THE QUA IBOE CHURCH CONFLICT 1997-2013 AND THE ATTEMPTS AT RESOLUTION
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
A Religious conflict or intolerance can be viewed as an intolerance against another’s religious beliefs or practices or lack thereof. In many instances, religious conflict is born out of certain misunderstanding amongst religious extremist, especially involving factions of a particular denomination or believers. Religious conflict or crisis is one of the most difficult to tame or resolve and most often, participants feel they are acting on God’s instruction, fighting a just course or fighting for God. It often escalates into something bigger and deadly and to the extreme a lethal war justified by religion or religious beliefs.
Moreso, religious conflict is also born out of sectarianism, that is, conflict between religious sects like the Catholics and Protestants in their ethnocentric attitude towards each other’s belief.
One subset of religious conflicts is church conflict, this conflict takes place between two or more people in the church or among different branches of the same denomination. In the case between two or more people, it occurs wherever people interact and work together, whereby the differences in their belief system sparks conflict.
It is a dangerous fallacy and error to think that Christians do not have conflict. In the case among different branches of the same denomination, conflict occur as a result of disagreement in codes of conduct, norms and laid down principles of the church. It sparks out of self-righteousness from either of the party or a neglect or an introduction of a new principle which generally does not tow the line of original principle. Enforcing the new law or principle might or normally breed conflict in the church.
The National Evangelical Christian Fellowship did a large survey of Churches, Pastors and Christians in 2001. The survey on the extent of significant conflict in churches over the past years found that:
- 47.2% say that relationships in their churches are generally harmonious.
- 26.9% say there has been no outburst of conflicts but that undercurrents and discontentment are felt, though no one will admit.
- 17.7% say there has been one or more conflicts but they are revolved amicably and
- 8.2% say there have been one or more conflict situations and people are leaving the church, (this is the case of the Qua Iboe Church. (Q.I.C Nig).
In churches, para churches, organizations, or fellowships, conflicts are inevitable. This is because all individuals have different temperament, ways of thinking, ambition desires, likes and dislikes, it is important to recognize this and to recognize that it is possible to resolve conflicts or to manage mega conflicts before they spiral out of control and involve everyone, thereby ending in a split, or breakup.
One major church conflict apart from Q.I.C conflict which is an aspect of a religious conflict was that of the Christian Fellowship Evangelical Nigeria Incorporated in 2009, 2010 and 2011 when it was later resolved. The conflict of the Christian Fellowship church was as a result of a change in the constitution of the church by the then General Overseer, Rev. O. J. Essien, to favour him, so that he could be the General Overseer for life, but due to series of opposition from all angles, he was compelled to changed it but he choose to resign at the age of 60, whereas, the constitution had specified an 8year tenure for the office of the General overseer of the Christian Fellowship Evangelical Nigeria Incorporated (CFEN). This made the opposition party to formed a faction of their own and named it; “the Christian Fellowship church”. People began to leave the church in search of faith in other Ministries as a result of the tension that was inherent in the church then.
Later in 2011, lots of resolution committees were set-up, one of such reconciliation committee was headed by Bishop Isaiah Isong, who earnestly condemned the Act of Rev. O. J. Essien. Later, that year, the Original founding fathers were consulted and prayers in addition to legal action taken by the Church led to the forceful removal of Rev. O. J. Essien as the General overseer of the Christian Fellowship Evangelical Nigeria Incorporated This resulted in him leaving of the church permanently, and the other factions came back together, but many members of the church had already taken refuge in other denominations due to the 2 years conflict.
Managing church conflict involves understanding the causes and how it escalates from one stage to another, this requires the vigilance of the Pastors, leaders and other Members of the church. Rumours, gossips, non-co-operation and sabotage must be challenged, for they are serious early signs or indicators of conflict and so must be dealt with appropriately by bringing together the parties for an open dialogue, prayers, confessions, repentance and reconciliation. When church conflicts becomes spiral to the open, formal action must be taken such as seeds of peace. These various seeds of peace include, negotiation, mediation, arbitration and litigation.
(a) Negotiation: This is when two parties come together and thy to reach a compromise, usually by seeking a common ground and trading concessions.
(b) Mediation: When a third party in brought in to help with the discussion by advising and not compelling.
(c) Arbitration: Here the third party settling the church conflict can compel the parties to accept a compromise. This may occur in denominations where someone from the international headquarters of a parachurch arbitrates.
(d) Litigation: When the church conflicts failed to be settled by the above three mentioned peace channels, it is then brought to court. Today, it is alarming how many church issues end up in the court room. Despite the various attempts at resolving the Q.I.C conflicts today, it is still in court as a result of agitation over name change.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Before the separation of the United Evangelical church from the Qua Iboe Church Nigeria, the church was one body, with a common goal of soul-winning. It was due to this soul-winning into the body of Christ through evangelism that the gospel of Christ in Qua Iboe Church moved from its home state, to other states of the Nigerian federation in the late 1980s and Early 1990s and was slowed in some places while being futile in other places as the concept of the Qua Iboe Church was not bought by many.People became confused and converts asked questions like:
(a) Is it an Akwa Ibom Church?
(b) Is it an Ibibio Church?
(c) What is the meaning of Qua Iboe?
(d) Why should we joined Akwa Ibom Church?
This agitations birthed the on-going conflicts and resulted in name change to United Evangelical Church, however it is still on probation, whether Qua Iboe Church should accept United Evangelical Church and this is the essence of this research work.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The objective of this study is to bring to the fore;
(a) the ongoing conflict of the Qua Iboe Church and the various attempts at its resolution using the 2003 Reconciliation and Preservation Committees terms and approaches.
(b) This research work aim at helping historian understand the Q.I.C conflict as an aspect of a religious conflicts.
(c) This research work also suggest the relevance of alternative dispute resolutive, in settling this conflict.
1.4 Significance of the Study
This study will provide reliable resource materials for further studies in this field. It will spark scholars interest in the model of various seeds of peace in settling religious conflict depending on the stage and magnitude of the conflict. It will also give historians indebt knowledge on the conflict between Qua Iboe Church and United Evangelical Church, and it will be a guide to the understanding of the Qua Iboe Church proper.
1.5 Methodology
Being a descriptive study, the study will depend on both primary and secondary sources of information. Information will be obtained from Oral interviews from persons not only members of the Qua Iboe Church denominations but also of the faction, the United Evangelical Church. On the secondary sources, this study will use, the Qua Iboe Church original handbook, chronological history from the 80s and Mr. Samuel Bills own Qua Iboe Church early times documentations as well as the reconciliation and preservation committee terms and approaches, with the court cases documentary reports.
1.6 Scope of the Study
This study will be within the Qua Iboe Church and the faction called United Evangelical Church all in the home state and other states where we have the Qua Iboe Church and of course where the first conflict began. This work will consist of five chapters, of which chapter is the introduction, chapter two is the history and origin of Q.I.C, chapter three is the origin of the conflicts, four is the attempts at resolutions and five is the summary, conclusion and recommendations.
1.7 Review of Related Literatures
A glance at the world in the 21st century reveals that religion is at the core of much of the strife around the globe. Often, religion is a contenting issue, where eternal salvation is at stake, compromise can be difficult or even sinful, religion is also important because as a central part of many individuals identity, any threat to one’s belief is a threat to one’s very being and this is the primary motivation for ethno-religious nationalists. Although not necessary so, there are some aspects of religion that make it susceptible to being a latent sources of conflict. All religion have their accepted dogma, or acticles of belief that followers must accept without question and this can lead to inflexibility and intolerance in the face of other beliefs. Religious extremist can contribute to conflict escalation, they see racial measures as necessary to fulfilling God’s wishes (Braham : 2005).
In the light of this, what to be done is promoting a heightened awareness of the positive peace building and reconciliatory avenues in various kinds of religion to manage the existing and unending conflict that could possibly sprout through the idea of religious beliefs.
Many religions also have significance strains of evangelism which can be conflictual. Believers are called upon to spread the word of God and increase the member of the flock for example, the efforts to impose Christianity on subjects was an important part of the conflict surrounding European colonization. Religious fundamentalist are primarily driven by displeasure with modernity. Motivated by the marginalization of religion in modern society, they act to restore faith to a central place. There is a need for purification in the minds of these fundamentalists; to avoid any kind of religious conflict (America’s New Christian Right foundation).
Conflicts experienced in churches today are the product of changing times rather than creative leadership (Dobbins:2001).
Acts 6:1-7 reminds us that churches are never free from conflict when they are true to their mission, and “you don’t Pastor long until you discover the need for conflict management tools”. Most often, people frustrated by feelings of powerlessness from various personal and professional change, often display their frustrations out in church; because, the church is a place where they fear little or no descrimination.
Managing church conflicts takes stages, for example, the Apostles of the Early church in (Acts 6:1-7) followed a 3-stage pattern of conflict management (1). Desensitization, the widows were allowed to air their complaints, desensitizing the conflicts,
(2) Deliberation, there was time for serious, mature discussion of the conflict.
(3) Decision, there was a final decision taken by the Apostles.
Conflict can escalates sequentially, firstly by covert or hidden means, where the conflict has not yet emerged to public view but is mainly between two groups of people, and later to overt or public means where confrontations becomes more direct and aggressive(Baden:2007).
Interestly 26.9% of the churches surveyed by NECF could identity this covert resistance but do not know; its significance, this covert stage materialize in the form of nagging, whining, complaining, anger, blaming and out burst of arguments, somewhere along the line, a critical incident happens (like the Q.I.C case) causing flare-ups, such as minute as a church policy decision making which can be a platform for church division, here, members begin to take sides while the faults of the other side are highlighted. Soon, threats and counter-threats are involved, and then actions are taken to try to resolve the conflict. If reconciliation fails at the next stage, provocation, retaliation and even violence occur; the church then slits with one faction leaving to start up another church like the Qua Iboe Church where United Evangelical Church left and form a different name.
In the church or religious setting, it is advisable to avoid conflicts than to settle it, for it is better to prevent conflicts than to
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