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Faith and Citizenship
NIFCON 2007 Consultation held in Kaduna, Nigeria
Kaduna, in Northern Nigeria, was chosen for the 2007 NIFCON (Anglican Communion Network for Inter Faith Concerns) Consultation on Faith and Citizenship for two main reasons. The first is that Kaduna, as a community, has made considerable strides in bridge-building between Christians and Muslims after the disturbances which followed protests at the introduction of Sharia Law in the civil Province of Kaduna in February 2000. (Our visit coincided with the seventh anniversary of these incidents which claimed the lives of up to 20,000 people.) The second is that the Archbishop of Kaduna, the Most Revd Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, our host, is one of the Presidents of NIFCON.

The Consultation is part of current preparations for Lambeth 2008. We were the guests of The Church of Nigeria. The Primate, the Most Revd Dr Peter Akinola, was represented by the Venerable Sola Igbari who has responsibility at national level for Inter Faith, Ecumenical and Inter Anglican relations. Dr Akinola sent unanimous greetings from a specially convened General Synod held in Sokoto to those participating in the concluding Eucharist in St Michael’s Cathedral, Kaduna on February 7th. Participants came from various parts of Nigeria itself, Ghana, Liberia, Kenya, Sudan, Egypt, Zambia, Pakistan/USA, Germany, Ireland and England.

The rich tapestry of voices from across the continent of Africa gave depth and resonance to issues of faith and citizenship. Nigeria, for example, has more than one hundred and fifty Evangelical denominations over and above the Church of Nigeria (Anglican) and the Roman Catholic Church. The proportions of Muslims and Christians vary considerably in Africa. There are also the ever-present African traditional religions, the continuing impact of which is hard to assess, but ought not to be underestimated. The interplay across religious, tribal, ethnic and national identities made for robust exploration of the theme of the Consultation, honouring its primary African context, and setting it in a global milieu.

Sustained by a regular rhythm of prayer and worship, the Consultation studied five passages of Scripture from Luke-Acts: Luke 4.13-30, Luke 19.1-27, Acts 10.1-48, Acts 16.25-17.9, Acts 26.1-29 related to the theme. Luke-Acts provides a narrative expounding salvation history in three interconnected stages: the story of Israel, the life of Jesus, the early history of the Church. Bible Study proved particularly effective because one of the things which we learned about the Church of Nigeria is that there is a strong conviction among its members that they live in times which are immediately affected by the content of Holy Scripture. The stories of Muslim-Christian relations told by local participants were strengthened by this dynamic backdrop of the word of God in daily life.

Longer contributions explored in detail the theme of the Consultation. Dr Idowu-Fearon addressed issues of mission, evangelism and conversion concluding that in Kaduna, where Christian-Muslim numbers are roughly equal, the mission of the Church, understood as reaching out with the Gospel through human development for all citizens, involved the diocese in building good relations with Muslims. Dr Johnson Mbillah, Programme for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa (PROCMURA), made a plea for a fresh discovery of shared political responsibility and allegiance irrespective of religious identity such as had obtained at the time of independence across Africa. Two key concepts of international significance emerged from the discussion: the urgent need to deglobalize conflict and the recognition that negative solidarity destroys citizenship. Canon Guy Wilkinson, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Inter Faith Advisor, spoke of the ways in which society in Britain had changed through the arrival and presence of those of varied world faiths over forty years and of the Presence and Engagement initiative undertaken by the Church of England in renewing mission in multi-faith areas. Warning shots were fired over the bows of the glibly optimistic by Dr Barbara Burkert-Engel who suggested that in Germany Christian-Muslim dialogue was already moving outside the churches and stressed the need for churches urgently to find ways of expressing Christian identity through dialogue as part of their theological self-understanding.

The Consultation concluded that the Gospel provides a firm theological basis for teaching that all human beings are of equal value in God’s sight; that citizenship is part of a wider cluster of issues, aspirations and values many of which are and will remain costly; that evangelism, advocacy and peace-building are equally vital forms of Christian witness as is dialogue; that the every-day dialogue of life is just as important as joint theological exploration.

Nigeria emerged as a country rich in human resources. People were friendly and confident. To those whom we met, their faith in Jesus Christ meant a great deal in the patterning of their lives. As well as the vibrancy of the daily market in the heart of Kaduna, the sheer volume of people and the colourfulness of life, one could not forget the AIDS orphans who swarmed around visitors, the endemic poverty, the need for health care provision not least in relation to malaria, the abundance of oil for export but the dearth of fuel for local people and the sheer vastness of human misery.

The conclusion by the rector of St Mark’s Kaduna, the Revd Johnson Malo, is telling: ‘It’s been an eye-opener for me, because it’s widened my understanding of Christianity and its relation to other Faiths, particularly Islam. It has really helped me.’

All of this interchange was made possible by the hospitality of the Church of Nigeria, the ready participation of Muslims in our discussions and the conviction on the part of NIFCON that a place with difficulties is the right place to be in the name of God.

The Right Revd Dr Michael Jackson, bishop of Clogher, Church of Ireland, Chairperson of NIFCON Management Committee.

13 February 2007