Olukayode Babalola
Rt. Rev. Godwin Robinson, the Bishop of Lafia (Anglican Communion) has urged president Bola Tinubu to get to the root causes of insecurity, economic and other challenges facing the country.
Robinson said this on Saturday in Lafia while delivering the Bishop’s Charge’ at 2nd session of the 9th Synod of the Diocese.
The theme of the synod is “Keep the Flame Alive on the Altar”.
He said it was only by doing so that there would be lasting solutions for them.
“Structural reforms must address the root causes of injustice, insecurity and underdevelopment,” he said.
Robinson commended Tinubu for coming up with the Renewed Hope Agenda as the main thrust of his administration, adding that deliberate efforts should made to ensure that the citizenry felt its impact.
“We call on the government to ensure that renewed hope becomes on real hope for the poor, the displaced, the jobless and the marginalised.
“At this critical hour, we must rise with courage, act with vision and commit ourselves afresh to justice, equity and righteousness,’’ the cleric said.
While citing the Biblical book of Leviticus chapter six verse 13, he charged Nigerians to always have the desire to serve God, humanity and pass such to the next generation by ‘keeping the fire burning in His alter.’
“The scripture emphasises purity, consecration and spiritual responsibility.
“The fire on the altar was God-initiated and had to be preserved by the priests, making it a divine-human partnership in sustaining worship,” he said.
He urged clerics and other Synod delegates to emulate the Levites who kept their responsibility of keeping the fire burning at all times.
“According to the Levitical ordinance, the priest was to clear out the ashes, provide fresh wood and offer the daily sacrifices.
“These duties had to be carried out faithfully and consistently to keep the fire burning,” he said.
Robinson said the responsibility was both spiritual and symbolic in the household of faith.
“One of the greatest failures in ministry and life is neglecting this sacred duty of trans-generational faithfulness.
“It is often said that success without a successor is failure. This is profoundly true in the context of priesthood.
“A priest who does not raise and prepare the next generation, handing them a burning altar, has ultimately failed in his calling,” he said.
He said an altar was the point of contact with the Devine that forms the basis for man’s spiritual relationship with God.
According to him, it creates a platform for interaction where God reveals himself to his servants, encounters them and begins to train, trim and equip them for service.
He also enjoined Christian faithful to always have a personal altar where God finds them quiet, attentive and ready to receive what He intends for them.
“You will not have a personal altar unless you build it. So determine today to build a new altar or to recover an old broken altar that has scattered.
“The fire of God’s Altar must not be allowed to die, not in our churches, not in our homes, not in our hearts and not in our land. Each of us has a sacred duty to tend this flame,” he added.
The synod had in attendance clerics and delegates from all churches in the Diocese.
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