The Orthodox Church is growing in Nigeria. According to Naij.com, “A feature of Nigerian Orthodoxy is the relative prevalence of monasticism, which in general is not very characteristic of ‘the black’ Orthodox of other African countries. Among the clergy of the diocese, there are five hieromonks. Also on the territory of the Metropolitan Residence in Lagos, there is a man’s monastery in the name of the Monk Anthony the Great with a dedicated church and a seminary. The abbot of the monastery is the Metropolitan Alexander, there are four monks in it. And not far from Lagos on the island of Tarkva Bay there is a female monastery in the name of the Apostle Andrew.”
All this is threatened, however, by the continuing violence against the Christians of that country. Please continue to pray that our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ would bless Nigeria with peace, and that Holy Orthodoxy in Nigeria would flourish and experience a new period of growth.
“Unimaginable Loss for Christians Displaced by Violence in Nigeria,” Morning Star News, December 5, 2018:
JEBBU MIANGO, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – A grandmother whose 35-year-old son, 21-year-old daughter-in-law and 5-year-old granddaughter were shot dead by Muslim Fulani herdsmen is now homeless after she and other relatives fled the attack in August.
“We were taken in by a family in Jebbu Miango village, but unfortunately the room we were given has been destroyed as a result of torrential rains,” Talatu Gado told Morning Star News as tears ran down her cheeks. “You can see that we now sleep in the open.”
Members of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Zanwra village, in Bassa county of Plateau state, Gado and her relatives were at their home in Angwan Kauna village when the herdsmen attacked on Aug. 3. Slain were her son, Emmanuel Gado, his sister-in-law Ladi Monday and the latter’s daughter, Mary Monday. A fourth relative, 7-year-old Gado Monday, was wounded by gunshot.
“Prior to the herdsmen attack on us, they had while grazing their cattle around homes and farms threatened us severally,” Talatu Gado told Morning Star News. “One of them once told me that a day would come that I will weep, that is if I’m still alive to cry. I never knew they’ll carry out their threat. Now my heart bleeds.”
The matriarch and her relatives have not been able to return to their village due to the threat of further attacks, she said.
On the day of the attack at about 6:30 p.m., her daughter-in-law and other women were cooking the evening meal when the herdsmen attacked their village, she said. Her granddaughter was taking a bath. She and her husband, Gado Andra, were seated as they waited for dinner. Suddenly they heard her son, 25-year-old Friday Gado, shouting outside the house that Fulani herdsmen were attacking the village from all sides.
“We all scattered in different directions, rushing out of the house through available exit points,” Talatu Gado said. “Other family members who were too scared to run out rushed into bedrooms to hide.”
The four family members who remained inside were shot, with the three dying and Gado Monday wounded.
“Those of us who were able to escape from the house survived the shooting, but we were displaced as we have been forced to flee the village,” she said. “Many in the community who also survived have fled to other areas. Some are living with relations in Miango town, while others are living in Internally Displaced People’s camps in the city of Jos.”…
Nigeria ranked 14th on Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution.
