Christians in Northern Nigeria use the word ‘Crises’ in the same way that the word ‘Troubles’ was used in Northern Ireland of a terrorist attack or other act of sectarian violence.
‘Have you heard there was another Crisis yesterday in Kanu (or Kaduna or Jos)?’ means children were abducted, or a church was torched, a pastor was killed, or a bomb exploded in a market.
Decisively anti-Christian
The difference is that the Troubles in Northern Ireland were sectarian, in the name of a sect, but not truly religious – whereas the attacks on Christians and churches, for all the misleading spin in some of our Western media (the violence is mutual, the conflict is over land), are decisively anti-Christian and instigated by militant extremists in the name of Islam. The members of Boko Haram (and other groups) would not differentiate between Catholics or Protestants, Pentecostals or Independents!
The day we arrived in Jos Plateau State in July a 13-year old girl had walked into a market with a bomb strapped to her chest, and committed suicide, killing over 30 others and injuring more. No doubt she had been promised eternal bliss hereafter for her heroic act of sacrifice. The churches’ leaders were desperate, not only for the innocent lives traumatised or lost, including the young girl’s, but for the fact that she may well have been one of their own, kidnapped and then indoctrinated.
West’s media silence
A few days later a woman was found murdered beside the road. An incident of one sort or another continues almost daily, certainly weekly. The churches are grateful that the abduction of the Chibok girls received global media publicity, but want us to realise that the ‘Crises’ continue unabated, despite the relative media silence in the West. Chibok was notorious because of the number of young girls, over 200, who were kidnapped – and the news spread worldwide because they were from a boarding school and their comparatively affluent and influential parents were better able to make their cries heard. But children were being abducted prior to this atrocity, as they have been since. The church leaders’ plea was that we do not lessen our concern, our support, our prayers and intercessions on their behalf.
Humbling joy and courage
The stunning, and immensely humbling, revelation to Western Christians is that despite the violence (only one of the problems they face, along with the ravages of sickness, children orphaned by AIDS, the effects of endemic corruption and so on) the joy, the faith, and the courage of these Nigerian Christians is palpable, almost tangible, typified in the irrepressible joy of their leaders, Archbishop Ben Kwashi and his wife Gloria. They not only lead Anglican churches, but also have adopted over 50 children into their home and family, have started a primary school for them and others in the neighbourhood, developed a department of healthcare as well as a Christian Institute teaching Christian theology, mission and ministry. Four hours pass in their Sunday gatherings with even visitors from the West barely noticing the time. The Christians’ prayer is passionate, their listening and response earnest, but their joy and laughter is ready at any moment to bubble to the surface.
One of the heartening signs of blessing out of evil is the new co-operation between Anglican and other churches, including some of their projects for mediation and reconciliation. Perhaps most striking was the outward-looking empathy, raising a gift of money from the Anglican Churches of Plateau State to send to the Sudan.
