By Tony Adibe
The Bishop, Diocese of Enugu, Anglican Communion, Rt. Rev. Prof. Samuel O. Ike has advised Christian youths in Nigeria to always embrace evangelism as young people are instruments in God’s hand to better society. He gave the advice as St. Bartholomew’s Church Asata, Enugu marked her 100 years anniversary with pomp and ceremony.
Bishop Ike, who responded to questions from journalists after he presiding over the thanksgiving service which concluded activities marking the centenary celebration, urged Christian youths in Nigeria to go through “worship, evangelism and bring true revival and the search for holiness as well as Godly presence in the church.”
According to him, the youths “have to wear their amour of evangelism and be at the forefront as I have fought for evangelism over the years. I have trained some people, and the youths have to train some younger people and sustain and maintain the evangelism as they are the instruments in God’s hand to actualize His work in our country.”
He further said: “The youths should go through worship, through evangelism and bring true revival and the search for holiness and Godly presence in the church; the youths should fear the Lord, love the Lord and respect his word for the empowerment purpose of the church; the youths should strive to work ahead of this church and ahead of any other for the glory of God in the name of Jesus Christ.”
Bishop Ike, while outlining some of the remarkable feats achieved by the Church, also had few words of advice for the clergy, particularly at St. Bartholomew’s Church Asata, which was established in 1924 as the first Cathedral in the Diocese of Enugu, Anglican Communion.
“God has been very gracious to us at St Bartholomew’s Church, Asata which has given birth to many other churches. And many Bishops, who are pioneer members are piloting the affairs of other Dioceses. And this church – St. Bartholomew has given birth to many choir masters of renown. It has given birth to evangelism, pioneering evangelical fellowship. This church was the pioneer Cathedral of the Enugu Diocese and so I pray that in its pioneering efforts, they will not go back in Jesus name. They will rather maintain it and take it to another level; particularly the youths. They have to wear their amour of evangelism and be at the forefront as I have fought for evangelism over the years,” said Bishop Ike.
But the Archdeacon Enugu East Archdeaconary and Vicar-in-Charge, St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church, Asata, Ven. Uchennageme Ugwu, described the church as the house of God where people come, play their own roles and go while the church remains.
Ven. Ugwu explained that the main objective of his stewardship in the Lord’s vine yard “is to preach the raw word of God. I repeat the raw word of God because many things are going wrong, where people are meant to believe in what is not biblical.”
According to him, “In the present world, there was a wave of ideology that came up, that I actually had to battle with here. When people are being taught or told that they are going to receive alert now, now, now, even when they have not done any work to expect a financial reward; such teaching is not biblical. If indeed, you receive alert, it will give you joy, but from what source is the alert coming? Is your alert coming from Satanic source or God’s? Such teaching is not biblical, and I had to stop people from listening to it.
“I had to discourage people from preaching that way. We detest 419 preaching here. When you know you are not working, and you are expecting payment for job not done, that’s 419. You don’t fold your hands and wait for people who will help you. You have to make your efforts. I’m from a poor family but I had to work hard to get to where God and hard work has put me today.”
Although Ugwu and his parishioners are delighted for organizing the historic centenary celebration of the Church, he is quite unhappy as he regretted the number of deaths recorded in the church since the year, 2024 started.
He told journalists that such sad developments hardly bring him joy, with the most painful death being the sudden passage of a young graduate who was waiting to do the compulsory national youth service. “I’m tired of burying our dead members,” confessed Ven. Ugwu, who said he was ordained a priest at St. Bartholomew’s Church Asata in August ,1991.
“But, actually, what I will ever feel is a regret is that we lost not less than ten members since this year, 2024. From January 1, we lost people. We just buried the last person last week. Sadly, the worst of it all is the death of the young man, who just graduated three weeks ago, and was to go for the compulsory national youth service, and suddenly he died. It’s very painful and indeed the most painful because he was still young. Others who died were old people. We buried people almost every time we were traveling to bury our members. And it doesn’t give us joy,” Ven. Ugwu said regretfully.
However, there’s a high point for the Vicar-in-Charge, at least, his witnessing and organizing the historic centenary celebration is something to be proud of. He said: “The highest point, for me is this celebration happening now while I’m here. It’s not an easy thing to bring all the wise men here together for this centenary celebration. I will consider this particular event to be the highest point.”
Another source of joy for him is the sense of unity being currently enjoyed by all the clergy and parishioners. “Most importantly, however, we here are still in unity. We have not had quarrels here because wherever there’s quarrels, there’s a possibility of disintegration,” he said.
Ugwu described the church as the training ground for priests of the Anglican Communion, reeling out list of some of those who passed through St. Bartholomew’s Church Asata.
“The retired bishop of Ihiala , Rt. Rev. Dr. Ralph Okafor, was a Vicar here. He left here and became the first Bishop of Ihiala in Anambra State. He became the first Bishop of Aninri Diocese, in Enugu State. We have retired Rt. Rev. Samuel Chukwuma, he passed through here and later became the first Bishop of Isiochi Diocese in Abia State. We also have the current Bishop of Nsukka Diocese, Rt. Rev Aloysius Ezeagbo, he later became the second Bishop of Nsukka Diocese,” Ugwu recalled.
One of the recipients of the Centenary awards, Elder Paul Ulasi, agreed to the notion that “We all need evangelism in order not to deviate from God’s pathway”. Elder Ulasi is not a member of the Anglican Communion, but because of his deep knowledge of the scripture, he, on several occasions, would be invited to reach the word of God at St. Bartholomew’s Church, where his teachings had impacted tremendously on the parishioners.
“I don’t worship here. I’m a Pentecostal fellow. I’m of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International. But I come here and teach whenever they invite me. I’m always deeply into the work of evangelism. I like teaching the younger ones the word of God. Each place I go to teach, I made it clear to the younger ones that you can be great with God on your side. You can’t achieve your goals in life without God and hard work,” said Elder Ulasi, a Chartered Banker, who received the Category A – Centenary Distinguished Personality Award. “The award was given to me in recognition of my contributions to the church,” he added.
On the scramble for material things by people these days, rather than the quest for Godly living, Elder Ulasi said “it’s already recorded in the bible that at the latter days, people will become lovers of themselves while forsaking God; people will be busy chasing material and frivolous things of the world than loving God. So, I’m not surprised that the scripture is being fulfilled,” he said.
He explained that anomaly can only be corrected by “continuous teaching, continuous impacting of the word of God,” stressing, “speak the word of God to correct the ills of society caused by human beings. We have to use evangelism to correct the ills of the world.”
Chairperson of the Centenary Award Committee, Ezinne Dr Eunice Nwonu, a retiree from the Department of Nursing Sciences, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, said that “being 100 years is not enough but being 100 years with a lot of impacts. If in the 100 years of an institution, and it doesn’t make impact, that institution has wasted the 100 years. However, in the case of our church, it has made a lot of positive impact. In fact, this place is seen as a training ground for priests.”
The 73-year-old Dr Nwonu also said: “The Centenary, actually, is a period of excitement for me; excitement because I feel that a period of 100 years is not a day’s journey. There were people who started the church but somehow, they are not here today. So, those of us who are witnessing the celebration are happy and excited.
“The Award of today that was given to me came as big surprise. This is in the sense that since I’m the chairman of the Centenary Award Committee, I felt it would be wrong of me to give myself an award. I have received other awards in the church.
“However, the church thought otherwise and kept this like a secret from me. They decided to also honour me with this Award in recognition of my contribution to the success of the event,” she said, adding: “I was in the secondary school during the Nigeria/Biafra War. After the war, I continued to worship here. I worship here intermittently.”
