Unless the trend reverses, Episcopalianism may be headed toward a break with the communion. Or perhaps a larger group of liberal provinces will calf off. Full schism would be achieved if Anglicanism‘s conservative southern provinces decided that even the Anglican Church‘s top official, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is too liberal and chose their own leader-perhaps Akinola. The Nigerian cleric has denied any leadership ambition, and the more extreme his postures, the slimmer his chances. But even if he never becomes the Canterbury of the global south, he will have sparked a shift in Christianity‘s world order.”
What makes Akinola’s award very significant and much more worthy of celebration is the enduring nature of the value for which the man of God is standing and for which even a largely cynical secular publication like TIME could not ignore him. It’s the war against gay ascendancy in the leadership cadre of the church. It is a war for the soul of the church and society that has been lost largely in many parts of the world, particularly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and even next door, South Africa.
For this columnist it is a war that must be fought and won by Nigeria for the benefit of the rest of Africa and the so-called conservative, evangelical section of the church. That was the import of a recent piece titled, “One Bill the National Assembly Must Pass!” Please permit me to quote key portions of that article for elucidation purposes.

“Some readers may know that on November 1, 2003, the international gay movement struck its deadliest blow yet with the installation of Gene Robinson, an openly gay cleric as the Episcopal Church of United States of America (ECUSA) Bishop of New Hampshire. It was a well-attended ceremony with at least 3,000 persons and 54 bishops in attendance. Gene had separated from Isabella, his wife with whom he had two daughters, in 1986 upon concluding that he was gay, and had been partnering with a certain Mark Andrew.

“Although KINGDOMPeople magazine reported at the time that ‘within the USA, protests against the consecration were massive…with some churches within New Hampshire severing relationship with ECUSA,’ easily the most powerful voice of dissent came from Most Rev Peter Jasper Akinola…In a statement issued on behalf of the 50million-strong Global South, a body of Anglican Churches in the Africa, Asia and Latin America immediately after the so-called consecration, Akinola…it and pointedly declared that the consecration had created a state of impaired communion within the worldwide Anglican family.

“Akinola… has not relented since then. At every level he has had the privilege of serving; he has been a loud, forceful voice against this vice. He has been leading a determined resistance against those who, in the garb of liberalism and relativism, have sought not only to rationalize homosexuality as an orientation or preference to which human rights apply, but also go the giant step further of installing themselves in position of influence and leadership in the church of Jesus Christ.

“In the Church of Nigeria for example, Akinola and his team have taken very creative steps to ensure that the Nigerian church’s freedom of choice in its relationship with other parts of the Anglican Communion is not impaired by any legal encumbrance.

“A statement after the Church’s General Synod in 2004 was unequivocal. The triennial Synod of the church, the statement announced, “amended the language of our constitution so that those who are bent on creating a new religion in which anything goes, and have thereby chosen to walk a different path, may do so without us…”

“Explaining the standpoint of the church, the statement continued, ‘the Church of Nigeria is evangelical and its adherence to the holy scripture is paramount and non-negotiable…In matters of faith and practice, the holy scripture provides sufficient warrant for what is considered right and what is judged to be wrong and the word of God cannot be compromised…If we say we are bound together by the same common faith and this faith says a man shall marry a woman and some people come out to say that a man can marry a man and a woman is free to marry a woman, it means we no longer share common faith’…”

That is the background to the honour TIME has done the Archbishop and for the second time too! And it is a mark of the consistency of the man and his marathoner attribute that 2005 citation by best selling author of Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren could as well have written yesterday.
In it, Rick Warren while acknowledging that Akinola “captured headlines last year for leading the worldwide revolt of evangelical Anglicans against the ordination of gay bishops in the U.S. by the Episcopal Church” said, “but to caricature his ministry with that one issue would severely underestimate his importance.”
“Akinola”, he continued, “personifies the epochal change in the Christian church, namely that the leadership, influence, growth and center of gravity in Christianity is shifting from the northern hemisphere to the southern. New African, Asian and Latin American church leaders like Akinola, 61 (then), are bright, biblical, courageous and willing to point out the inconsistencies, weaknesses and theological drift in Western churches.”
Emphasizing Akinola’s far reaching influence and international clout, Warren reminded his readers: “With nearly 18 million active Anglicans in Nigeria, Akinola’s flock dwarfs the mother Church of England’s membership. And since he is chairman of the 37 million-member Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa, when he speaks, far more than just Anglicans pay attention.”
Warren said of the man, Akinola “he has the strength of a lion, useful in confronting Third World fundamentalism and First World relativism.” He noted that he had been criticized “for recent remarks of frustration that some felt exacerbated Muslim-Christian clashes in his country.” But he rose to his defence, as it were: Christians are routinely attacked in parts of Nigeria, and his anger was no more characteristic than Nelson Mandela’s apartheid-era statement that “sooner or later this violence is going to spread to whites.”
In a conclusion that must be seen by all admirers of Akinola as vindication of his style and commitment and, as a challenge which he must be encouraged to accept and live up to, Warren declared: “I believe he, like Mandela, is a man of peace and his leadership is a model for Christians around the world.”
Which brings me to one urgent matter; will the National Assembly honour this man’s struggle by passing the Executive Anti-gay Marriages Bill before they wind down in June? Readers are requested to join in pressuring them to. Visit, call or mail, or text your senator or representative and tell him to vote for righteousness this once, at least!. God bless you as you do.