On the issue of cultism in the church, apart from the African churches, the Anglican Church is also popularly perceived as a haven for cultists. So many of the youngsters in the church are said to have for this and other reason like the conservative nature of the church left for the exuberant pentecostal churches. Bishop Adebola Ademowo, a most scholarly Bishop of Lagos Diocese I in this interview with elifeonline.com contend that the Church has battled cultists in the

to a standstill and if the Anglican church really lost members to the new generation churches, those who left are returning as the church is shedding the conservative toga. He spoke with Bola Adewara.

Would you say the Anglican Church is properly engaged in evangelism?
I thank you for asking this question because when people look at the Anglican Church from the outside, it looks as if no work of evangelism is being done. But we believe that evangelism is the spiritual thermometer of the church and so we take it seriously. In the diocese of Lagos only, we have Directorate for Missions, Evangelism and Discipleship, headed by the Provost of the Lagos Cathedral.

Gone are the days when the Anglican Church is static or holding on to the past. Today, we have vigils, school of discipleship, seminars, etc. Members are becoming more and more committed, people are giving their lives to Christ on daily basis.

Some people might not know how seriously we take evangelism. A lot of evangelism goes on in Epe area of Lagos State . Evangelism, to us, is not about preaching alone. It is also about helping people in concrete terms. We have built churches, vicarages, etc. Our medical commission goes there to assist in giving medical care.

We built a chapel at Ikoyi Prisons and at Maximum Security Prisons; we bought seats for the chapel there. The women wing of the diocese has been assisting the female prison by buying a lot of things to assist the inmates. Evangelism for us is a broadly based project, which shouldn't be seen only in terms of preaching but translating our care into action. We believe in evangelism in action.

I think some people feel the Anglican church has not been doing much crusade because the church is not seen doing open air crusade, advertising vigils, etc, as the Pentecostal church does in stadium, open arena, etc.

People who think like that are making a great mistake. The Anglican Church does not blow its trumpet. Some of these churches you are talking about are new and in search of recognition. We don't have to tell people that we are there because they already know we are there.

Recently, we had crusades in the entire diocese. Crusade is not made in stadium alone. Christ's injunction is go out and make disciple and this is what we are doing. Christianity has no barrier or geographical limitation.

How do you react to the ascendancy and visibility of gay Christians such that the present head of the Anglican Church in England has a liberal disposition towards such people?
All I want to say is that the Anglican members are believers in Biblical Christianity, New Testament Christianity and we adhere to this. England is not our own yardstick, but the bible, which is there to guide us.

The new head of the Anglican Communion in England wrote to us to say there is a lot of misgiving about him. William Douglas was a theologian. As a Bible scholar in Oxford University , he must have theologised on so many things. And what he was saying years ago was that there are people who are gay and lesbians. The church can still minister to them pastorally and in the process they can do away with their acts. It's not Christianity to say because they are gays, they should be thrown out of the church. But people now take that to mean he embraces them.

He wrote to say people should exercise restraints on hasty conclusion. As humans, we are too judgmental. We write people off and make sweeping generalisations. It is not right because as far as I know, the new archbishop of Canterbury is a fine gentleman. We should allow him to function because he is just resuming and people should open their mind. Let us get to the bridge before we cross it.

I don't know of any gay Christian in the Anglican Church in Nigeria . We preach the Bible and preach that our lives must be Christo-centric and pneumacentric (Greek wind for Holy Spirit centered)

There is a feeling that many of the Anglican youths have migrated to the various Pentecostal churches around and that is stampeding the Anglican churches into copying some highlight of the nascent Pentecostalism like vigils, praise and worship, the use of anointing oil, etc. Does the nascent Pentecostalism threaten the Anglican Church?
No, not at all. The Anglican Church is a solid church and many of those who left many years ago are back because they had it rough with the groups they went into. Some of the new groups were formed because of the poor job opportunities in the country. And these groups still produce splinter groups because of disagreement over money matters. In some of these churches, the founder is the sole signatory and when they want to camouflage, they put their wives as another signatory. When people question them, dissatisfaction leads to splinter groups. Such has not happened in the Anglican Church.

In the Anglican Church today, the youths are there and the Lord is moving in a big way. Gone are the days when people sleep in the service. There is praise and worship at the beginning of the service, the prayers are extempore, apart from the collect and the services are lively. The young people are allowed to perform their parts. They have their service and do things in their own way under a priest. They have their instruments and gadgets. There is a group called Cornerstone Voices at the Cathedral here. Some years ago such a group can't exist in the Anglican Church. It is not this time that the young ones are leaving.

On vigil, it has been there but truly people were not responding to it. But for years it has come to stay. In fact when we went for Lambent Conference in England , all the Bishops had vigil. We always affirm that people should come up with ideas. Once they bow to biblical scrutiny, we will introduce them.

Just as you said that all these things were not there sometime ago until now, would you say their existence now is a response to the Pentecostal challenge?
No. Not at all. When I say they were not there I'm talking of 50, 40 years ago. The issue is that when missionaries introduced Christianity, they did it from their own cultural perspective and when our people began to take over, they contextualise the gospel from our own cultural setting and that did it. The White man will not do it the way a Yoruba man will do it. So I would feel comfortable worshiping from my own cultural setting.

When the Archbishop of Canterbury visited us I directed that there must be singing of choruses but they must be edifying spiritual choruses. These were introduced and warmed into our worship. The Archbishop in fact, told me that it was fantastic. The beauty of the Anglican Church lies in the way we worship, everything has been properly programmed and there is a high degree of scholarship and spirituality. The church is a well-organised Episcopal church where you don't need to interview new pastors and agree on terms before you get their services. Pastors are posted to churches to run them within the precinct of our conventions.

How Pentecostal or Apostolic can the Anglican Church be?
The Anglican Church is a Pentecostal church. People make mistakes by saying a particular church is gospel, another is Pentecostal, another is New Testament, etc. The word Pentecostal has a deeper meaning with the day of Pentecost. It also means spiritual. So when you say Pentecostal, you mean spiritual. The Anglican Church is the grandfather to many of these new generational churches. Some of their leaders are Anglican and we are happy to have produced them.

The Anglican Church is also apostolic because we follow the apostolic succession. And it is the holy Catholic and apostolic church as we confess during the creed. The word Catholic does not mean the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church is one of the Catholic churches just as the Anglican. The word Catholic means ecumenical, meaning the Worldwide Church .

How do you react to speaking in tongues and the use of the anointing oil in the Anglican fold?
At the General Synod of the Church of Nigeria , there is nothing wrong with speaking in tongue but people should not see it as the only gift. There are some who go to the extreme that once you don't speak in tongue you are not a Christian. There are other gifts and once they are bible based, we have no problem. In our church, people speak in tongues. What we call charismata , the various gifts should be harnessed to the glory of God.

We also use the anointing oil during healing services in all our churches where people are anointed. Congregants bring their bottles of oil, water; students bring their biro, different items, which I consecrate. The only thing is that we must not see these items as an end, Christ is there as the beginning and the end.

How do you react to all these miracles we see on television?
Well, I want to be very careful about what I say. I know that miracles happen on daily basis and in our Church, we give room for people to testify. But on some of the things I see on television, I don't want to comment since I am not always there. Whether they are exaggerated, doctored, stage-managed, or cooked up, I don't want to comment since I was not there.

What is your comment on this story?