The Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Most Rev Henry Ndukuba has urged legal officers of the Church to avoid taking Church issues to Courts of adjudication, saying they should always employ dispute resolution mechanism.
The Primate said this during his interaction with legal officers at the 10th edition of the Conference of Chancellors, Registrars, and Legal Officers of the Church of Nigeria held recently at National Secretariat of the Church, St. Matthias House, Gudu District, Abuja.
Ndukuba, who gave a short introduction on the ministry of the Church’s legal officers, said the legal team’s work in the Church of God was like what Moses did for Israel. According to him, God’s commandments, law, and statutes were meant to guide Israel to live to please God and to serve people. He said the statutes spelled out the duty of every member of God’s community, their duty towards God and man, and that God also raised leaders and elders who administered justice.
Ndukuba stated that Anglican chancellors, registrars, and lawyers should not see themselves as oppositions to their Bishops, but to support efforts at addressing legal issues affecting the church. He urged them to come up with a proposal to support the inclusion of Episcopal Laws in the ongoing Constitutional review.
This year’s conference themed: “We are hard-pressed on every side,” and taken from 2 Cor. 4:8 (NIV) started in 2011, when the former Primate, Most Rev Nicholas Okoh considered that all personnel in the legal department of the Church across the Dioceses of the Church of Nigeria should have a platform, where important matters relating to the church legally are to be discussed and taught.
The Registrar of the Church of Nigeria, Barrister (Dr) Abraham Yisa, said the conference had produced a total of 21 lectures and 31 talks. He said compendium of all the lectures; talks and communiqués issued since the inception of the conference have been published in their 10th year.
