Information about Peter Akinola

The Most Rev'd Peter Akinola

Senior posting
See	Abuja
Title	Archbishop of Province III, Primate of all Nigeria
Period in office	2000 — present
Consecration	27 February 2003
Religious career
Priestly ordination	1979
Previous bishoprics	Bishop of Abuja
Previous post	Bishop
Personal
Date of birth	January 27 1944 (1944--) (age 63) religion= Church of Nigeria
Place of birth	Ogun, Nigeria

Peter Jasper Akinola DD (born January 27 1944^[1]) is the current Anglican Primate of the Church of Nigeria. He is also Bishop of Abuja (Nigeria's capital) and Archbishop of Province III, which covers the northern and central parts of the country.

In the Anglican Church, he is chairman of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa, and Chairman of the South-South Encounter of the Anglican Communion.

A "low church" Evangelical, Bishop Akinola emphasizes the Bible and the teachings of the Apostles (Apostolic Tradition). As one of the leaders of The Global South, Akinola has taken a firm stand against theological developments which he contends are incompatible with the historic teaching of Christianity, notably setting himself against any revisionist or progressive interpretations of the Bible, and in particular opposing same sex blessings in the Church, the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals or, indeed, any homosexual practice. For example, he has stated: "To opine that, unknown to humans, God had hitherto created some people to be homosexuals and lesbians (i.e., sexual orientations) is tantamount to creating God in our own image and introducing a cancerous element into the fabric of the African understanding of marriage and family."^[2] He is a leader of some conservatives throughout the Anglican Communion including the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, but is seen by others as a divisive force.[1]. He has also lost support among non-Anglican Christians in Nigeria, though not necessarily because of his conservative theology.[2].

Biography

Peter Akinola was born in 1944 to a Yoruba family in Abeokuta in southwestern Nigeria . His father died when he was four years old and due to financial pressures Akinola had to leave school early.^[3] He learned carpentry and at twenty he had a successful furniture business and had finished high school by distance education.^[4] He studied at a Nigerian Anglican seminary and was ordained to the priesthood in the Anglican Church of Nigeria. Soon after ordination, he pursued further study at the Virginia Theological Seminary.^[5]

Returning to Nigeria at the beginning of the 1980s, Akinola was assigned to create an Anglican presence in the new capital Abuja which was about to be built. He holds it one of his greatest successes to have created out of nothing a vibrant Anglican community there.^[6] In 1989 he was ordained bishop of Abuja and 1997 archbishop of Province III of the Church of Nigeria, consisting of the northern dioceses of Nigeria. On February 22 2000 he was elected primate of the Church of Nigeria, the second biggest church in the Anglican Communion, then numbering 18 million members.

Akinola was given the National Award of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) in December 2003.^[7]

In 2006 Peter Akinola was named as person by TIME magazine on the list of the world's 100 most influential people in the category Leaders and Revolutionaries.^[8] However, in 2007 TIME magazine suggested ^[9] that he "has some explaining to do" in relation to his support for legislation ^[10] criminalising "gay... organizations" and "Publicity, procession and public show of same-sex amorous relationship through the electronic or print media physically, directly, indirectly or otherwise".

In 2007, the Nigerian newspaper ThisDay gave him together with 17 others a Lifetime Achievement Award, stating in its citation: "Called a bigot by some in the Anglican Church, his attitudes nonetheless represent a deep-rooted conservative tradition in African Christianity that is flourishing and growing." ^[11] But he has been criticised by other sections of the international press, including the right-leaning Daily Telegraph which in an editorial on 23 March 2007 characterised him as one of the "extremists" who had "hijacked" conservative Anglicanism, and as "a deeply divisive figure" who has "defended new Nigerian legislation that makes "cancerous" (his word) same-sex activity punishable by up to five years' imprisonment." [3]

Akinola was at one time President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, an ecumenical body bringing together 52 million Protestant, Catholic, and African independent Christians.^[12] During his Presidency, the National Ecumenical Centre in Abuja was completed, which had been a building ruin for 16 years.^[13] Akinola was voted out of his position as National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria in June 2007, and replaced by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Nigeria, who polled 72 votes to Akinola's 33 votes.[4] This followed criticism of Akionla's allegedly high handed leadership style and of his alleged failure to confont Nigerian President Obasanjo as other Christian leaders had [5]. Subsequently, Akinola suffered the unprecedented humiliation of having his candidacy as Vice President, which should have been a formality as a result of his previous Presidency, rejected by the General Assembly of the Christian Association of Nigeria.[6]

Peter Akinola is married and a father of six.^[14]

Church Politics

Vision of the Church of Nigeria

One of his first actions as primate was to get together 400 bishops, priests, lay members, and members of the Mother's Union to elaborate a vision for the Church of Nigeria under chairman Ernest Shonekan, a former president of Nigeria. ^[15] The vision elaborated was:

"The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) shall be; bible-based, spiritually dynamic, united, disciplined, self supporting, committed to pragmatic evangelism, social welfare and a Church that epitomizes the genuine love of Christ." ^[16]

Part of the program of actions were, e.g.

• on central level
• translating the books of liturgy in further languages
• establishing a group of 3000 leading lay personalities who will take care of fundraising and relieve the bishops of this duty
• establish a legal support team to enforce the constitutional right of freedom of religion and worship
• establish colleges for theology and universities
• provide internet access for the dioceses
• for each diocese
• training fulltime itinerant evangelists
• on the job training for priests and their wives
• working out a social welfare program for less privileged people
• establish a hospital with at least 30 beds
• establish secondary schools
• on community level
• literacy courses for adults
• set up cottage industries for the unemployed

Relations with the Anglican Communion

In August 2003 he stated that if the celibate homosexual Jeffrey John was consecrated as Bishop of Reading or the non-celibate homosexual Gene Robinson consecrated as Bishop of New Hampshire, the Church of Nigeria would leave the Anglican Communion. A number of dioceses throughout the world, including the Diocese of Sydney, made similar statements. Under pressure from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. John withdrew from appointment as bishop and was subsequently appointed as Dean of St Albans. Gene Robinson's consecration went forward, precipitating a crisis in the Anglican Communion. At the end of 2003 Akinola commissioned together with Drexel Gomez, primate of the Church in the Province of the West Indies and Gregory Venables, Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone Claiming our Anglican Identity: The Case Against the Episcopal Church, USA, a paper for the Primates of the Anglican Communion detailing the implications of the consecration of Gene Robinson for the Anglican Communion, in the view of conservative Primates. ^[17]

His first reaction on the Windsor Report 2004 was outspoken and critical,^[18] but the statement from the Primates gathered at the first African Anglican Bishop's Conference, headed by Akinola, is more moderate and expresses commitment to the future of the Anglican Communion. ^[19] However, whilst strenuously supporting those parts of the Windsor Report which address the gay issue, he has not followed with those parts that deplore overseas interventions in the U.S. Church and has, on the contrary, set up a missionary church, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, in order to formalise U.S. Anglican ties with the Nigerian church.

In September 2005, Bishop Akinola spoke out against the Church in Brazil deposition of an Evangelical bishop and excommunication of over 30 priests [7].

In September 2005, the Church of Nigeria redefined in its constitution its relationship to the Anglican Communion as "Communion with all Anglican Churches, Dioceses and Provinces that hold and maintain the Historic Faith, Doctrine, Sacrament and Discipline of the one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.". ^[20] In a later press release, Akinola clarified "We want to state that our intention in amending the 2002 Constitution of the Church of Nigeria was to make clear that we are committed to the historic faith once delivered to the Saints, practice and the traditional formularies of the Church. ... We treasure our place within the worldwide family of the Anglican Communion but we are distressed by the unilateral actions of those provinces that are clearly determined to redefine what our common faith was once. We have chosen not to be yoked to them as we prefer to exercise our freedom to remain faithful. We continue to pray, however, that there will be a genuine demonstration of repentance."^[21]

On November 12 2005 Akinola signed a Covenant of Concordat with the Presiding Bishops of the Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Province of America.

Akinola refused to take Holy Communion in company with the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, both at the Primates Meeting at Dromantine in 2005 and at the Primates Meeting at Dar-es-Salaam in 2007 and, on the latter occasion, he issued a press release in order to publicise and explain his refusal and that of others associated with him.^[22]

Akinola's name as chairman of the Global South Primates heads the list of signatories to a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury on November 15, 2005. ^[23]. In this letter Europe is described as "a spiritual desert" and the actions of the Church of England in supporting the new civil partnerships laws are said to give "the appearance of evil".

Three of the bishops whose names appeared on the document at the Global South website (President Bishop Clive Handford of Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Primate of the West Indies Archbishop Drexel Gomez, and the Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone Bishop Gregory Venables) denied signing or approving the letter, and criticised it as "an act of impatience", "scandalous", and "megaphone diplomacy"^[24].

Akinola was among the Global South leaders who opposed the consecration of Gene Robinson, the first openly homosexual bishop in the Anglican Communion. This group successfully pressed for the voluntary withdrawal of ECUSA's representatives from the Anglican Consultative Council's meeting in Nottingham in 2005, although representatives did attend in order to make a presentation supporting full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the life of the Church, for which a vote of thanks was passed.

In August 2005 he denounced a statement of the Church of England's House of Bishops on civil partnerships and called for the disciplining of the Church of England and ECUSA on the grounds that the Church has not changed its position on same-sex partnerships. Since the Anglican Communion has historically been defined as those Churches in communion with the See of Canterbury, whose Archbishop is head of the Church of England and thus primus inter pares in the Anglican Communion, this led to speculation that Akinola was positioning himself as a possible international leader of a more conservative church than the present Anglican Communion, which would no longer recognise the authority or primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury. However, he attended the subsequent Primates Meeting in Tanzania in 2007, although he absented himself from all the celebrations of Holy Communion during that meeting.

In May 2007 he flew to the USA to install Martyn Minns, a priest who had left the Episcopal Church of the USA, as a bishop of the Church of Nigeria. Akinola reportedly ignored requests not to do this from both the Presiding Bishop and the Archbishop of Canterbury. However, the timing of the requests and their intent, relative to Akinola's departure from Nigeria is a subject of contention^[25][26]. The newly installed bishop indicated at a press conference that the intention was to replace the Episcopal Church of the USA (as an organ of the Anglican Communion) with a structure formed under auspices of the Church of Nigeria^[27].

Homosexuality laws in Nigeria

In September 2006, the Standing Committee of the Church of Nigeria, headed by Akinola, issued a Message to the Nation, taking up ten political controversies in Nigeria, among them a bill regarding same-sex relationships: "The Church commends the law-makers for their prompt reaction to outlaw same-sex relationships in Nigeria and calls for the bill to be passed since the idea expressed in the bill is the moral position of Nigerians regarding human sexuality." ^[28] The bill in question, as well as criminalising same-sex marriage, also proposed to criminalise "Registration of Gay Clubs, Societies and organizations" and "Publicity, procession and public show of same-sex amorous relationship through the electronic or print media physically, directly, indirectly or otherwise", on penalty of up to 5 years imprisonment. The proposed legislation was formally challenged by the United States State Department as a breach of Nigeria's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Some western supporters justify the legislation on the basis that it does not support the stoning to death of homosexuals under the Sharia code.

Muhammad Cartoon Controversy

In February 2006, after Muslims rioting over the cartoon controversy targeted Christians and their property, resulting in a reported 43 deaths, 30 burned churches [8] and 250 destroyed shops and houses [9], Akinola issued a statement in his capacity as President of the Christian Association of Nigeria that some interpreted as a veiled threat of violence against Muslims: "May we at this stage remind our Muslim brothers that they do not have the monopoly of violence in this nation." This was criticised by Bishop Cyril Okorocha of the Owerri diocese in Nigeria as "inflammatory" and "not the view of the whole Church". His critics claim that his statement caused a riot in Onitsha. According to news source Al Jezeera, Christian mobs in Onitsha retaliated against Muslims, killing 80 persons,[10], burned a Muslim district with 100 homes[11], defaced mosques[12] and burned the corpses of those they had killed in the streets[13]. Hundreds of Muslims were forced to flee the city [14].

Defending Akinola's statement was American evangelical leader Rick Warren. Writing in Time magazine in April, 2006, he said, "[Akinola] has been criticized for recent remarks of frustration that some felt exacerbated Muslim-Christian clashes in his country. But 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.'"[15]

References