Barriers Break down During Griswold Visit to Church in Nigeria
Episcopal News Service. February 1, 2002 [2002-030]
Nan Cobbey, Editor of Episcopal Life
(Episcopal Life) Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold's visit to Nigeria January 14-24 and his meditations for three score of that church's 78 bishops has changed the hearts of men previously wary of the leader of such a "liberal" church.
"There had been a huge dividing wall... misconceptions about this man," said Archbishop Peter Akinola, the primate who issued the unusual and somewhat risky invitation to the leader many across the Anglican Communion view with suspicion because of his church's stance on homosexuality and women's ordination.
"The breaking down of the barrier... that is what has happened," said Akinola at the conclusion of the 10-day visit during which Griswold, his wife, Phoebe, and four staff members visited all three provinces of the fastest growing church in the Anglican Communion. "Their impression of him before has now been removed. They now see him as a brother."
That change of heart was part of Akinola's motivation in inviting the Griswolds to Nigeria, in planning their itinerary to rural villages, to the largest cities, to the places where Christianity first arrived in Nigeria with the Church Missionary Society (CMS). Akinola had other motives as well. In a country where 15 states have adopted Islam's Shari'a law and Christians can face severe persecution, he wanted "to let Nigerians know that Nigerian Anglicans are not alone. They have brethren all over the world." He also wanted to give his prayer partner from the 1998 Lambeth Conference of the world's Episcopal/Anglican bishops-Akinola and Griswold were in the same prayer group-an experience of a nation very different from his own. He hoped that this visit, and those of other church leaders to follow, would make Nigeria more known throughout the Anglican Communion and help Nigeria's 18 million members experience themselves as part of a worldwide communion.
Meeting the Christ in each other
Griswold seemed to share that wish as he traveled through the hot, dusty country, choked in January by the sand-laden winds of the Harmattan that sweep down from the Sahara to the north.
"We are all brothers by virtue of our baptism and by being members of the Anglican Communion," he told the 200 seminarians at St. Paul's University College in Awka. "It's a profound privilege to be here among you." To 400 enthusiastic worshippers gathered for a rally in Yaba, he said, "Know what an honor it is for me to be here... I have come to meet Christ in you. Every one of you is Christ to me... I expect Christ to challenge me through you, to encourage me through you. I hope I can encourage you."
The Griswolds and their entourage-the Rev. Canon Patrick Mauney, head of the office of Anglican and Global Relations, the Rev. Canon Benjamin Musoke-Lubega, the newly hired Africa Partnership officer, the Rev. Canon Gordon Okunsanya, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Flint, Michigan, a Nigerian who acted as consultant facilitating the trip, and Nan Cobbey, reporter from Episcopal Life newspaper-were indeed challenged and enlightened as they flew from one province to another on a 38-seat jet made available to the church with its crew by Royal Dutch Shell. And as they drove the highways from town to town in vans and Jeeps provided by each diocese.
A church a year
Again and again, they saw what seemed to be impossible building projects going up in record time. Akinola sets deadlines: "One church in one year" is his building motto. Congregations make it happen, often with all materials donated and all or most of the labor provided by parishioners.
On the outskirts of Abuja in what is developing into an upscale neighborhood of embassies and wealthy residences, the travelers were taken to what will be St. Matthew's Anglican Church. Under a billowing canopy of red, yellow and black plastic strips to protect them from the sun, they sat on the newly poured foundation amongst the support pillars and heard the dreams of the congregation.
The church will be finished before the year is out. They expect to attract a congregation of 1,000 eventually. The design, an architectural delight with seven sides, and the vista, expansive in all directions from a hillside perch, promise to make the church just what the primate promised: "the most beautiful masterpiece in Abuja."
In awe, the Griswolds and their traveling companions learned that the land and the license to build had just been granted in November and the 20 families of the congregation had donated everything that appeared on the site.
"As I listened to you, I though of the loaves and the fishes," said Griswold after hearing from the architect and the leaders of the congregation, their pride showing in every word and gesture. "I think this says that we have the capacity within ourselves... certainly your primate always sees possibilities. In the United States, we forget sometimes that the greatest resource we have is ourselves. This parish is an example to us."
The Gospel beat
There were other examples and other lessons. The new cathedral in Abuja was one. The huge structure designed by the diocesan architect seats 3,000 and provides amazing acoustics. It was built in 10 months with everything donated. The revival meeting going on in a lean-to behind the cathedral in Ughelli diocese was another example. Phoebe Griswold was led to that revival after a morning service of worship and welcome.
At least 200 people had jammed into the tightly placed pews. They were sheltered from the sun by a sloping roof of tin held up by wooden posts. As Griswold and her companions arrived with Blessing Muoghereh, the wife of the local bishop, all were on their feet singing, swaying, shouting praises and "Alleluias." They slowed down only a moment to greet the newcomers and be introduced and then started singing to their guests.
These were not church members. For the most part they were market women that members of the local Mothers Union have been witnessing to and evangelizing. They came to the revival-conducted all that week from 8 to 4 every day-to sing and hear the word from a special ministry within the church, Anglican Adam's Preaching Society. The microphone-flourishing preacher seemed a lively emcee with a talk show host's exuberance and swagger. He had Griswold and her entourage dancing to the insistent beat of the gospel songs by the time they were ready to leave.
The spirit of friendship
It was in Onitsha, where in 1857 the Rev. Samuel Ajayi Crowther had led the CMS Niger mission and formed the first native pastorate, that the Griswolds shared Sunday morning worship. With 800 or so others, they sang and prayed and watched in warm delight a three-hour, 10-minute service that included two drummed and danced offertories as well as the rededication of the Knights and Lady Knights of the Order of St. Christopher.
The next morning they were off to the Ibru Center in Agbarha-Otor, the modern, immaculately maintained complex donated for church use by wealthy businessman and newspaper publisher Alex Ibru, for the retreat Frank Griswold would lead for the bishops. His series of four meditations focused on "The Bishop as Witness and Person of Prayer: The Spirituality of Episcopal Ministry in the Anglican Tradition." Griswold scheduled time for silent reflection, for small group discussion and for plenary sessions at which he would answer questions--and there were plenty. And as the final meditation approached the touchy questions arose... and were answered. Griswold shared his personal experience of ministry in the congregations he led before becoming bishop, explaining what he had learned and his own changes of heart about the issues of homosexuality and women's ordination.
As the retreat drew to a close and the bishops posed for their final formal picture before heading back to their dioceses, the spirit of camaraderie and friendship was evident even to those who had not been present. Griswold's traveling companions had been escorted to other venues during the retreat.
The desire for God
"The meditations he gave were really perfect, enriching, down to earth, spiritual," said Bishop Peter Adebiyi, secretary of the House of Bishops in the church of Nigeria. "Lots of people have had a second opinion about him."
Archbishop Akinola had known it would be so. "If he had not come here, there is no way on earth any persuasion on my part would have had the kind of impact that his visit has made. From his gentle approach, the unfolding of himself into the hands of the bishops, using himself as point of illustration, giving his personal experience... that makes all the difference. .. they are able to se him as a Christian... as a pastor. And that, for me, is amazing."
Akinola was grateful for the instruction the bishops received, instruction he called "extremely rich, deep, moving. Their desire is God," he said, "and they never attain this kind of standard. We are working on it."