The Diocesan Bishop of the Diocese of Lagos (Anglican Communion), Rt. Rev. Humphrey Olumakaiye has urged Nigerians to turn to God and seek his (God) face so that they can combat the teeming problems facing the country.
Olumakaiye who gave this charge during a courtesy visit to the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev. Alfred Martins at the Catholic Mission, Lagos, further urged citizens to revert to the ancient path of obedience, dignity in labour, honesty, among other virtues from God.
“Nigerians need to go back to the ancient path of obedience, dignity in labour. honesty, fear of God, love and also being faithful to the things of God.
“By the time we walk in the path of righteousness, the beauty of holiness will be seen in our lives by everybody and the society will be better for everyone to live in”, he said.
He urged Nigerians not to lose faith but to continue to pray for the country and the leaders.
“We must not lose faith, but rather pray for our country and government. I believe that our leaders are focused, but they need to do more especially on securing lives of citizens.
“They also have to do more in alleviating the suffering of the common man”, he said.
Olumakaiye revealed that the visit to Archbishop Martins was to foster the relationship between the Catholic and Anglican church and to intimate and invite the latter to the centenary anniversary of the diocese of Lagos (Anglican Communion) that would come up next year.
While urging Christians to defend their faith, the bishop noted that the church as the conscience of the people and voice of the voiceless should propagate the teachings of Jesus Christ.
“This is the time Christians should come out and defend their faith that is being bastardised by all forms of teachings that we have in the country today because the gospel has been diluted.
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“The situation on ground now is that people have elbowed to the background the teachings of suffering in favour of prosperity which they preach nowadays,’’ he said.
On his part, Archbishop Martins noted that the country critically needs all the evangelization it can get at this time.
“The country needs a lot of witnessing at this point in time. with the difficulties that we have as a nation, with leadership and values being upturned.
“I believe that we really do have a lot to do in that direction, speaking truth to power as they say and being the conscience of the nation”, he said.
He thanked the Bishop and his entourage for their visit and promised that the Catholic Church in Lagos will collaborate with them on evangelism in the state.
“Thank you for the initiative to visit, we will keep up this collaboration and interaction; we have a responsibility of ensuring that we are the light on the world.
“I assure you that we are particularly ensuring that the teachings of the church and the teachings of Christ should be kept intact in spite of what is happening around us”, he said.
Martins revealed that as a bishop in Abeokuta, he had the opportunity of being part of the Nigerian Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission that addressed the divide in the Anglican/Catholic in the region.
“I have had relationships with Anglican Bishops and priests. In actual fact, my mother was born an Anglican.
“We had that in the family and so we were brought up. As I was growing up there was a divide in the relationship in Abeokuta then, but we kept saying that obviously things don’t have to be like that,
He revealed that alongside Prelate Nicholas Okoh, they began the Anglican-Roman to address issues between the Anglican and Catholic Church.
“Alongside Bishop Okoh, then, we began the work on the Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission. I thank God that it is still on-going, even as both of us who were there at the beginning have gone in other areas of ministry”, he added.
