Rt. Rev. Humphrey Olumakaiye, Diocesan Bishop of the Diocese of Lagos, (Anglican Communion) has urged Nigerians to turn to God for the country to overcome its challenges. Olumakaiye said this during a courtesy visit to the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev. Alfred Martins at the Archbishop’s office, Lagos. He urged Nigerians to go back to the ancient path of obedience, dignity of labour, honesty, fear of God, love and also being faithful to the things of God. “By the time we walk in the path of righteousness, the beauty of holiness will be seen in our lives by everybody and the society will be better for everyone to live,” he said. He urged Nigerians not to lose faith but to continue to pray for the country. “We should continue to pray for the government, I believe that they are focused but they need to do more especially on security of lives of its citizens. “They also have to do more in alleviating the suffering of the common man,’’ he said. Olumakaiye said that the visit to Martins was to foster the relationship between the Catholic and Anglican church and to invite and intimate him on the centenary anniversary of the diocese of Lagos that would come up next year. The cleric while urging Christians to defend their faith said the church is the conscience of the people and the voice for the voiceless. “This is the time Christians should come out and defend their faith that is being bastardised by all forms of teachings that we have in the country today because the gospel has been diluted. “A situation where people have now been elbowed to the background the teachings of suffering in favour of prosperity which they teach nowadays,’’ he said. The Catholic Archbishop said that the country needs evangelisation at this time “The country needs a lot of witnessing at this point in time. with the difficulties that we have as a nation, with leadership and values being upturned. “ I believe that we really do have a lot to do in that direction, speaking truth to power as they say and being the conscience of the nation,’’ he said. He thanked the Bishop and his entourage for their visit and promised that the Catholic Church in Lagos will collaborate with them on evangelism in the state. “Thank you for the initiative to visit, we will keep up this collaboration and interaction; we have a responsibility of ensuring that we are the light on the salt. “I assure you that we are particularly ensuring that the teachings of the church and the teachings of Christ should be kept going in spite of what is happening around us,’’ he said. Martins said that as a bishop in Abeokuta, he had the opportunity of being part of the Nigerian Anglican Roman Catholic Commission to address the divide in the Anglican/Catholic in the region. “I have had relationships with Anglican Bishops and priest in actual fact my mother was born an Anglican. “We had that in the family and so we were brought up as I was growing up there was a divide in the relationship in Abeokuta then, but we keep saying that obviously things don’t have to be like that, “Along with Bishop Okoh then, we began the work on the Anglican/Roman Catholic Commission I thank God that it is still ongoing ,’’ he said. (NAN)
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