Christians Visit Nigeria to Explore Faith and Citizenship

A group of Anglicans will leave for Nigeria next month to learn more about how Christians can live out their faith alongside Muslims.

NIFCON, the Network for Interfaith Concerns, will head for Nigeria on Thursday 1 February at the invitation of Archbishop Josiah Idowu Fear, who is keen to address the issue of how Christians can be fully involved in their communities when there are huge tensions between their faith and Islam.

Nigeria has the largest number of Anglicans anywhere in the World but its Christian community exists very precariously alongside Islam which in some areas, especially the north, has become more fundamental, the Church of Ireland said.

With over 250 tribes, religiously motivated violence is common in Nigeria. The Church of Ireland added that military dictators, rampant corruption and widespread poverty have not helped, meaning that Nigeria remains unstable and underdeveloped despite huge oil reserves.
.
It is in this challenging context that the NIFCON conference will take place. Bishop Josiah presides over the Diocese of Kaduna where tensions have been particularly great. But things have improved and reconciliation is happening, the Church of Ireland said.

It is this progress which has led to Kaduna's selection as a venue for only the second international consultation to ever be organized by NIFCON. One participant, the Archdeacon of Southwark, the Venerable Michael Ipgrave, explained why Kaduna was chosen. "It is place where Christians and Muslims have routinely killed each other. They have now found a way towards reconciliation so we'd like to learn why and how this has happened."

Since it's inception in 1988, NIFCON has had a special mandate to monitor Christian-Muslim relations as well as speak out sensitively on behalf of those Christians who experience hardship and persecution for their faith. Representatives from Sudan and Pakistan will also bring to the conference their own experiences of religious extremism and conflict.

NIFCON members attending the conference are co-coordinator Clare Amos and Guy Wilkinson, who is also interfaith advisor to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The group will be led by the Bishop Of Clogher, the Rt Rev Michael Jackson.