letter from Sierra Leone
Two men, recommended to one another four years prior, finally met in Nairobi in March this year.
One was Thomas Wilson, Anglican Bishop of Freetown, Sierra Leone, who had become increasingly anxious about the state of his church. Freetown is one of the fastest growing cities in West Africa, yet the Anglican church was unable to keep pace. Pentecostal churches were attracting the young with contemporary music and dynamic services, but his diocese was failing to adapt. His clergy were too focused on tradition and the liturgy, and were reluctant to upset the church’s older, more conservative members.
The other was Canon Richard Mayabi, Executive Director of Anglican Missions Africa. He had recognised Bishop Thomas’s problem was in fact a continent-wide issue back in 2015 while working for the Council of Provinces in Africa. Richard had been commissioned to conduct an audit of the Anglican church which revealed it was not only in decline, but in some provinces steep decline. The findings were presented at a meeting of African Archbishops in Rwanda who admitted the church was “sick and needed to be healed”.
