Days 12 & 13: The Kingdom of Ile-Oluji (with PHOTOS)

L to R: A High Chief; the Lisa (or Prime Minister) and my host; the Oba or King; me

L to R: The Lisa, The Bishop of Ile-Oluji, me

On Saturday we travelled to the town of Ile Oluji, about one hour from Akure in the direction of Ondo. We are still in Ondo state and this town of about 150,000 residents is noticeably quieter than Akure and with fresher air – due to the surrounding hills and woodland. We are the guests of High Chief J A A Fagbamiye and his wives and family. Like Greg/Tolu is he a surveyor in Akure, but unlike my host he is extremely wealthy and his status as High Chief means that he is second only to the Oba in terms of importance. He is also a prominent Anglican layman and he spent the first hour of my visit telling me how he and his colleagues got rid of the Bishop elect of their new “Missionary Diocese”. The Missionary Diocese of Ile Oluji, carved out of the Diocese of Ondo, was only created this summer and has only 30 churches and about 15 priests. Goodness knows why one would one want to create such a small diocese but it is no doubt much more to do with local politics than with the Holy Spirit. What is clear from spending an afternoon here is that it is a little place with a big sense of its own importance. It is virtually a tribal kingdom run by an Oba and six high chiefs and I can imagine that they did not like being subject to a Bishop in Ondo. Having got their way with the creation of a diocese and its attendant Cathedral, they were not going to have anyone except their own candidate as Bishop. They mounted a fearsome campaign against the outside candidate – and in the end got their own way and guess what – the new man is related to my host!

I am being very ungracious here when my host is being the very model of hospitality. But I was slightly caught off guard yesterday when – having been introduced to two of his wives (a third one already having passed away) - he handed me a leaflet about CANA (The Convocation of Anglicans in North America) – which is being run by his brother Bishop Amos Fagbamiye from his home in Indianapolis. Shall I spell this out? CANA is a schismatic group, injected into North America without the support of ECUSA, by the Church of Nigeria which openly tolerates polygamy - and why? Because (according to the C of N) ECUSA is undermining Christian marriage by its stance on gays. I am not criticising polygamy: the Church of Nigeria has the autonomy under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to deal with local issues as it sees appropriate. (Though wearing an equal opportunities hat I would have to point out that I have yet to meet a female High Chief with two or more husbands.) So why is this freedom and grace not extended to other provinces to deal with local issues as they see fit? Once again I am baffled not only by the stance of the C of N, but even more by the stance of the Primates of the Anglican Communion who have allowed themselves to be bullied into battle that nobody wants by a couple of provinces who have an irrational obsession with the gay issue.

Enough! Ile Oluji is a friendly place and we were driven around by the High Chief in his big Mercedes to meet a retired Archdeacon, the new Bishop, and the Oba. The Oba – who is an engineer by profession and spends every September in London – is also a prominent Anglican layman, also has a number of wives and like my host is extremely humble and completely unassuming. They may rule this little kingdom with almost unchallenged authority but it has not gone to their heads! This may seem like a bizarre comparison but Ile-Oluji actually reminded me of Mountain Ash where I lived from 1994-1997: an isolated and insular community with a large dose of civic pride completely confident in its assertion that this is without question the best place to live on earth!

We came back to Fagbamiye’s substantial house where we dined on catfish (I refused the head) and after drinking a cold beer, we went to bed.

On Sunday morning I was up about 7 to work on my sermon. We had a good breakfast of yam and eggs (that’s YAM not HAM) and headed off to church about 930 to attend the 10am service of Matins at St. Peters Cathedral in Ile-Oluji. The large barn like building holds about 2000; there may have been as many as 500 people there, I am not sure, but there were plenty of empty seats. I could not have been made more welcome. The Bishop made a big fuss of me both before and after the sermon; I kept being hauled out of my pew to bless this offering and that tithe. I had realised yesterday on my first meeting with the Bishop that the excitement about having an OYEEBO in the pulpit far outweighed any risk that I might preach heresy! Really, I was made extremely welcome. I preached on grace (The Grace actually 2 Cor. 13.14) with a translator into Yoruba – and it was well received. The service lasted about two hours and afterwards there were numerous photo opportunities to be had including an interview with the man who had videoed the entire service. (Yes – that’s right folks – the whole service will be on a DVD – I bet you cannot wait.) (Remind me to write on another occasion about Nigerian hierarchies both inside and outside the Church.)

On the way back to Fagbamiye’s house we called at the home of another retired Archdeacon before going back to the High Chief’s house to change and lunch. In the afternoon we went to a meeting of the High Chiefs: five out of six were present including my host who is second in precedence to the Oba (who was not present). This was a largely ceremonial occasion: a goat had just been slaughtered and the best cuts were on their way to the barbeque. When they came back ten minutes later, blacker than the best burnt British barbequed bangers, they were carved up on the same bloodied board and with the same rusted machete that had despatched the poor creature only ten minutes earlier. I prayed that we would get out before it was handed round but Fagbamiye is a High Chief and was not to be deterred. I managed a couple of pieces of the liver; there was no chianti but thank heavens it was washed down with (warm) beer. There was some interesting conversation about the new fundamentalism that has come into the mainstream Nigerian churches through the newer evangelical denominations. I guess that this is also part of the equation of the current Anglican tensions.

We headed back to Fagbamiye’s to collect our car and make our farewells. It had been a memorable 24 hours in so many ways and the hospitality of the High Chief will be remembered by me for a long long time.

The hour’s drive back to Akure was uneventful. Before returning home, however, we made a detour to visit the site of Gregory’s new home which he is building himself as and when funds are available. I was thrilled to find that it is substantially complete on a very spacious plot and will one day provide a very comfortable home for Tolu and his family.

When we got back home – about 7 – I was beginning to feel quite unwell (I blamed the liver) and so I went straight to bed in preparation for our trip to Abuja on the Monday.