Understanding Archbishop Ibezim’s Church of England Faux Pas

The preceding days have been filled with news from Anambra State in their Awka Diocese of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion). As came to pass, following a protracted case of lands allegedly bought and sold by a former and the serving Bishops of the diocese respectively, the Primate of the Communion, Archbishop Henry Chukwudum Ndukuba, had ordered that the then substantive Archbishop Alexander Ibezim step aside for six months for the matter to be reviewed independently. But to the surprise of all, including this writer, Archbishop Ibezim and the Diocesean Board, in utter disregard of the Primate’s commandment, refused to step aside and went ahead to conduct his normal Sunday service at the Diocesean headquarters, St Faith’s Cathedral, under heavy security watch.

To make matters worse, he even went to court and threatened to rejoin the Church of England rather than kowtow to the Primate’s order, a move which, however, has since turned the problem upside down with its connection with a schism of all offences. Of course, people are now linking it with King Henry VIII’s break with Pope Clement VII of Rome in the 16th century.

Anyway, since the matter is already in court, this may be all we may be allowed to vouchsafe on it without being accused of prejudice. All the more so because apart from the Bishop’s case, the Chancellor of the Diocese has also instituted another one against the substantive Bishop appointed by Primate Ndukuba to oversee the diocese in the interim, Rt. Rev. Dr. Samuel Chukwudi Ezeofor of the Aguata Diocese of the church, who had sacked him. According to the report, the learned Senior Advocate of Nigeria is asking to be reinstituted and paid N5 billion Naira in preparation.

In fact, tension on the situation has so built up that the Spokesperson of the State Police Command had to issue a statement defending the presence of their men at Archbishop Ibezim’s Sunday service. This had been subsequently followed by the State Police Commissioner organizing a meeting between Archbishop Ibezim and Bishop Ezeofor to sue for peace.

But suffice it to note that the moves have been mostly met with an overdose of cynicism by all and sundry. Even denizens who would never have dared to say a word about the Archbishop now all have opinions about him and his shenanigans in office. In fact, it’s now a topic of discussion in all manner of locations ranging from motor parks to beer parlours with many thinking he has skeletons in his clerical cupboard. The rampant discussions have featured many digressions. Like many reasoned, the obviously embattled Archbishop had held his Sunday service with security presence for a reason. This has not been helped by the fact that some of the security men from the State’s vigilante service were there courtesy of his younger brother who is the substantive Deputy Governor of Anambra State, Dr Gilbert Onyekachukwu Ibezim. A position he, no doubt, attained because of his brother’s Bishopric. As many have argued, it was indeed a step by the ruling All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) to balance the State’s perilous religious equation at the polls.

Also, the grapevine has it that all the clergymen supposedly under Archbishop Ibezim’s future move had refused rejoining the Church of England at a meeting summoned by Bishop Ezeofor before his counter Sunday service undertaken to counter the embattled suspended Archbishop’s own, a move that has made many observers now see him as having hit a cul de sac.

One loner from the host community of the St Faith’s Cathedral has even threatened that they may have no alternative than taking back their land if the troubles persist. According to him, the Church of England never paid a dime for it from inception when it was indeed given to the Church Missionary Society (CMS) that brought the Church of England to Nigeria for gratis.

It’s noteworthy that it had been a smooth sail for the Church of England in Nigeria till in what has been described as ‘one of the most significant structural and theological shifts in modern Christian history.’ Following disagreements over human sexuality, the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), a group of conservative Anglican conferences of which the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) belongs, thought it wise to distance themselves from the Church of England’s Lambeth/Canterbury authority. It followed the latter’s accession to the ordination of female Bishops and their turning blind eyes to same sex marriages.

So it’s rather appalling that Archbishop Ibezim, like a drowning man, sees that as the only grass to cling on. Like is well known, the Church of England was founded on such disagreement. Like have passed, the then reigning king of England Henry VIII wanted his 24-year-old marriage to Catharine of Aragon referred by King Henry as his ‘Great Matter ‘ annulled.

This was on account of her inability to produce a male heir after six children. To compound the case, only one, Mary, survived. Of course, by then, Catherine was past child-bearing age and Henry had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn who refused to be his Mistress unless she was made Queen.

Henry’s argument then was that his marriage to Catherine was illegitimate in the eyes of God because she had been married to Henry’s deceased elder brother but the Pope then, Julius II, had granted papal dispensation to permit their marriage in 1509. Henry claimed it violated Leviticus 20:21 that states that ‘If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is an impurity… they will be childless.’

But the truth remains that following the sack of Rome in 1527 by King Charles V of France who was Catherine’s compatriot, Pope Clement was a captive. By 1534 King Henry took matters into his own hands by passing the Act of Supremacy, declaring himself Head of the Church of England and asking Archbishop Cranmer of Canterbury to declare the marriage void.

Uzoatu is a multi-talented and versatile writer.