Several United Methodist pastors and laypeople from Southern Nigeria and Central Nigeria conferences copied United Methodist Insight on emails they sent to church officials in both the United States and several African countries asking for the Council of Bishops and the West Africa College of Bishops to investigate actions by Bishop John Wesley Yohanna. Insight has chosen to reproduce their emails in full to allow conference members to speak for themselves. Therefore, quotes are not used around their statements. The emails have been edited solely for clarity.
Sorrowful Feelings
Follow up on our complaint letter.
Dear Bishops, we are short of words to express our sorrowful feelings over how you seem to ignore what is happening in Nigeria, and Bishop Yohanna continued to disobey the order and discipline of our Church.
Nigeria special report
Despite the fact that we complained to you in good time how Bishop Yohanna planned to deny our elected delegates their constitutional right of Annual Conference participation, yet you did nothing about it and here is what happened now:
1. There was a court order and counter order about the 2021 Annual Conference meeting which supposed to commence November 10th. These has set further confusion in the Church in Nigeria.
2. And Bishop Yohanna still went ahead with his violations of our order to deny elected delegates participation at the Annual Conference. Out of the 393 duly elected Conference delegates only 111 of his supporters – some of which are not elected delegates – were allowed to participate in the Conference. By the Conference rules a two-thirds majority is needed to form a quorum that will legally allow for Conference proceedings but this provision was not met, yet Bishop Yohanna went ahead with meeting with his friends, family and tribal kinsmen.
Bishops, this is already causing anarchy. People who read and understand the Book of Discipline and Conference rules well are beginning to raise questions on the validity of order in our Church, as they wonder if a Bishop can violate the Book of Discipline and Conference Rules and get away with it can they obey him? If Bishops refused to follow complaint process as outlined in [Paragraph] 413 of our Book of Discipline 2016 is the Book of Discipline still valid in Africa?
This is not a controversy over homosexuality; that can be placed in abeyance. This is something that has to do with human rights.
Bishops, we want to state to you clearly here that 111 delegates including those who were not elected delegates but were brought in cannot take a decision in place of 393 elected delegates, the majority who were denied participation. Therefore, we in Fan District cannot approve the decisions taken at the meeting that Bishop Yohanna had with his family, friends, and tribal kinsmen.
We are demanding that you address our complaint as provided in our Church laws.
Yours Faithfully,
Rev. Samuel Ahmed
Head of delegation
Fan District
UMC order violations in Nigeria
Bishop Yohanna barred delegates [to annual conference] because he want[ed] to:
1. Illegally change the Conference Secretary, Rev. Ande I. Emmanuel because of his stand for the unity of the United Methodist Church.
2. He want[ed] to change the General Conference and West Africa Central Conference delegates to people who can vote in favour of the proposed Global Methodist Church.
3. He want[ed] a resolution that will allow Nigeria align with the Global Methodist Church.
As far as appropriate procedures in our Book of Discipline are not followed, we do not accept the outcome of bishop’s meeting with his friends and family.
Rev. Samuel Ahmed
Head of Delegation
Fan District
UMC Nigeria Is Bleeding
My name is Driver B. Jalo, I am the Director of Adult Education of the Southern Nigeria Annual Conference.
It is true that the United Methodist Church in Nigeria is seriously bleeding. There is serious harm that the leadership of the church continues to unleash on innocent members of the Church. This harm ranges from police detention, court cases, appointment biases, and blocking majority of legitimate delegates from performing their responsibilities. The saddest part of this story is the reality that the West Africa College of Bishops is silent about it.
The College promised to come to Nigeria but hasn't, despite the fact that travel is accessible across Africa.
We need action now.
‘The Church in Nigeria is Drowning While You Are Dining’
Glad tidings to you in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ may peace and grace be upon as you continue shepherding the fold by the day to springs of delight and pastures of hope to the glory of our lord Jesus Christ. While we are trusting God in the sufficiency of his mercy to rain forgiveness and serenity in our hearts, while we appeal for your Levitical grace to intervene as custom demands, our hearts continue to bleed in aching pains as the storm surges beyond tolerance. We cannot continue to brood in excruciation the church should not be used as an instrument of torture or coercion. What we are witnessing to today [in barring members from annual conference] is quite agonizing because the Council of Bishops issued a narrative that is seemingly a call to uphold our connectedness, but to our greatest dismay this is not the case in Nigeria. The brutality [visited] on people who choose to remain United Methodists is uncalled-for.
Bishops, until we are weeping with stings of scorpions and venoms of vipers then you will be happy to come to our rescue or until we form ourselves into a bellicose groups. The church in Nigeria is on gunpowder; it will soon explode if the Council of Bishops continues to fold their arms and disregard our plea and call for justice. Everybody is boiling in anger due to inaction of the Council of Bishops pertaining to the Nigerian church.
We will have no option but to resort to other means of defending ourselves from the abuses we are seeing today in Nigeria. We are so sad to write this way, but our agony is multiplying day by day and we believe you will understand the integrity of our pains.
Thank you.
Ngoi A. Salah
for Yes United Methodist
Central Nigeria Annual Conference, Gwaten.
Court injunction
My name is Davidson Amos Dulums, the church and society chairperson [for the] Nigeria Episcopal Area of the United Methodist Church.
It's a tragedy with what's happening here in Nigeria, with the dictatorship leadership style of Bishop John Wesley Yohanna. The bishop is just ruling the church as his personal company.
Bishop John Wesley Yohanna continued in using the police and thugs to harass and intimidate member of his church because they filed a case against him. As you can see [there was a] the court injunction but Bishop ignored it.
Yesterday [Nov. 11] the conference was officially opened and after identifying the few delegates who happens to be Bishop Yohanna’s tribe and some of his loyalists, the Bishop called on the delegate that there's going to be an election into the office of the Conference Secretary who has been suspended by him (Bishop) which was done. Today [Nov. 12] the Bishop also brainwashed the delegates into making a resolution by accepting that all the Charges and Districts be suspended from the Conference which was done. Also the Conference officials had already conducted their elections the Bishop also declared that another election must be conducted simply because some of the Bishop loyalists are not part of the conference officials.
All the above elections that Bishop ask[ed] the few delegates to do is totally unacceptable and null and void because it's unconstitutional. [The] Majority of the Southern Nigeria Annual Conference’s delegates are not in the conference room, so all the elections and resolutions of the conference is not legally binding on any delegates that Bishop Yohanna denied access into the conference venue. Today I was pushed out of the conference room because my name is not on the list given to policemen at the entrance of the conference gate by the Bishop.
I'm scared with the actions of the Council of Bishops in their slow actions against their colleague Yohanna.
Bishop Yohanna is bragging publicly that not any Bishop around the world would come over to Nigeria to listen to our childish petitions written against him.
The bishop is causing pains to the body of Christ instead of shepherding with grace; the flock are in tears.
How can a few delegates that were allowed in make decisions on those ones that Bishop denied access into the conference [claiming] that they ceased not to be United Methodist Church members? Because they refused to pay apportionments and CONEFA it's constitutional?
Please I beg the Council of Bishops to come and rescue our lives from the hand of bishop John Wesley Yohanna. We're in the storm. Seriously, our lives are in great danger.
Davidson Amos Dulums
Bishops respond
Two bishops have responded to date to these and other pleas for help sent to United Methodist bishops in Africa and the United States.
Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey, president of the Council of Bishops, replied:
"Our polity calls for matters related to Annual Conferences to rest in the Annual Conference and matters related to bishops to rest in the respective College. Bishop Boni, the president of the West Africa College of Bishop is addressing the situation in Nigeria."
Bishop Jose Quipungo of East Angola Area replied to an email from the Rev. Musa Lana that was forwarded to Insight:
"In my opinion this problem is for the President of COB to give it solution.
"Yours in the Lord Jesus Cristo,
"Bishop Quipungo"
Thus far no reply has been received from Bishop Benjamin Boni of Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), current president of the West Africa College of Bishops that is responsible for investigating Bishop Yohanna’s actions.