His Grace, Most Rev Nicholas Okoh, Primate of Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion on Tuesday urged Chancellors, Registrars and Legal Officers of the church to work with the Bishops and avoid litigation.
Okoh, who made the call at a Conference of Chancellors, Registrars and Legal Officers (CRLO) of Church of Nigeria in Abuja, stressed the need to apply all church mechanism in resolving issues.
Okoh, who noted the event as an annual meeting of all the CRLO of the church, advised the CRLO to use their legal instruments for the glory of God and not allow Bishops to use them negatively against the church.
“You must not join those who are bent on pulling down the house of God; you must promote the spirit of sportsmanship. The trend of running to court must be brought down.
“And the reason is that in the cause of these litigations, we lose the integrity of the young people associating with us and when we offend their sensibility like that they leave the church.
“For the sake of those we lead we must humble ourselves and find other means of settling issues out of court,” he said.
Okoh noted that though there have been deficit in the leadership of the church, but the church was doing well, stressing that human-being was dynamic in nature.
Odien Ajumogobia, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said that the aim of CRLO was to resolve conflicts in the church.
Ajumogobia noted that like in every society there were issues and a disagreement arising from different angles, which was also applicable in the church, the CRLO duty is to try and prevent or resolve the conflicts.
He said that the conference helped in exchange of ideas and foster ways of moving the church forward.
