The strangling hold on churches

The gradual and intensifying subtle persecution of Christians and Churches is troubling. This is seen in the employment, appointments, recruitment and deployment exercise of the Security and Law Enforcement Agencies.

The spate of destruction of church buildings in some parts of this country by some government agencies is disturbing. We stand with all our churches that are going through the pain of confiscation or destruction of the Church property in some parts of this country.

In some parts of the North, Christians are not allotted land for the building of churches. However, Churches are encouraged to follow due process in seeking approval in the building churches and institutions, so as to avoid the demolition of our structures.

The Anglican Church has always made the mistake of not securing our Church lands. Sometimes, our troubles come from within us because we have had situations where some of our members and leaders connive with outsiders to sell portions of our Church lands or even sue the Church to get portions of our Church lands. We encourage Dioceses to secure all church lands and document them.

(Culled from the Address of Primate Henry Ndukuba to the Church of Nigeria’s Standing Committee 2021 at Onitsha, by the Ven. Dr Princewill Ireoba)