- Akinola, Peter
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▪ 2008Peter Jasper Akinolaborn Jan. 27, 1944, Abeokuta, NigeriaIn 2007 Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria stirred up controversy when he created an American diocese to welcome discontented Episcopal parishes to a more conservative branch of the Anglican church. As primate of the Church of Nigeria, Akinola led the nearly 20 million members in the world's fastest-growing Anglican province, second in membership only to the 26-million-member Church of England; his church was a prominent example of the growth of Christianity in the “Global South” made up of Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia.Akinola was four years old when his father died, and he was sent to live with an uncle. He attended school from the ages of 10 to 16; his uncle then told him to leave school and learn a trade. After an apprenticeship in Lagos, Akinola became a successful furniture maker and patent-medicine seller, but he gave up the business to study for the priesthood. He was ordained a deacon in 1978 and a priest in 1979; he traveled to the United States, graduating in 1981 from the Virginia Theological Seminary with a master's degree. Upon his return to Nigeria, he served in the Abuja diocese, being consecrated as bishop in 1989. In 1998 he became archbishop in Islam-dominated northern Nigeria, and in 2000 he was elected primate of all Nigeria.Akinola drew international attention after V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire in 2003 became the first openly gay Anglican bishop. The Nigerian primate said that the U.S. Episcopal Church had “chosen the path of deviation from the historic faith” and called homosexuality “an aberration unknown even in animal relationships.” Under Akinola's leadership the Nigerian church established the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) to provide a way for congregations that were alienated by the actions of the Episcopal Church to retain fellowship with the Anglican Communion. CANA's first missionary bishop, Martyn Minns of Virginia, was installed in May 2007 against the wishes of the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.Akinola also made news in 2006 when, as president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, he issued a statement in response to Muslim riots ignited by the printing in Danish newspapers of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. “May we at this stage remind our Muslim brothers that they do not have the monopoly of violence in this nation,” the archbishop said. Archbishop Williams argued that the Nigerian meant to issue a warning, not a threat. In 2004, however, Akinola had refused to condemn the retaliatory killings of 700 Muslims following the deaths of 75 Christians in sectarian violence.Darrell J. Turner
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Universalium. 2010.
