Church of Nigeria elects new Bishop of Gusau, receives application for more dioceses
(CONN/130305)
Following the translation of Bishop Simon Bala to the missionary Diocese of Kubwa, the Episcopal synod of the Church of Nigeria has announced the election of Rev. Canon John Garba as the new Bishop of Gusau Diocese.
Also the Standing Committee of the Church has received application for the creation of three additional dioceses.
The announcement was made by the Primate of the Anglican Church Archbishop Peter Akinola at the just concluded bi-annual meeting of the Church held in Kaduna.
Born in 1958, Rev. Garba until his election was a priest at St. Michael’s Cathedral Kaduna. He was ordained in 1991 and has served as minister in Kano, Kaduna and Sokoto States.
The Bishop elect told our correspondent “shortly after my ordination in 1991 I spent four months in Gusau. I consider my going there in 2005 as a Bishop as a very great challenge to me.”
Meanwhile two Anglican Bishops are billed to retire by September 2005. They are Bishops Jeremiah Fabuluje of the diocese of Kwara and Nathaniel Yisa of the diocese of Minna.
The mandatory retirement age for Bishops in the Anglican Church is 70 however the clergymen are at liberty to retire before the specified age.
Bishops Fabuluje and Yisa preached their valedictory sermons at the Kaduna meeting.
In his sermon topic entitled Obedience, the retiring Bishop of Kwara urged Christians to think more seriously of the salvation of souls than the raising of funds for building physical structures.
Speaking on the same topic, Bishop of Minna called on Christians to be more generous in their offerings to God as the Lord appreciates sacrificial offering given in obedience and humility.
According to him “to believe in Jesus Christ, belong to him and behave like him is the total sum of obedience. ’’
In a related development the bi-annual meeting of the Church also received application for the creation of three additional dioceses.
They are the Ijebu-Igbo to be carved out from the Diocese of Ijebu, Aguata from the Diocese of Awka and Missionary Diocese of Western Izon from the Diocese of Warri.
However, the ratification of the proposed dioceses (full-fledged) will depend on their ability to meet their financial obligation to the church including the endowment fund, Lambeth conference and an investment fund paid to the national office
