Ranking de matrícula entre en los Municipios del Valle del cauca

There is however a world of doctrinal difference between the views of the RCC, CON/AC and the NBC. The NBC believe primarily in ministering support and comfort to the bereaved and seem to worry less about helping the deceased.257 Therefore NBC does not believe that prayer or any other ritual can affect the fate of the dead258 but that his or her ‘life continues in another world in a status consigned to him by God based on the life he (or she) lived on earth.’259 Oyibo expresses it thus,

Whatever is done in burial ceremonies does not contribute to the eternal destiny of the dead and that whatever is done in burial ceremonies is not done to the dead since the dead is ignorant of what we are doing and cannot acknowledge and appreciate our efforts.260

The details of Baptist doctrine relating to the spiritual condition of the dead are discussed in chapter six, section 6.3 but concerning honour for the dead, the NBC recently reiterated its stand. Through the report of the Convention Ministerial Board to the ninety-eighth Convention-In-Session held at Ogbomoso from 7 to 12 May 2011, the Convention warned its members against hero worship. The report states:

On the naming of the churches after living or dead individuals, the decision was left for the church concerned to take the appropriate nomenclature that suits her. However it should be noted that the Convention frowns at hero worship and individuals claiming the ownership of our churches.261

256 _{The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), The Book of Common Prayer and Administration}

of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremoniesof the Church according to the use of The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) together with the Psalms of David printed out as they are to be sung or said in Churches and the form and manner of ordaining of Bishops, Priests and Deacons (Dongshan: Nanjing Amity Printing Co. Ltd., 2007), 238, 240–241, 254.

257 _{Paul Sheppy differentiates Roman Catholic from Protestant funeral rites thus, while the former}

‘paid careful attention to the deceased and to prayers for the dead,’ the latter ‘looked more to the solace of those who morn’ (See Sheppy, Death Liturgy and Ritual Volume II, 177).

258 _{A DSBC leader once reacted sharply against the usual obituary statement like ‘may his or her}

gentle soul rest in peace’ (See Oyibo, Death and Burial of the Dead, 79.)

259 _{Oyibo, Death and Burial of the Dead, 18, 22, 111.} 260 _{Ibid., 117.}

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This decision was a follow up to the Board’s recommendation during the previous annual session of the Convention in 2010 at Abuja which was to discourage the naming of Baptist churches and Associations after departed members. Before this time, Nigerian Baptists used to give the names of their late outstanding leaders to churches and Associations to immortalise them. Examples are:

Rev. Aganbi Memorial Baptist Church, Eku, Rev. Howell Memorial Baptist Church, Eku, Okotie-Eboh Memorial Baptist Church, Sapele, Caroline Obire Memorial Baptist Church, Effurun, Baba-Ido Memorial Baptist Church, Okwagbe Water Side, Esther Onovakpiri Memorial Baptist Church, Eku, Okobibi Memorial Baptist Church, Oviri, Rev, Omatsola Memorial Baptist Church, Sapele (this has been changed to Heavenly-way Baptist Church, Sapele), Ekeh Memorial Baptist Church, Okpara Inland, Rev. Eghaghe Memorial Baptist Church, Isiokolo.262

The Heavenly-way Baptist Church in Sapele was formerly named ‘Rev. Ọmatsọla Memorial Baptist Church’ in memory of Aghoghin Ọmatsọla (1867–1969) who led the formation of the Baptist church in Sapẹlẹ in 1917 out of the CON/AC. The church decided for the change in December 2009 and started with the new name in 2010. The pastor of the church explained that certain members of the Church requested for the change because although Omatsola founded many Baptist churches in Edo and Delta States, they did not want to identify with the polygamous life style of Omatsola which led to his suspension by the Convention in 1941. He narrated further that the name was therefore not helping the church in the area. Also that ‘since the change, the tension within the church is calm and the church is growing.’263 However, the Convention Board is well disposed to the naming of multi-purpose, educational or guest house buildings in memory of past Convention leaders with outstanding performance.264 From the above, it

262 _{Oyibo, Death and Burial of the Dead, 105.}

263 _{Interview with John Ofomukoro, the Pastor of Heavenly-way Baptist Church, Sapele, 26 April}

2012.

264 _{Nigerian Baptist Convention 97}th _{Annual Convention Session: Book of Reports, held at the}

Convention Ground, Kubwa, Abuja, FCT., (17–22 April 2010), 84. Another argument expressed against naming churches after individuals is that the individuals (if living) or their family (if dead) could lay claim to the church in the future (Ibid., 89).

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is thus clear that the NBC differs in approach and understanding from the RCC, CON/AC and Urhobo traditional community with regards to the treatment of the dead. It is also obvious that the Urhobo burial tradition is closer to the Roman Catholic funeral doctrines than the Baptist.

Meanwhile, when Urhobo experience the death of their loved ones, whether Catholics or Baptists, they react in the same traditional way. As a pastor among the Urhobo, one therefore needs to understand the cultural dimensions of how they grieve in order to adequately meet their psycho-spiritual needs. The Gaudium et Spes highlights this principle of relevance by stating that,

In pastoral care, sufficient use must be made not only of theological principles, but also of the findings of the secular sciences, especially of psychology and sociology, so that the faithful may be brought to a more adequate and mature life of faith.265

Likewise, the NBC leaders and scholars such as Osadalor Imasogie, Solomon A. Ishola and B. U. Enyioha, emphasised the same principle of contextualized pastoral ministry among the Nigerian Baptists; an in-depth discussion of their contributions on the rites of passage is presented in chapter five.

Be that as it may, until the present time, there is yet to be any recognisable effort towards liturgical contextualization among the Urhobo Baptists. Instead, the Baptist churches of the DSBC mostly rely on the Minister’s Manuals prepared by Franklin M. Segler,266 James Randolph Hobbs267 and Osadalor Imasogie.268 At most, the officiating

265_{Gaudium et Spes (‘Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World,’ promulgated by}

Pope Paul VI, Art. 62 (December 7, 1965), 35, available from

http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-

ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concilium_en.html, Internet, accessed 26 May 2011.

266 _{Franklin M. Segler, The Broadman Minister’s Manual (Nashville: Broadman & Holman}

Publishing Group, 1968), 42–78.

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ministers may present the programme in the vernacular when it becomes a necessity in any congregation. Segler is a Baptist professor of pastoral ministry based in Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas while Hobbs is a pastor at First Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama. Both Segler and Hobbs are Baptist ministers in the USA, and their Manuals are deficient for the Urhobo Baptists.

Within the Nigerian Baptist Convention, A. E. Ogundele and Sola Aworinde have produced contextualized Minister’s Manuals for the Yorùbá Baptists269 but Imasogie’s Manual though emphasised the importance of contextualized liturgy, did not focus on any ethnic group because it is prepared for the general use of the NBC.270 Imasogie’s manual has two options of funeral liturgical orders from which the ministers are free to choose. The liturgies are not to be administered on the basis of membership or confirmation status, as is the case with the CON/AC orders.271 Imasogie explained that the introduction of the Funeral Wake and Outing (also known as Thanksgiving) services into funerals ‘is a Nigerian Christian phenomenon.’272 He pointed to other practices that are associated with the traditional burial rites in Nigeria (including the Urhobo Land) such as the wearing of black clothes, shaving of head and mourning for a specified

268 _{Osadolor Imasogie, Minister’s Manual (Ibadan: Publications Department Nigerian Baptist}

Convention, 2005), 87–94.

269 _{A. E. Ogundele, Iwe Iranlowo Awon Oniwaasu (Manual Aid for Pastors). (Ibadan: Nigerian}

Baptist Press, 1976, reprinted, 1996); Sola Aworinde, The Minister’s Manual (Lagos: The Agape Publications, 1999).

270 _{Imasogie, Minister’s Manual, 90–94.}

271 _{In this Manual, Imasogie presents sample orders of funeral programme to be chosen from. He did}

not write out in details how the words ‘are to be sung or said’ as the Roman Catholic and Anglican orders do (Compare Imasogie, Minister’s Manual, 88–91 with The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion),

The Book of Common Prayer, 235–254 in which all that will be said or sung either by the priest or the people are well written out.). In the order of the Lord’s Supper, Imasogie demonstrates the Baptist attitude of freedom and choice with expressions like ‘the Pastor may say’ or ‘add.’ which suggests that what is written is a guide and not a law (See Imasogie, Minister’s Manual, 54–55). Yet in the liturgy of the solemnisation of holy matrimony, Imasogie becomes as comprehensive as the Roman Catholics and the Anglicans. The details are still limited to the solemnisation itself, not the entire programme of which four samples are given (Ibid., 59–85).

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period of time. He observed that the lack of interest in those practices could be easily interpreted as ‘lack of love and concern for the departed.’273 The bereaved experiences some sense of satisfaction and fulfilment when the cultural requirements are properly followed. They feel that they have adequately demonstrated ‘their sorrow [over] the death of their loved one’ and are therefore free to continue with their normal life activities.274 Imasogie therefore advised ‘the [Baptist] church’ to be sensitive to the members’ emotional and cultural needs at burials.275 In his opinion, such sensitivity can be achieved through an adequately contextualized funeral liturgy which ought to address the following two questions. What are ‘the socio-religious and psychological needs that a particular traditional practice’ satisfies? And how can the needs ‘be met in the Christian way without violating the core of the Christian faith?’276

In spite of the slow pace of contextualization among the Urhobo Baptists, it is important to note the efforts of Jove Ejovi Aganbi, one of the Urhobo Baptist pioneers and presently, the Baptist Soul Winning Band (also known as the Baptist Gospel Group). Like Thomas Emedo and Agori Iwe of Anglican Church, Aganbi translated St. John’s Gospel into Urhobo between 1936 and 1940.277 He translated hymns as well.278 A search through this Hymn compilation also revealed that Jovi Ejovi Aganbi, probably for similar reasons mentioned in section 2.3.3 above, avoided words like orivwi and erivwi which are associated with pre-Christian Urhobo, except as title of songs under orivwiesho (‘funeral’). Instead, Aganbi used words like arhọ (‘life’), emakashe (‘angels’), oboyi (‘yonder’), odjuvwu (‘heaven’), ushi (‘grave,’

273 _{Ibid., 92.} 274 _{Ibid., 93.} 275 _{Ibid., 92–93.} 276 _Ibid.

277 _{Nabofa, Evolution of the Urhobo Holy Bible, 18.}

278 _{John E. Amromare and S. A. Onofekohwo, Pathfinders of Baptist Mission work in Delta State}

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‘tomb’ or ‘sepulchre’), vwerhẹ (‘to sleep,’ describing death as falling asleep).279 In addition, the Baptist Soul Winning Band is Baptist equivalent of Anglican AAPS. The two groups claimed the same foundation in Adam Igbudu and operate similar patterns of administration and programmes. Outside the Baptists, Anglicans and Roman Catholics, the Urhobo Indigenous Churches and Pentecostal churches are positive towards Urhobo culture, seriously contextualizing their ministries, making them relevant to Urhobo socio-cultural and psycho-spiritual needs. Consequently, they enjoy large membership among the Urhobo and attract members from the churches that are anti-Urhobo culture. A leading example is Daniel Dikeji Miyerijesu280 who had formed and now leads the God’s Grace Christian Ministry (GGCM). It is important to note that the acceptance of Urhobo culture by these other church denominations does not amount to acceptance of Urhobo traditional religions and gods. For instance, Miyerijesu is known for organising crusades and burning Urhobo juju (‘charms’) and idols.281