Diocese of Gombe Anglican Communion holds the Bishop’s Charge
……at the 3rd Session of the 8 Synod in Gombe
By Ben Ngwakwe, Gombe
The Diocese of Gombe, Anglican Communion has held the Bishop’s Charge and delivered the third session of the eight Synod in Gombe.
It held during the weekend with the theme “Rebuilding the fallen walls”, taken from the book of Nehemiah chapter 1; 2:1-20 (2:17).
The charismatic and visionary leadership of RT.Rev’d.Cletus Ajigben Tambari, said the uncommon leadership of Nehemiah led to the rebuilding of the city walls around Jerusalem and those activities that took place in the Post- Exilic period of the children of Israel which was originally written in the Hebrew language as the Nehemiah was connected to the books of first and second Chronicles and Ezra.
The Bishop said that the material in those books formed one unbroken book, perhaps written by the Priest Ezra which vividly explained that the trust of Nehemiah’s work was to show how God’s blessings sustained his covenant people after they returned to their native land following the years of captivating in the Babylonian and Persia.
The contributions of Nehemiah, he said, was unparalleled as the King’s Cupbearer, known as a man of religious devotion and prayer, and for his ability to motivate others leading to the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem that took only 52 days.
It will be recalled that rebuilding of the fallen walls were important in the lives of individual, family, church and community hence Nehemiah literally means ” the Lord comforts” or ” the Lord is my salvation”, while the success- story made is remarkable because some attempts were made to rebuild it during the reign of Artaxerxes 1 but failed.
According to him,” the wall is a major security symbol of a nation, once a city is walled it makes it difficult for enemies to penetrate because all exits would be mounted with gates and guards ready for action. For a city to be easily broken into, the walls and gates much first be conquered.”
“Most Ancient cities of the Bible have walls surrounding them, the lack of city wall meant that the people were defenseles against the enemies, this was the condition of Athens after its devastation by the Persians in 480-479 B.C,” he added.
After the preamble, the synod equally narrated the secrets of Nehemiah’s success and reasons that made him to embark on rebuilding projects of Jerusalem through total dependability on God no matter the circumstances he found himself, his readiness to have the work completed despite opposition and challenges from enemies and Nehemiah surrounded himself with strong – willed motivated persons.
Other reasons for his success was that he was at alert and ready to attack back at his enemies, he was sensitive towards enemy’s strategies and also outsmarts his enemies as well as he overcame his fears and remained bold all through and ensured sound relationship with God, his people and environment.
Nehemiah remained focused on his goal, had passion for the revival of his mother land and he sacrificed his position to become servant of his people and served diligently.
He knew the time at which to approach issues, he kept his plans and intensions secret and he desired total freedom for his people and the land.
Bishop pointed out the implication of the event as documented in Nehemiah which one can concluded that there is no project set to be achieved that cannot succeed under the watch of God, adding further that no external force, enemy’s pressure, obstacles and standard can prevail over a project that God ordained it would take place and it must come to pass except if the people chosen could not avail themselves to be used by God.
He said, “We must adopt the strategies employed by Nehemiah and confront that giant that stands in our paths to hinder us from making headway, each individual must be motivated by Nehemiah ‘s act of courage, boldness, love of his people and community, resistance to enemy tricks, his braveness and wisdom, when we exhibit these qualities, we would be unstoppable in the matters of life.”
Apart from various lessons learnt from the story of Nehemiah, the synod was an occasion where six persons were ordained into priesthood and four were ordained as deacons which attracted different personalities across the federation.
The ordained priests are Rev.Donatus Ukoha, Rev. Ephraim Istifanus, Rev.Karnilus Zakka, Rev. Thomas Udiani, Rev.Philip Sunday and Rev. Andrawus Bulitiyo while deacons are Precious Gift Nwaeze, Jonathan Nwadike, Benjamin Shehu and Innocent Yahaya.
It was at the synod that Bishop Cletus Ajigben Tambari disclosed that Gombe Diocese would be celebrating her 25th Anniversary on 25th November,2024 ( 1999-2024) and reappointed the Diocesan Car Committee to plan for the forthcoming 25th anniversary and they are Sir Ben Aronu, Chief Prince C.C.Ewuzie, Chief John Agbata, Dr.Emmanuel Anorue, Barrister Emmanuel Nwaekwe, Rev.Donatus Ukaho, Rev.Chigbo Aronu, Ben.Peter Okparaji and all Archdeaconry supervisors ( with Ven..Dr.Ejikeme C. as the chairman).
Also, the multi million naira College of Nursing and Midwifery initiated by Archbishop Henry Ndukuba, the current Primate of Church of Nigeria, Anglican communion and Archbishop of Abuja Metropolitan which has reached advanced level of completion in Kaltungo,in Gombe State, the launching would kick- off in November,2024 to set for take-off of College in 2025 accordingly.
The synod expressed their deepest appreciation to the Primate of All Nigeria,His Grace, Most Rev.Henry Ndukuba for sponsoring them to the conference ” the Jerusalem Declaration 2008(GAFCON1) and” the Kigali Commitment 2023 (GAFCON1 1V) respectively.
The synod vehemently condemned in strong terms the actions and activities of the “General Synod of the Church of England in February 2023 to welcome proposals by the bishops to enable same-sex couples to receive God’s blessing”.
“Since the Lord does not bless same-sex unions, it is pastorally deceptive and blasphemous to craft prayers that invoke blessing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, any refusal to follow the biblical teaching that the only appropriate context for sexual activity is the exclusive lifelong union of a man and a woman in marriage violates the created order ( Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4-6) and endangers salvation (1 Corinthians 6:9),” the synod added.
