All Saints Anglican Church, the largest Anglican Church built by a Nigerian congregation in North America has been cobwebbed with internal conflicts since 2010, costing tens of thousands in legal fees and causing the Parish to split at least twice into other factions now operating as different Anglican churches.
Today, the issues at the All Saints get worse by the hour, with different cliques and factions fighting each other to the extreme. Just a few weeks ago, the Parish was on the local TV news showing an angry faction demonstrating their concerns with the church management.
But this is really not the reason for this piece. Here is my reason for revisiting matters of the All Saints Anglican. Since August 2015 till date, calls about the present issues at the All Saints have bombarded our newsroom, with individuals asking for a media coverage of their persisting internal squabbles.
These calls were normal. For instance, International Guardian has always championed investigative stories on crucial community matters. Furthermore, the establishment of the All Saints Anglican Church had a compelling story that resonated with the Nigerian immigrants, their struggle for identity, and their survival in a society where immigration is often a taboo topic. These were why The Guardian took the bull by the horn in its previous coverages of the All Saints.
These media coverages however attracted so much resentment by those not favored by our reports. They declared war against the newspaper and went as far as making an announcement during a church service; asking members to visit local stores and destroy every Guardian publication. Also, advertising clients were persuaded to cut off ties with the paper. But this was around 2012.
Surprisingly today, these same individuals who vowed to destroy the Guardian (but could not) are the same folks calling our news room to again request a coverage of their latest ordeal – exactly the same ordeal revealed by the Guardian almost four years ago.
Sounds strange, but those who actually went to the stores destroying copies of the Guardian years ago are the same folks seen on the TV demonstrating what our reports warned them about back then.
Organizational challenges might be paramount to progress because good leadership evaluates issues and iniquities of the past as the parameter in managing the present and the future. In the apostolic fraternity however, Christians clear their guilty consciences through genuine repentance and confession to seek God’s compassionate forgiveness and salvation.
These are facts about spirituality; thus, Christian often fall from issues to issues when they conceal their transgressions with some nonchalant forgive-and-forget “let’s move on” lyrics; or when they seek resolution through a complicated court process rather than a Bible-based mediation forum or consensus. No wonder, the book of Proverbs (28:13) specifically hinted that whoever that conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
The questions thus arise on whether the warring members of the All Saints would seek ways other than a shameful street fighting; legal wrangling; verbal and physical abuses; destructive gossips and individual unforgiving spirits to solve their internal concerns? Would these warring members settle for a spiritual retreat and kneel before the Holy Ghost for a spiritual intervention; over uncontrolled broiling anger of congregants in a Parish that has turned the alter of God into a damaging wrestling and boxing ring?
While we all join hands and pray for this miracle, one more thing may be appropriate. I think that The Guardian deserves a little apology from the Houston All Saints community – or what do you think? I can take those calls anytime, and I’m never on long distance.
■ Dr. Ogbo is the publisher of International Guardian based in Houston, Texas: anthony@guardiannews.us
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