Church Plans Missionary Emergency Fund

The Primate, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), the Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, on Saturday, said the Church would set up a Missionary Emergency Fund to assist victims of emergencies.

Okoh made the plan known at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Diobu, Port Harcourt, during an interactive meeting with members of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) Ecclesiastical Province of Niger Delta.

He said the fund would help the Church to assist victims of emergencies, such as religious crises. Okoh also told participants that the Metropolitan Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) would soon review its mission statement and introduce other reforms that would strengthen the Church.

He said there was a need for members to make their input by contributing during the meeting or through memoranda before June 20.

Okoh said that after the input had been edited, the document would be passed to a standing committee for final work.

He also announced a plan for a career review of the clergy in the Anglican Church, pointing out that after undergoing Bible colleges, there was a need for ministers to acquire university degrees.

He explained that such training would position the ministers to tackle such moral and spiritual problems now threatening the unity and growth of the Church.

Okoh said issues, such as homosexuality, emanating from the western world, posed enormous challenges which required sound intellectual capacity to be handled.

He appealed to the National Assembly to fast track the passage of an anti-homosexual bill to check the activities of western homosexual agents.

Prof. Louis Nyananyo, the Chairman of the Planning Committee, in an address of welcome, thanked the primate for the visit.

He urged him to look into spiritual and moral problems affecting the expansion of local churches.