jQuery Slider

You are here

Nigerian Anglican Communique Could Become Historically Significant

Nigerian Anglican Communique Could Become Historically Significant

By Julian Mann
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org
Sept. 29, 2015

The communique (http://www.virtueonline.org/nigeria-anglican-province-issues-communique-no-change-same-sex-marriage) from the Anglican Church of Nigeria is already highly significant spiritually and morally.

Its call to the Nigerian Federal Government to resist pressure from Western governments to embrace political correctness carries enormous spiritual and moral force because it is quite clear that Western leaders have that agenda for developing African nations. Witness US President Obama's performance http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/25/politics/obama-kenya-kenyatta/ in Kenya.

But if the biblical truth this communique speaks succeeds in capturing the soul of Nigeria, it could become very significant historically as well.

Nigerian Anglican leaders have left no room for doubt that they seek the transformation of Nigerian society by the true biblical gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their call to 'all Christians to exercise simple faith and obedience to God for victory by living lives characterized by honesty, truth and integrity' and 'to the Church to faithfulness in her message to uphold the holiness and righteousness of the living God' is courageous for two reasons.

First, Nigerian Anglican leaders are facing up to the corruption that is endemic in their nation, hindering its moral, social, political and economic progress. They are thus speaking God's truth to power.

Secondly, they are holding themselves and their 20 million or so fellow Nigerian Anglican Christians up for public scrutiny of any hint of corrupt practices. They are thus bracing themselves to practice what they preach and to uphold a spiritual culture of repentance where there is financial malpractice.

It is impossible without the gift of prophetic foresight to predict whether this righteous program will succeed in transforming Nigerian society. But corrupt societies have been transformed by the biblical gospel before, including Britain as a result of the 18th Century evangelical revival. For example, the abolition of the slave trade through the efforts of the evangelical William Wilberforce would have been historically impossible without that revival, not to mention other significant social reforms in the 19th Century.

The communique, which condemns ‘revisionist theologies’ and calls for renewed commitment to the historic Anglican formularies as they faithfully reflect biblical truth, is also highly significant in the run-up to the meeting of Primates in January, convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury to re-negotiate Provincial relationships within the Anglican Communion.

The trajectory of the West is now clearly against biblical Christianity, which is why there could be queues outside Nigerian embassies in Western capitals of orthodox Christians escaping persecution by seeking asylum.

That would certainly be a turn-up for the history books.

Julian Mann is vicar of the Parish Church of the Ascension, Oughtibridge, South Yorkshire, UK - www.oughtibridgechurch.org.uk

Subscribe
Get a bi-weekly summary of Anglican news from around the world.
comments powered by Disqus
Trinity School for Ministry
Go To Top