Chaplaincy to Expatriate Nigerian Anglicans Launched in US
Episcopal News Service. March 11, 2003 [2003-053]
Jan Nunley
(ENS) When the Rev. Gordon Okunsanya meets the bishops of the Episcopal Church during their spring retreat at the Kanuga Conference Center in March, 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 United Kingdom, 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 in Texas 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 16 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 11 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 (AMiA.) 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.'"