CONFLICTS IN THE GENERATION AND REGENERATION OF MEMBERSHIP IN THE CHURCH OF NIGERIA (ANGLICAN COMMUNION), IBADAN

Abstract

Conflicts within Ibadan Anglican Communion (IAC), which led to loss of membership to other denominations in the 1970s and 80s, necessitated generation of new members in the 1990s and regeneration of defected members. The conflicts led to the expansion of IAC into three dioceses with consequential internal conflicts between the youth and the church leadership on the one hand and on the other hand between the old priests and the retuning members who were later ordained into priesthood. Previous studies have concentrated on the doctrines, principles, norms, and church growth with little attention paid to conflictual issues arising from the generation and regeneration of members. Therefore, the causes and nature of conflicts in IAC, the resolution of the conflicts and challenges that IAC leadership faced in the management of the conflicts were examined. Weber’s Social Action Theory was adopted as the framework, while the descriptive survey design was used. Two purposively selected churches in each of the three dioceses were examined. A self-developed questionnaire was administered on 600 parishioners, covering three dioceses, 200 in each of the dioceses and 100 in each of the six selected churches. Purposive stratified random sampling technique was adopted to select 100 parishioners from each of the churches. Key Informant Interview was conducted with the retired Bishop of the entire Ibadan Diocese before its expansion into three dioceses. In-depth interviews were conducted with three Bishops of the dioceses, six returnees who later became priests, three members who did not defect to other denominations and who later became priests, and three members of Parochial Church Committee. Secondary sources included synod-reports, church-bulletins and related literature on Anglican Communion. Quantitative data were subjected to descriptive statistics, while qualitative data were content-analysed. Factors that precipitated and accelerated the conflicts were the modes of worship (60.0%), vigils (65.0%), speaking in tongues (60.4%), prophecies, healing, and deliverance ministrations (60.6%). The nature of the conflict was doctrinal. The Pentecostal modes of worship (65.0%), youth participation in church programmes (93.1%), and flexibility in Anglican Communion doctrines (78.0%) served to ameliorate the conflicts. Leadership challenges on conflict-management included disagreement between some clergy and youth over the style of worship (47.8%), youths and adults over conduct of programmes (55.2%), and the imposition of ordained priest to monitor youth services in the church. Moreover, the use of social media (68.0%), free medical treatments to church communities (79.7%), scholarship awards (64.3%), and opening of worship centres in diaspora (58.0%) were major strategies adopted to generate and regenerate members. The conflicts’ outcomes created a synergy between Anglican Communion and Pentecostal spiritual ethos, but ended up in strengthening the vibrancy and growth in the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Ibadan. In order to mitigate the issue of defection of youth and other members from the Church, the Communion needs to be flexible in the use of its liturgy, and provision of church leadership. Youth participation should be given more consideration for church expansion and dynamism.