- HISTORY OF THE PROVINCE OF NIGERIA
To God be the glory for the great things He has done in shepherding the Church of Nigeria over these first 25 eventful years of
her history as an autonomous Province in the Anglican Communion worldwide.
For a denomination that has seen and celebrated over sixteen decades of the replanting of Christianity, to make much of 25
years for any reason, might appear like and absurdity, and a trivialising of an incontestably glorious history. This possibility
compels a brief review of the concerns that fathered, and subsequently midwifed the birth of the Church of the Province of
Nigeria on the 24th ofF ebruary, 1979.
The story can be traced to 1906 when a conference of Bishops in Communion with the Anglican Church held in Lagos. The Rt.
Rev. E. H. Elwin, then Bishop of Sierra Leone, presided at that meeting. The Rt. Rev. Herbert Tugwell (Bishop of Western
Equatorial Africa) was there with four of his Assistant Bishops: Charles Phillips, Isaac Oluwole, James Johnson and N. Temple
Hamlyn. It was there that the need fora Province of West Africa was first highlighted.
A second conference for the same purpose came up again iri Lagos in 1935. But it was the conference of 30th October - 3rd
November 1944, also in Lagos, that made a clear headway on this matter, leading first to the inauguration of t):1e ,Church of the
Province of West Africa in Freetown, Sierra Leone. This was done on the
17th of April, 1951 by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Revd. Geoffrey Fisher. The Bishop of Lagos, The Rt. Revd. L.
G. Vining was ,elected first Archbishop of the new Province comprising these five Dioceses: Sierra Leone (1852), ACtra (1909),
Lagos (1919), On the Niger (1920) and the Gambia (935).
Between 1951 and 1917~ -the two Dioceses in Nigeria
(Lagos and On the Niger) gave birth to fourteen new ones: Niger Delta, Ibadan, and Ondo / Benin (all created in 1952); Northern
Nigeria (1954); Owerri (1959); Benin (1962); Ekiti (1966); Enugu (1970); Aba and Kwara (1972); Ilesha (1974); Egba / Egbado
and Ijebu (1976); Asaba (1977).
These sixteen Dioceses in Nigeria soon began to sense a growing need for contextualization of their Christian witness. The
opportunity eventually came at an Episcopal Synod at Ado-Ekiti on the 315t of January,
1974. There they resolved to set in motion the process of becoming an autonomous Province within the Anglican Communion.
This was closely followed by the Standing Committee of the Church of the Province of West Africa, which gave it their blessing
and referred it to the Synod,
which held on the Campus of the University of Lagos on the 14th of August 1975 and passed the resolution that the machinery
for the actualisation of this desire be ?et .in motion.
Known then as the Association of Anglican Dioceses in Nigeria (AADN), a Constitution Drafting Committee was
set up under the Chairmanship of Sir Louis Mbanefo (of
blessed memory). The Anglican Consultative CounCil (ACC) meeting in Trinidad (23rd March - 2nd April 1976) considered the
draft to be "in order" and adopted it as
"Resolution 34 on the proposed Province of Nigeria ".
Finally, at a meeting ,of the Standing Committee of the¬PrOVInce of West Africa held in Benin City on the 13th of
August 1977, the resolution was adopted for the Church of the Plrovince of Nigeria to be inaugurated in the month ofFebr~ary
1979.
With this happy turn of events, different committees sprang up and immediately swunK into action to ensure the success of the
event. Necessary amendments were made to the Draft Constitution and the amended Draft was passed by the Inauguration
Committee at Ibadan on the 31 5t of October, 1978.
These provisions in the preamble of that Draft Constitution are noteworthy:
, ,
1. The Province of Nigeria will continue in full communion with all Diocese, Provinces and regional Churches, which are in full
communion with the See of Canterbury.
2. The Province will hold and maintain the Faith,
Doctrine, Sacrament and Discipline of the Church of Christ as the Lord has commanded in His Holy Word and as the same are
receiyed,and taught by the Church of England in the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of the year 1662 and in the 39
articles of religion. '
3. With effect from the 24th of February, 1979 the Constitutions of the several Nigerian Dioceses shall be deemed to have effect
as the Constitution of the
said Dioceses in the Church of the Province of Nigeria and shall remain so until they are regularly amended.
With the election of The Rt. Revd. Timothy Omotayo Olufosoye DD, the Bishop of Ibadan to take the lead, he was presented at
the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina as the first Archbishop, Primate and Metropolitan of the
Province, which was designated as "The Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion". The Church of Nigeria was inaugurated on
S1. Mathias' Day, 24th February,1979.
There have been very significant milestones in the undaunted advance of this Church especially during the tenures of the man
who has been rightly called the Visionary Primate, The Most Revd. Joseph Abiodun Adetiloye, DD (1988 - 1999). He it was who
opened up the unreached areas to the gospel as part of our response
to the Decade of Evangelism proclaimed at Lambeth in 1988. A significant achievement of his tenure is the creation of ten (10)
Missionary Dioceses in 1990, a feat that was virtually repeated from 1996 onwards. It was during his tenure that the idea of
internal Provinces gained ground with the first creation of three internal Provinces covering the three broad geographical regions
of Nigeria. These earned the Church of Nigeria the reputation of being the fastest growing Province in the Anglican Communion.
In the saddle during this Silver Jubilee Anniversary is the indefatigable and pragmatic Primate, The Most Revd. Peter J. Akinola,
DD, CON (2000 - date) who has focused his attention on consolidation of previous efforts to keep the banner of the gospel flying
high over our land, and the Church of Nigeria standing tall and taking our rightful place in the Communion. To achieve this he
immediately made it a top priority to clear all outstanding dues to world bodies - a priority which he has
maintained.
A paradigm shift was launched in March 2000, when The Most Revd. Peter J. Akinola DD, CON, was presented as the third
Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion. During the Provincial Standing Committee that followed, a visioning
process involving the three (3) houses of the Provincial Standing Committee deliberated for days and fashioned what is now the
Vision Statement of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion:
"The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) shall be Bible-based, Spiritually dynamic, united, Disciplined. Self supporting,
Committed to pragmatic evangelism, Social we(fare and a Church that epitomises the genuine love of Christ "
This vision statement has opened up fresh vistas of ministry which hitherto had been non-existent - all in a bid to become more
relevant to the needs of our members and nation. Some more restructuring has taken place with the creation of Ecclesiastical
Provinces, thereby bringing the total number to ten (10), with Archbishops over them. These Archbishops constitute the
Primate's Council
which meets from time to time. The national secretariat now has well-staffed departments charged with specific responsibilities
for the actualisation of these vision goals.
One of the greatest challenges before the church today is to embark on aggressive evangelisr that will build our Church into a
stro and future generations. At the momel of ogr youth and some other membe: fulfilment in new generation churche are more
sensitive to their yearnil Indeed our members are believed percentage of.the membership ofthest
But there are yet many more who aJ there. This is why our recently launc (one Anglican winning a convert fOJ next three years,
thereby doubling
must be taken seriously by all. We ; Great Commission and the statement
"in the same way your Father in he. that any of these little ones should I 18:14).
The Church of Nigeria is now actively UK and the USA through the ministr in those parts. Our members who vis have settled
there are the major foct while looking out for all others w respond to the gospel. We must pray raise more labourers for His
work. ~ already in the seminaries undergoir institutions and we look forward tt
faithful workers in the Lord's vineYaJ is being given to our theological instit
Church of Nigeria Endowment Fund making the Church self-reliant financi work of mission.
The Church of Nigeria has over t established as the champion of missi, maintained its reputation as the fastest in the Anglican
Communion. That rep
with it important and challenging n only to model biblical ethics but tt compromise or departure from the po
the Scripture. .
The position we took at the Lambet 1988 and 1998 bear testimony to this most spectacular expression of our s1 vehement
opposition to the attempt
position of the Bible on matters ofhun evident in the eruptions that have thre Communion as a whole. It has beco privilege to call
the Church-back to the the door of hope to all who truly repent.
The Church of Nigeria has joined ir against the dreaded HIV / AIDS pande ravaging lives. A national office has
several workshops have been held. articulation of a policy statement by believe in holding out hope for those affected and
infected.
It must be divine providence that made the Church of Nigeria to support discussions at a meeting in Pretoria in August 200 I, on
the need for a forum for African Anglicans to grapple with issues related to the African situation. This resulted in the setting up of
a design committee which has been planning the first ever All African Anglican Bishops Conference to be hosted in Lagos,
Nigeria later this year.
We have matched the challenges of the times with the setting up of the Crowther Communications Network, which now makes
us the proud owners of the Crowther Radio and Crowther Net (an Internet facility with a private VSAT).
The Church was founded through the missionary efforts of the CMS (Church Mission Society) and is being expanded in like
manner. The mission ann is the Church of Nigeria Missionary Society (CNMS), which holds out the gospel flag to different parts
of the country. Indeed, as is clear from this compilation, every Diocese is clearly evangelistic. In some dioceses, this is done
through the activities of such groups as the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion (EFAC), Anglican Youth
Fellowship (AYF) and other groups.
JOS DIOCESE
Date of Inauguration: 10th of January, 1980
Bishops
The Rt. Revd. S.C. N. Ebo. (1980-1984)
The Rt. Revd. T. E.!. Adesola, (1985- 1991)
The Most Revd. Dr. B. A. Kwashi. (1992- date)
Cathedral: Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Jos
GROWTH AND EXPANSION
The Diocese, as at 1986 had thirty-two (32) Clergy, in 1992 . seventeen (17), in 1995 - seventy-nine (79), in 1999 it increased to
ninety-eight (98), by 2000 they were sixty-four (64) and finally in 2003. eighty Clergymen.
Also in 2003, there were thirteen (13) Archdeaconries, about one hundred and ninety Churches, twenty (20) Primary and five (5)
Secondary schools. We also have one Christian Institute for training of Clergy and Church workers; Gospel Health and
Development Services.
In 1992, the attention of the Diocese was firmly turned towards the 'Top Priority" of mission. To this end, a three-pronged vision
was set before the Diocese: the provision of schools, the establishment of a seminary, and the creation of a health care
programme. These have all taken off and are progressing.
Evangelism and Mission are the foundation of the Church; to assist with the implementation of this, various in-service retreats
and courses for Clergy and Church workers are held yearly under the auspices of the Christian Institute.
In recent months, Churches in various parts of the Diocese suffered seriously because of riots and subsequent destruction.
Always remember us in your prayers.
The words of Matt. 6:33 have been held before the Diocese each year. They continue to be the focus of our vision. While not
neglecting the adults, our attention is given to the work among the children and Youth. Teaching all groups and follow up of new
converts is also being done zealously. Prayer has become an added emphasis for us.
The big picture of the vision of the Church of Nigeria has as its focus the fulfilment of certain programmes at Diocesan,
archdeaconry, parish and individual levels. We, in the Diocese of Jos, desire that this big vision will be fulfilled with us, through
us and in us as we make our humble contributions in the Province of Jos and the Church of Nigeria.
ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF JOS
