Tag Archives: 20 Years

Church Of England Appoints Nigerian As First Black Bishop In 20 years

Posted on by
293

The Church of England has appointed its first black bishop for 20 years in a move that significantly increases its handful of minority ethnic clergy in senior leadership positions, reports the guardian.

The church announced that Woyin Karowei Dorgu is to be the 13th bishop of Woolwich, and will be consecrated at Southwark Cathedral on 17 March.

Dorgu was born and brought up in Nigeria, and ordained in the UK. Woolwich, in south-east London, has a significant Nigerian population, many of whom worship in black-majority Pentecostal churches rather than the C of E.

At a press conference at Southwark Cathedral, Dorgu said one of his priorities as bishop would be to celebrate the racial diversity of the Woolwich area. He said he intended to “encourage BAME [black and minority ethnic] vocations and more participation in ministry”.

“I will celebrate the diversity in race, ability, gender, sexuality and class … Celebrating our differences is a gift,” he added.

The only other black bishop in the Church of England is John Sentamu, now archbishop of York – second in the church hierarchy – who was consecrated as bishop of Stepney 20 years ago. There are three BAME archdeacons and one dean.

Dorgu told the Guardian his appointment was “a small step in the right direction”, adding: “Quite a lot of Nigerian Christians [in the Woolwich area] are from an Anglican background. I hope my appointment will be a model. Seeing someone from a similar background could be a catalyst for dialogue between the C of E and black majority churches and Nigerians looking for a spiritual home.”

Although he and Sentamu were the only black bishops, Dorgu said: “I would not describe the position as lonely. There is a lot of support and friendship.”

On the issue of sexuality, which has divided the Church of England and the global Anglican communion for two decades, Dorgu said he stood firmly behind the church’s official position. The church refuses to conduct same-sex church weddings on the traditional biblical grounds that marriage is between a man and a woman, and its insistence that gay clergy must be celibate.

Dorgu – known to some of his congregation as Brother K – trained as a medical doctor in Lagos before being ordained. He was brought up in a Christian family but said as a teenager he rebelled against the gospel and left the church.

Credit: dailytrust

83 Workers Get Permanent Appointment After 20 Years In Service

Posted on by
1

A total of 83 workers of Taraba State Broadcasting Service have been offered permanent appointment, 20 years after some of them started work at the station.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that those affected had served the station, owned by the Taraba Government, for between five to 20 years as adhoc staff.

They included presenters, artists, reporters, engineers among others.

A total of 83 workers of Taraba State Broadcasting Service have been offered permanent appointment, 20 years after some of them started work at the station.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that those affected had served the station, owned by the Taraba Government, for between five to 20 years as adhoc staff.

They included presenters, artists, reporters, engineers among others.

Credit; NAN

Man Secretly Divorced His Wife, Then Stayed With Her For 20 Years

Posted on by
21

Cristina Carta Villa, 59, had no idea she had been divorced for two decades until she looked at a tax bill. According to the New York Post, she recently discovered that her husband had filed for divorce in the Dominican Republic months after their wedding, then stayed with her for 20 years.

The reason is allegedly financial. Cristina is suing Gabriel Villa, 90, to nullify the so-called divorce she says was to protect his money and assets from her. According to the lawsuit, Gabriel secretly hired lawyers to represent each spouse in a court in the Dominican Republic, even though neither of them lived there. She says she has no recollection of ever giving consent to this process, and that it’s against that country’s law since neither spouse showed up and the decision wasn’t published in a newspaper.

The couple was together for 20 years after their “divorce,” had a son, and traveled the world. Gabriel made Cristina his health-care proxy and power of attorney. But that tax bill didn’t list her name as a spouse, and a lawyer she hired discovered that they weren’t actually married anymore. Cristina hopes the lawsuit can prevent Gabriel from selling their home to his daughter.

Credit: Cosmopolitan

Zakzaky Ran Parrallel Govt For 20 Years, Read Shocking Allegations By Zaria Residents

Posted on by
Reply

Residents of Zaria, Kaduna State, yesterday accused leader of the Shiite Movement in Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky of running a parallel government, through which he brought untold hardship on them for over 20 years.

The residents called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency ban the Zakzaky-led Islamic movement from their communities.

Addressing a press conference in Kaduna, the spokesperson of the affected Zaria communities, Idris Mohammed Baba, alleged that members of the Shiite sect had held people in Zaria and Sabon Gari local government areas of the state hostage with impunity while they ran the parallel government in the country.

Baba also alleged that the Shiites had in May 2015, declared 24 youths persona non grata for challenging their activities in Gyellesu community where Zakzaky resides.

Narrating their ordeals in the hands of the Shiite followers for over 20 years in Zaria, Baba said, “my experience with Shiite followers is disastrous and terrible. At a point, Shiite boys threatened to kill me. There is one notorious Shiite boy call Ali, he is the leader of El-Zakzaky’s notorious boys who accompany him anywhere he goes.”

The spokesperson said members of the community were happy with the military action against the Shiite’s movement in Zaria about a fortnight ago because “we have fresh air now blowing in our areas.”

“Before, we couldn’t grant an interview to the world about the Shiite activities but now, we are sleeping with our two eyes closed. As a community, we wrote letters to the governments about the ungodly activities of the Shiites but no single action was taken. We no longer report Shiites to the police because they will never honour police or security invitation.

“These Shiites are authority unto themselves; they don’t respect authority, security and so on. We are Muslims but we discovered that Shiites activities are contrary to Islam. They carry dangerous weapons openly molesting innocent people in our areas. Human rights bodies should also look into our pains by Shiite sect,” he stated.

Alhaji Saidu Garba, one of the Gyallesu elders who also addressed journalists, lamented that the once booming economic activities in the area had been crippled due to the activities of members of the Shiite sect in the area.

According to Garba, “after El-Zakzaky was released from detention in 1999, he came and settled in Gyallesu and since then, there is no peace in our area.

“We thank Allah for touching the heart of government and the military for liberating us from Shiites untold hardship.

“Shiites killed many of our people who challenged their activities, we buried them and we couldn’t talk to the world because of their threat. We were living like slaves in our own land where the Shiite leader, Sheikh El-Zakzaky came and met us. We residents of Gyallesu are calling on the Federal government to ban Shiite movement in our community and Kaduna state as a whole. Government should put a stop to the Shiite’s ungodly activities in our area,” he said.

Credit: Leadership