Manchester: Archbishop Kaigama to speak on religious freedom
One of the most senior Christian leaders in Africa will visit Manchester tomorrow to deliver a lecture on religious freedom.
The Most Rev Ignatius Kaigama, the Archbishop of Jos, is the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, a country which this year witnessed the horrific abduction of 276 female students by the Boko Haram terrorist group and which was yesterday named as one of about 20 nations in the world where levels of religious persecution are “high”.
Archbishop Kaigama will give a lecture entitled “Nigeria: the Struggle for Faith and Freedom” at 7pm in the Church of the Holy Name in Oxford Road.
He is in Britain as a guest of Aid to the Church in Need. His visit coincides with the launch of the charity’s Religious Freedom Report, an event in the House of Lords which he attended and which was supported by a video message from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
The report covers the period from October 2012 to June 2014 and it assesses the extent of religious freedom violations around the world, critically analysing the situation in 196 countries, including Nigeria. It has been compiled by experts, including journalists and academics, with in-country experience. The report includes the findings that:
· global religious freedom has declined around the world in the last two years, including in western countries with a Christian heritage;
· religious freedom has changed in 61 countries but has improved in just six of them;
· in the remaining 55 that underwent change the situation of religious minorities deterioriated;
· “high” levels of religious persecution were discovered in 20 countries, with 14 linked to extremist Islam and six to authoritarian regimes;
· Christians remain by far the most persecuted minority, although Muslims and Jews in some countries are also facing discrimination and persecution.
Archbishop Kaigama was two years ago awarded for his work in promoting peace and inter-religious harmony in the Plateau State of Nigeria.
More recently, he has been critical of his government’s attempts to tackle rising Islamist terrorist attacks – including those against churches - and he has also decried simplistic interpretations of the crisis afflicting his country as a clash between Islam and Christianity, insisting that “there is no neat division between political problems and religious problems”.
His lecture will see the start of a series of Aid to the Church in Need prayer vigils for religious freedom across the North West until Easter, including events in Liverpool, Salford, Wigan, Preston, Chester, Chorley, Lancaster, Wrexham, Carlisle, Wallasey, Barrow, Kendal and Accrington.