Archibishop Josiah Atkins Idowu Fearon, currently the first Nigerian and the first African to hold the esteemed position of Secretary-General of the 85 million-member Anglican Communion worldwide, seems to be known more in Islamic circles than by his Christian brethren. He started his episcopal ministry as Anglican Bishop of Sokoto before he was promoted to be Archbishop of Kaduna Province. For this reason, his knowledge of northern Nigeria, its history, culture, languages and institutions is breathtaking. Add on to this his scholarship of Islam, a feat that makes him the most educated Nigerian Christian prelate on Arabic and Islamic studies. An American religion journalist once described him as someone who “has a higher education than most bishops, both within Africa and throughout the Anglican Communion.”

Islamic scholars and clerics find his knowledge of Islam a bit of a mystery. Yet, it is this very mystery that has powerfully helped his role as a frontline bridge-builder and as one of Nigeria’s most vocal champions of peace. In a tribute titled, “Rise of the Muslim Bishop” published on the back page of Daily Trust on September 4, 2015 – the same day that Archbishop Fearon was installed as Secretary General at Lambeth Palace – Mallam Adamu Adamu noted that, “It was not for nothing that detractors called Archbishop Josiah Idowu Fearon of the Anglican Communion a Muslim Bishop: he is a bishop, no doubt; but obviously, he is not a Muslim, even though he knows the religion better than many Muslims.”

Once when Archbishop Fearon was invited to Transcorp Hilton to address a meeting of Northern politicians, intellectuals, traditional rulers and religious leaders, he chose to speak on a crucial problem facing the North: the dearth of unity and oneness among its people. To the amazement of his audience, this great scholar dug deep into the 112th chapter of the Holy Quran, which deals with the concepts of the unity and uniqueness of God, as the starting point of his robust intellectual exploration.
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That is the stuff of a man whose deep religious conviction in the rectitude of his own faith tradition could have emboldened him, a Christian prelate, to dare to teach Muslims the substance of their own religion. At the height of the Kaduna religious riots in 2000, instead of spitting fire, stoking fears and adding to growing tensions, like some religious leaders did, Archbishop Fearon took a rational response. Aside providing succour and support to both Muslims and Christians fleeing the crisis, Fearon, against all odds, established the Centre for the Study of Islam and Christianity in Kaduna. This singular action sent a shockwave through the spine of his church. He was accused of being an impostor who had come to infiltrate the body of Christ with the teachings of Prophet Muhammad. Fearon stood his ground. He knew what he wanted to achieve; and he did.

Over the years he had learned how to weather the storms that threaten to make him drink from the poisoned chalice of hate, bitterness and resentment. He has faced stiff oppositions in the course of exercising his episcopal ministry, but has offered love instead of hate, humility instead of arrogance, compassion instead of cold-heartedness and respect instead of contempt and indifference. Born on January 17, 1949 at Kerinye in Kogi State, Fearon had the desire to become a Nigerian soldier. He started out at the Nigerian Military School in Kaduna, but along the line, in 1964, God arrested him to become a minister in his Church. He studied at Immanuel College of Theology, Ibadan and was ordained a priest in 1971.

It was during his studies in Ibadan that he developed great passion for the study of Islam, with the inspiration of one of his teachers. This interest propelled him to further his studies in the area of Islam. He studied in different institutions in Nigeria, Britain, America and Jordan. The breadth of his education spans the areas of theology, Arabic and Islamic studies, education, politics and sociology. He was a research fellow in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, for many years, and has made immense contributions in the areas of peace building and interfaith dialogue across the African horizon.

In his 45 years of dedicated priestly service to the growth of the Anglican Church across the globe, Archbishop Fearon has proved his mettle in the various positions of responsibility he has held. For many years, he has been the Chairman of the Programme for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa, and member of the Advisory Council of Tony Blair Faith Foundation.
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In 2007 he began a five-year renewable term as a Six Preacher at Canterbury Cathedral, London. He previously taught at the Cathedral’s International Study Centre. Between 2003 and 2004 he served on the Lambeth Commission on Communion, which considered worldwide Anglican unity in response to divisive debates on homosexuality.He has been past President of Network for Interfaith Concerns of the Anglican Communion. He has delivered lectures at international conferences on religion, development, and peace; and sits on the board of many ecclesiastical and interfaith initiatives. He was at some point an adjunct professor at Wycliffe College, Canada.

Archbishop Fearon is an outstanding teacher of faith, and has lectured and published widely on Islamic and Christian theologies. In 2013, he was conferred with the second highest award in the Anglican Communion worldwide – the Cross of St. Augustine – by the Archbishop of Canterbury “in recognition of his courage and vision in relentlessly promoting dialogue and peaceful reconciliation between Christians and Muslims, two major religions in a country that has suffered untold religious violence and insecurity.”

His appointment as Secretary General of Lambeth Palace – one of the most important offices in the world of faith – came at a time when the Anglican Communion worldwide was in need of a man of faith, prayer, vision and courage who would “assist the Communion become even more faithful to, and engaged in, God’s mission of reconciliation.” Fearon was selected out of an initial field of 31 applicants, from varied disciplines and backgrounds, spread through all continents of the world.The Archbishop of Canterbury has described Fearon as “an eminent scholar with an international track record of reconciling people, especially of different faiths.”
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At his commissioning at Lambeth Palace on September 4, 2015, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari sent a congratulatory letter to Archbishop Fearon through a personal emissary.

After 45 unbroken years of dedicated priestly service in the Anglican Communion as a person of deep faith and prayer, a visionary ambassador of Christ, a bridge-builder, a healer, creative thinker, a consummate scholar and a public intellectual, Archbishop Fearon remains a phenomenon.

• Ojeifo is a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Abuja.