Fear: Bishop laments marked drop in church attendance

by Mayowa Salami

Church leaders are beginning to voice out their discontent over the shortfall in attendance in church services attributed to the challenges of insecurity faced in the country.

The Diocesan Bishop, Most Rev. Josiah Fearon, expressed this much at the First Session of the 19th Synod of the Anglican Communion Friday in Kaduna.

According to the Vanguard Newspapers, he gave the perceived percentage drop of worshippers avoiding church service owing to insecurity at 30 per cent.

The clergyman said, “A significant number of our members prefer to stay within the safety of their homes rather than go to church and be bombed to death.”

He advised the federal government to implement the recommendations contained in the Sheikh Ahmed Lemu Panel report which proffered lasting solutions to the ethno-religious security challenges presently being faced in the country.

He said the government should also financially aid the victims of these violent attacks so that they can find their feet after suffering the pains of their loss.

“This would enable them start all over again, even if on a small scale, it would convince Nigerians that this government is interested in their well-being.”

He urged the political elites to change their attitudes and work for the development of the country saying, “Unless there is a definite attitudinal change on the side of our political leaders and politicians, they may not be able to control the present security challenge in the country.”

A group of militants suspected to be affiliated with the dreaded Islamic sect, Boko Haram, recently attacked a Deeper Life Bible Church in Okene, Kogi State, during a church service killing twenty people, with most of them being women and children.

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