By Emeka Odogwu
The Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Henry Ndukuba, has announced that there will be no more creation of dioceses in the Church of Nigeria for now.
He said the first phase of the creation of full-fledged and missionary Dioceses in the Church of Nigeria was over as no new applications would be attended to for now.
The announcement was made at the 14th edition of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion’s Chancellors, Registrars and Legal Officers Conference in Abuja.
The Primate stated that the decision came after some new applications started coming in after the closure of the timeline set by the Church for the processes.
He noted that a comprehensive effort to survey, inspect and validate potential new dioceses across the country had also been completed by various teams setup to do so.
It will be recalled that the moratorium on the creation of Dioceses was lifted during the 14th General Synod at Nnewi, Anambra State, and clear guidelines and conditions were laid out as a guide for the creation of a New Diocese.
The three committees of the Supra Regions in the Church of Nigeria; Supra West, Supra North and the Joint Council of Eastern Provinces, were mandated under the leadership of Archbishop Joseph Akinfenwa, Archbishop Daniel Yisa and Archbishop David Onuoha, respectively, to receive applications, review and inspect. These committees have submitted their reports and the National Validation Team, headed by Archbishop Timothy Yahaya, has also submitted their reports and findings.
The Primate disclosed that the committees presented their findings at the standing committee meeting held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, early this year. Following the presentation, a central validation team was formed to review and verify the initial reports.
The validation team’s final report was submitted on July 3rd to the Primate of All Nigeria, who convened a meeting with legal officers and the leaders of the initial committees to discuss the findings.
The Primate described the submission of the final report as the conclusion of “Phase One” of the creation of new dioceses, a process that began last year. He appealed for the support of the Church’s members to ensure the successful implementation of the new dioceses when created.
Further details on the specific dioceses to be created are expected to be announced at the appropriate time.
