A Report
from:
The Urhobo Voice
A Newspaper Covering Events in
Urhoboland and
Offering Diverse Perspectives on Urhobo History and Culture
________________________________________________________
September
5, 2005
A Memorial Service for Agori
Iwe, First
Anglican
(Communion) Bishop of
Bishop Agori Iwe
First Urhobo Anglican
Catechist, Evangelist, Bishop Celebrated at Ovwodawanre
By Vincent Ogbunisi
VEN. (Dr.) J. O.
Aruoren, vicar in charge of Bishop Agori-Iwe
Memorial Anglican Church, Ovwodawanre,
Ughelli in his
sermon at the just concluded four-day Bishop Agori
Iwe Day celebration, suggested that the day
be celebrated
annually by the entire Anglicans in Urhoboland, to mark the
achievements of
Bishop Agori Iwe
in
Anglican history and Christianity in general before he passed on to
glory on
July 9, 1979.
According to Ven (Dr.) J. O. Aruore,
beforeBishop Agori-Iwe
slept in
the Lord, he was able to achieve more than some of the saints that
Anglicans
remember and celebrate annually. He urged Urhobo Anglicans to view his
suggestion with seriousness and join Bishop Agori-Iwe
Memorial Anglican Church, Ovwodawanre in
celebrating
the bishop annually, noting that the celebration has already started at
the old
Ovwodawanre Anglican Church, now Bishop Agori-Iwe memorial Anglican Church, Ughelli,
describing the
late Agori-Iwe as the first catechist,
evangelist,
reverend and bishop in the history of Urhobo Anglicans.
During the
four-day
celebration at Ovwodawanre, headquarters
of Anglican
churches in Ughelli, there were activities such as the Holy Communion
service
by Ven. (Dr.)
J.O. Aruoren; economic talk on wealth
creation by
Hon. A. A. Agi; musical entertainment by
the Anglican
Youths Fellowship, Bamaco, as well as a
lecture on
the history of Christianity in Nigeria with reference to the life and
works of
the late bishop, delivered by Rev. (Prof.) S.U. Erivwo
(JP), provost of St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Warri.
Other activities
were
entertainment songs by the Anglican Adam Preaching Society (AAPS) band;
novelty
football match between AYE and AAPS (girls), as well as tug of war
between men
(50 years and above) and women of 40 years and above. There was also
thanksgiving service/sermon, which was closely followed by a great
feast that
brought the four-day celebration to an end.
The
novelty match between girls of under
nineteen in AYF
and AAPS was kicked off by Ven. Aruoren,
ending two goals to nil in favour of the
AYF team
with Miss. Joy Okuma and Miss. Evi Osigwe scoring both goals respectively, while
the tug of
war game was won by the women numbering twenty against the men
numbering
ten.
In his lecture titled:“The seven
laws of
wealth creation in a depressed economy for Christians,” Hon. Deacon
A.A. Agi, director, A.A. Consultancy
Services, Ughelli, Delta
State said that wealth or poverty is a function of the individual, and
has
nothing to do with God because “it has become a great necessity to
learn
how to create wealth, just as we have to learn how to drive a car
before we can
drive it.”
Said
he: “It is a painful irony in our educational system that students are
inundated with knowledge, skills and professions, which they must
necessarily
hire out to somebody for them to survive. They are not taught how to
create
wealth with their education neither are they taught anything about
themselves
except in biology classes.
“The lesson on
wealth creation, which we receive in our churches are also grossly
inadequate.
We are taught to pray for wealth, to pay our tithes, to sow seed of
faith, to
give and to vow so that we can be wealthy. Practical experiences have
shown
that though they work; they have not led to sustainable wealth among
believers.
If they all work as we are told, then all those who practice them would
have
been wealthy. In reality, this is not so. This clearly shows that
knowledge or
information is missing in our quest to create wealth. In our desire to
create
wealth and come out of poverty, therefore, the total knowledge of all
the
material and spiritual requirements for wealth creation need to be
imbibed.”
Very Rev. Prof.
S.U. Erivwo (JP), who also delivered a
lecture titled:
“The role of Agori-Iwe in the
Christianization
and evangelization of our land,” urged the Anglicans in Urhobo nation
and
the entire Christians in the country to emulate the examplary
life of Bishop Agori Iwe
whose life is being celebrated.
“The Niger Delta
area is made up of the
Urhobo, the Isoko, the Itsekiri, and the Izon peoples of the present Delta State,” he
said,
adding that their traditional beliefs and practices about God (Oghene), divinities, spirit (edjo/edho),
ancestors (erivwn/esemo), and magic
and
medicine (ebo/orhan), are
interrelated,
very similar, and in certain cases identical.
According to
him, Agori-Iwe hailed from Okuama, a
village in Ewu, in the present Ughelli
South LGA, and
that for a long time, the parents had no male child because those born
died in
infancy. To preserve the life of her child, Emedaka,
Agori’s mother went to her hometown, Alagbabri, along the
Although
Agori’s children put1894 in his obituary as
his
date of birth, Agori himself put the date
of his
birth, confirmed by his age group- Ven.
B.P. Apena and David Egbebruke,
at
1906. The date 1906 has some significance for Agori’s
biography.
Ajayi Crowther, a
Yoruba, was born around 1806. He was captured a
slave boy and later liberated and settled in Sierra Leone, where he was
educated and subsequently ordained in 1853, a clergyman of the Anglican
Church,
and later became the first African bishop when he was consecrated on
St.
Peter’s Day, 1864.
“Agori
Iwe, on the other hand is an Urhobo. He
usually put
his year of birth in about 1906. Educated at Warri, at St. Andrew’s
College Oyo, and at
“Their years of
birth,1806 and 1906, and the days of their
consecration, St. Andrew’s Day, could not have been by mere
coincidences,
especially when their two episcopates are studied carefully, and one
recalls
that Peter and Andrew were brothers. Since however, this particular
paper is
not a comparative study of Agori Iwe
and Ajayi Crowther,
a task
I had already done elsewhere, this line of thought may not be pursued
further
here.
“Agori
first attended the village school at Okuama
before he
left for St. Andrew’s
“Agori
was thus a naturally bright student to have passed his First School
Leaving
Certificate Examination with ease at the first attempt. He was in
consequence
of his brilliance appointed a pupil teacher in his own alma mater in
1923.
“In 1924, he was
selected by the church committee to be sent to St. Andrew’s College
Oyo,
and be trained. At Oyo, he did a two year normal course for school
teachers,
and another two years as a theological student. After completing his
studies at
Oyo, by December 1927, he returned to Urhoboland to be a pioneer school
teacher
in Urhobo Church District in 1928.
“While he was at
Oyo, Agori was very mindful of the purpose
of his
training. There were no trained personnel to organize and man the many
Christian congregations that had sprung up all over Urhoboland, as a
result of
the evangelization of the area by Bishop James Johnson and his agents
from 1901
to 1917. The teachers and church workers available were either
Saros, Yoruba, West Indians or White
missionaries.
“The Niger Delta
Pastorate Church of James Johnson, which was chiefly responsible for
the evangelizatgion of Urhoboland during
the early years of the
20th century, lacked the men and means of carrying out effective
evangelization
and administration of the young churches, consequently, James Johnson
had to
make do with semi-illiterates who could barely read and write to do the
work.
In such a situation where virtually the blind were left to lead the
blind,
things were bound to go wrong.
“One Jacob Oluwole, a James Johnson agent whom Bishop H. E.
Tugwell met, as the agent in charge of the
congregation at Uhwokori in 1914, was for
example not even baptized. Many
of the Urhobo, who traveled along distances from the hinterland to
Warri for
church classes teaching were required to
learn the
catechism, either in Yoruba or in Itsekiri before they could be
baptized. This
was actually given by Omofoye Emuakpo
of Ephron as one of the reaons
why he had to lead a splinter group away from the Anglican Church in
1916, and
join the
“Conscious of
the raison
d’ etre of his training at Oyo, Agori-Iwe was prepared to endure all the
hardship which the
training entailed. Consequently, when the students at St. Andrew’s
rioted
in his time as a result of bad food, Agori
as one of
the student leaders refused to participate, saying he was not sent all
the way
from Urhoboland to eat food at Oyo, but to be trained for the church.
This self
discipline and tenacity of purpose displayed by Agori
was taken note of by his tutors, and counted in his favour
later in life.
“On his return
from
Oyo, Agori was posted to Otovwodo-Ughelli
by the Rev. J.C.C. Thomas, the resident at St. Andrew’s. This posting
and
choice of Otovwodo-Ughelli, instead of Ekiugbo which had been regarded before then as
headquarters
of the churches in the hinterland, did not meet with the approval of
the local
church leaders in Urhoboland, under the strong influence of Masima
Ebosa, and this was at least one of the
factors which
led to the strained relationship between Ebosa
and
Thomas, and the ultimate emergence of Ishoshi
Erhi, which shook the church in Urhoboland
to its
foundation.
“After the dust
raised by the crisis had settled down, J.C.C. Thomas organized a
conference at Okpare, of persons who had
passed government standard six
for the purpose of translating the scriptures under the leadership of Agori-Iwe in 1929.
“Agori
himself got married in 1929, to Ruth Ovuomorayevbie.
This was contrary to the expectation of many of his people, who not
only
advised him to marry an educated girl, but actually got ready several
such
girls, including one Rebecca, a step daughter of Okoro
for him. Several of these girls were in fact not chaste, while Ruth Ovuomorayevibie, the choice of Agori’s
parents, had kept herself undefiled.
“It took
sometime
before Ruth became pregnant, and as was expected, many who had advised Agori not to marry her, mocked him.
Consequently, when she
finally took in and gave birth to a baby girl, she was named Eretareomavoro. Eretareomavoro
was at baptism Christened Mary. Even after the arrival of Mary, agents
of the
evil one still mocked Agori, saying he
could not
survive on his meagre salary.
Consequently, when the
second child, a male arrived, he was named Oboreruru
aria, you eat what you laboured for. Oboreruru aria, was
at baptism
Christened Samson. And Agori’s wife, Ovuomorayevbie, proved to be very industrious
and helpful
in providing food for the family.
“In 1937, Agori went to
“In 1952, Agori was transferred back to Urhoboland to be
the
superintendent of Urhobo District Church Council. He was in 1954
appointed
archdeacon of Warri Archdeaconry, in succession to Archdeacon W.D. Burne. And on November 30, 1961, St. Andrew’s
Day,
Venerable Agori-Iwe was consecrated the
first bishop
of the newly-created Benin Diocese, where he laboured
faithfully until his retirement in 1977.
“Gold is tried
and
refined in fire. The Benin Diocese which Agori
Iwe had to administer from 1962 to 1997,
was inhabited by a congeries of ethnic groups, and it required great
political
wisdom, tact and administrative competence to administer such a vast
area
successfully. And Agori-Iwe did.
“However, in the
course of his administration, he had cause to discipline two
archdeacons, Echenim and Ejodame, appointed by
him, and to excommunicate 21 members from the Anglican Church of Benin
Diocese,
as a result of a movement which started in Isoko,
and
caused a division in the A.A.P.S., the evangelistic wing of the church.
Undoubtedly, these disciplinary actions were not taken lightly. They
caused the
diocesan pain. The excommunicated group was later known as Ole-Ezi, and had similar characteristics as the Ishoshi Erhi, which
Agori as a catechist, had also confronted.
“That these
actions
were agonizing to the bishop himself is attested by an answer he gave
to this
writer when the bishop was asked at Agbor
in 1973,
whether, in fact the excommunicated group could not have been
corrected,
reconciled, and accommodated in the church. His reply was: ‘I prayed
consistently for over three years (1969 to 1972) about how best to
handle the
problem, before I finally acted. If you need further information, see
the
secretaries of two separate commissions of inquiry set up to
investigate the
activities of Ole-Ezi Sect’ (Agori to S.U. Erivwo,
at Agbor 1973).”
“Apart from the
well-being of the church, which like Paul was Agori’s
constant concern, there were also trials and tribulations at the family
front.
Perhaps one of the most agonizing trials which Agori
had to endure, was the protracted illness
and the
subsequent death of his first son, Samson. Samson was a brilliant
child, who
gained admission to D.M.G.S. Onitsha, but
after
performing brilliantly for the first academic year, went through a
period of
progressive mental degeneration. He had to withdraw from school, and
became a
primary school teacher at Ughelli, but the mental degeneration
continued. All
efforts to treat Samson proved abortive, and he later died of what is
believed
to be tumour of the brain.
“According to
the
well known Urhobo belief, a number of people attempted to convince Agori that the illness and death of Samson were
consequent
upon the activities of witches and sorcerers. But Agori
refused to accept that view. In fact, all his life, he never blamed any
human
agent for his misfortunes. Rather, he construed his trials as his own
share of
the cross of Christ.
“Some men, as
William Shakespeare, taught us, are born great, others achieve
greatness, while
others have greatness thrust upon them, Agori
was
certainly one of those who achieved greatness. When the white
missionary, O.N. Gerrard under whom he
worked refused to pay Agori his full
monthly salary for two whole years, on the
ground that the Urhobo churches over which he was in charge were not
generating
adequate funds, Agori complained to no
one; rather,
the bishop of the diocese, Rt. Rev. B. Lasbrey,
who
came from Onitsha, and who was going
through the
account books discovered that Agori had
been
underpaid for two years, caused the mission to pay the arrears.
“Agori
achieved greatness by sheer industry, dedication to duty, and trust in
God. In
the judgement of some of his
contemporaries, Agori may have been
regarded as being high handed in the
handling of certain issues. This was because he was much of a
disciplinarian.
If that was a weakness, that weakness paled to nothing when compared to
the
greatness he achieved in the militant church. Through his initiative,
many
modern schools and other educational institutions were built in several
parts
of Urhoboland. These were instruments and channels of evangelization.
“During the
1977-80,
Warri Diocese Crisis, the courage of his conviction which he displayed
moved
him to single-handedly consecrate the Rt. Rev. John O. Dafiewhare
for Warri Diocese, at a time the then
“If there is any
weakness in Agori-Iwe, let us recall the
words of a
famous African theological P.K. Sarpong:
‘Men
are basically the same the world over. We are all endowed with
intellect and
free will. We all have the same aspirations and hopes. We are subject
to the
same laws, urges and moods. We all experience
frustrations
and joys, disappointment and fulfillment, sorrow and happiness.
At one
and the same time, we can all be greedy and generous, cruel and
merciful,
hypocritical and honest, murderous and kind. We are neither angels nor demons, we all possess the potentialities of
angels nor
demons. In short, we are, each and everyone
of us
human, (Sarpoong in a paper: African
Theology: A
reality 1977, p.1.).
“Having completed
his
assignment in the church, Agori slept
peacefully on
July 9, 1979, and passed on to the church expectant and the church
triumphant
to receive his crown of glory.”