Trinity School for Ministry Commencement Address

Delivered by The Most Rev. Peter J. Akinola, Primate of All Nigeria

May 17, 2008 – Trinity Cathedral, Pittsburgh, PA

What a great delight to be in this holy assembly in which we gather to rejoice with the 2008 graduating
class of the Trinity School for Ministry and to commend them to God for the great task he has appointed
them to do for him in his world through his church. I am very grateful for my invitation and warm
reception. I salute the indefatigable bishop of Bishop of Pittsburgh, Bob Duncan. We give thanks to God
for the life and ministry of all the members of the Board, the Dean, the Faculty and the entire staff of the
school. In these perilous times when several similar schools are going down the road of apostasy, you
remain steadfast for orthodoxy and evangelical mission of the Church. The LORD will bless you all.
Thirty-nine years ago, as I was preparing to leave the premises of what was known then as the Diocesan
Training Centre in Wusasa, Zaria, Nigeria where I had spent two years of intensive training to be
catechists, I asked the Warden, “Sir, what precisely is our job in the church?” He looked at me, smiled
and lovingly responded “Let me remind you, Peter, you have been trained as catechist, your job is to
catechise. But before you can do that you must evangelise and plant churches and lead the people to God
both by proclaiming the word and by your personal conduct.” Thank you, sir. And we parted ways.
Perhaps some of you have similar questions boggling your mind. Some of you have been here for two
years, others for three or four years away from much of the troubles and controversies raging and tearing
the church of God apart. What precisely is God calling you to do at this point in time in his church?
What does the church expect of you? And to which section of the sadly polarised Church do you
belong?
From my little knowledge of scripture, when the LORD our God calls people, he gives them specific
assignments and empowers them to carry it out. He called Abraham to go to “where I will show you.”
Moses to bring out the oppressed slaves out of Egypt to worship YHWH, Peter to be a fisher of men,
Paul to bring the good news of Christ to the Gentiles.
One of the most fascinating characters God ever enrolled in his divine service is the prophet Jeremiah
[c.627-586 BC] He laboured during the turbulent years of severe international military aggression and
political instability with each of the super powers of the time Assyria, Babylonia, the Chaldeans fighting
to establish its supremacy. In Israel, the people were morally decadent. Faith in YHWH had given way
to unholy political and military alliances and idolatry. The nation had become apostate. [Jer 3.6; 7.24;
15.6]
Conscious of his limitations and like many who have been called before him, young Jeremiah with a
realistic candour, offered excuses: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak for I am only a
youth.” In reading the story of Jeremiah’s call, I gained the impression that before he could go any
further, the LORD overruled him – keep quiet, he was told, “for to all whom I send you, you shall go
and whatever I command you, you shall speak.”
Jeremiah’s mission and awesome responsibility was both local and international, to the nations and
kingdoms of the world.
He was engaged. In a divine discourse, he was set apart [consecrated] for an unusual assignment to
destroy, to overthrow, to pluck up and to break down all the socio-cultural evils and the prevalent
apostasy that man in his corrupt and rebellious mind had set up. But he was also to plant and build up
genuine God-consciousness, faithful worship of YHWH and sound morals all of which man had
destroyed. His was a herculean task – but it was a task that must be done. He set out fearlessly to do
exactly what the LORD had sent him to do and he did it almost at the expense of his life.
Dear graduating friends, have you had similar personal encounter with the LORD, heard him tell you
what your mission is all about, to whom is he sending you; and what the nature of the mission is? In
other words, do you have a feeling of genuine calling and a clear conviction of the nature of your divine
assignment? This really is the crux of the matter.
You came here to this godly school, presumably in response to God’s call upon your life. You have been
here for two, three or four years. You have been exposed to the Word of God. Hopefully by your
training you have acquired essential and relevant theological tools with which to interpret and proclaim
the word to your target audience. Your God-consciousness is sharpened. You are more matured now
than when you received your letter of admission.
Like Jeremiah, your mission is universal. The task is daunting. Is anyone listening? The LORD is saying
to you all this day, as he said to the prophet Jeremiah “I have put my words in your mouth” Jer 1.9.
Know this: if his word is in you as it was in Jeremiah, you’ll have no choice but to proclaim it
unashamedly and uncompromisingly to whomsoever he shall send you. You cannot hoard it [Jer 20.9;
Rom 1.16]. By your calling, training [and soon for some of you, ordination] you have been set apart to
declare the total oracle of the Lord in “season and out season, for that is the power of God for the
salvation of all who believe.”
Perhaps unlike Jeremiah, you are not offering any resistance. You feel you are adequate. You are ready
to go for the exploits, and that’s good. Why not? While here on the campus you had a temporary
immunity from the wiles and dangers of a world that has turned against its Maker. You had excellent
pastoral and fatherly care of your teachers. But out there where you are going to live and work for the
rest of your life, is the real world where everything is very different.
Here, you live in a community of faith. But out there, secularisation of society has led to the
consignment of the Christian faith and practice to the background. What is left of the Church is infested
by such new phenomena as “inclusiveness” here in the USA, and in the UK we hear of multiculturalism.
Championed by certain sections of the Church’s leadership who have been conditioned by
the clamour for political correctness, both are said to be an attempt to accommodate all shades of
opinion and practice in the church.
The consequences are grave. We end up with what looks like Church but in reality is not. The authority
of Scripture is put to doubt and denied. The uniqueness and Lordship of Jesus the Christ is jettisoned
and our Lord is categorised as no more than one of the great men of his time. The fatherhood of God is
questioned and a new vocabulary of father/mother introduced to please those of feminist persuasion. We
learn that some even deny the bodily resurrection of Christ. When you take away these cardinal
teachings and beliefs of the church, what is left is certainly not the church of Jesus Christ called out of
the world but stationed in the world to bring the erring world to God.
Thus, you’ll soon find yourself in the world of faithlessness, endless controversies; a world full of
heretics and apostates; a world in which the church is declining so fast that particularly in many parts of
the West, monumental church structures like cathedrals are becoming mere tourist attractions. Of the
nearly three hundred million people in this country, less than two million are active
Anglicans/Episcopalians. Of the over two hundred bishops, I doubt if you can count on forty bible
believing orthodox leaders. What a tragedy.
Beyond your shores, Europe has gone apostate, [cp Jude 5-7] leaving a huge religious vacuum which is
now being aggressively filled by Islam. The United Kingdom is not any better. Asia of course is in the
firm grips of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism with the Christian church as a tiny minority religion
struggling for survival. Worldliness and excessive materialism have since invaded the Church with
many high ranking leaders falling victims. Like Jeremiah, you need to be clear what your mission is to
such a world. Would you be able to stand in the gap and make the difference? [Ezekiel 22.30.]
I dare challenge you to be the LORD’s Jeremiahs of the 21st century, to break down and to overthrow all
the ungodliness and apostasy we see in our Church and society. Are you scared? Are you willing, are
you ready? In all of empirical history, serving the Lord is not without a price. Faithful proclamation of
the word will earn you unpleasant names, mockery, rejection and hatred, [John 15. 18-20]. When that
happens, remember the promise of the Lord, “Lo, I am with you always.” And with the Lord on your
side, you’re more than conquerors.
Theological Schools
At this point permit me to congratulate and commend the Trinity School for Ministry, Ambridge, for the
great work you are doing for us all and through you remind the “Christian world” that seminaries exist
to serve the Church in providing such theological education that will equip those God has called to serve
him in mission, evangelism, discipleship and to prepare his people for heaven. Theological educators
and pastors are reminded that they too are called, trained and ordained to serve God in his world through
the Church and not to destroy it, “to be in all things faithful pastors and wholesome example to the entire
flock of Christ.”
You are not unaware of the current struggles in the Anglican Communion. Let me say briefly, that
contrary to popular sponsored media propaganda, it is not about power or position. It is about the
sanctity of the historic “faith once for all delivered to the saints,” Jude 3. It’s all about some of us
insisting on the authority of Scripture and others claiming that “they wrote the Bible, they can rewrite
it,” of course, to suit their fancy.
The seminaries have a major role to play in this battle. I hold the view that it is the duty of theological
education to understand and preserve this precious “faith.” Didn’t Anselm of Canterbury define
theological education as “faith in search of understanding,” indicating clearly that faith is primary and
fundamental in the business of doing theology. The problem with much of contemporary enterprise in
theological education is that it has been hijacked and is being operated by many without godly faith.
Anselm’s definition depicts his position as the meeting point of two streams of Western Christian
thought in the Middle Ages—the monastic and the scholastic. The former coming earlier than the latter,
he has been seen as both a part of the culmination of the monastic and the emergence of the scholastic
streams of theology in the first and second halves of the Western Middle Ages.
Theology itself defined as the science of God that acknowledges God as the object of theology but not in
any sense that God is an object lying around for our investigation. This leaves us with nothing but the
Bible—God’s self revelation as the primary and fundamental basis for any meaningful theological
enterprise. It is also God’s manual for man’s life. This puts in the right perspective the danger posed to
theology by those trying to undermine the authority of the Bible. To deny the authority of the Bible in
matters of faith and conduct is to remove the ground from the feet of theology.
In my context, theological education begins and deals mainly with the study of the Bible in such a way
that it continuously informs and nourishes our faith and conduct individually and corporately. In details,
this has to do with acquiring the necessary skills for reading, interpreting and preaching the Bible in
such ways that enable church members to in turn read and interpret the world they live in, in the context
and framework of Christian belief and worship. Theological education is not just a matter of “chapter x
and verse x of such a book of the Bible.” It goes beyond that to showing how the texts relate to, for
example, market and trading transactions, Senate/House of Representatives debates, disposal of refuse,
housewife-house girl relationships, bedroom affairs, etc. To be theologically educated therefore is to
know how to make these connections in theory and practice for self and corporate edification and
mission.
For this same reason our theological colleges must be made to be what they should be – “the road to
Damascus” – places for the revelation of the risen Christ for those desiring to enter the ministry
irrespective of the rationale or motives behind their initial desires and claims to divine calling. By this I
mean that there are many reasons today why people decide to come to the seminary for ordination
training. Some of these reasons are obviously below standard expectations. Thus the seminaries should
be such places where, no matter how and what makes people come into them, the postulants are given
the opportunity to understand what is involved and to reappraise whatever they may claim to be the call
of God upon their lives.
As regarding the study of theology itself in evangelical seminaries such as this, we should, ab initio, be
encouraging our students to pursue and lay strongest emphasis on the study of sound biblical theology in
preference to the present preoccupation with socio-humanistic philosophies in the name of religious
studies and human commonalities. Obviously, “eternal truths do not fear the searchlight of scrutiny,” but
we must first be grounded in these eternal truths before scrutinizing them. This takes me back to Anselm
and to the obvious fact that all the people of faith who commit themselves to rigorous theological studies
do still feel themselves tugged in a holy search for understating of the mystery of that faith.
Equally relevant to the Church today is the whole question of innovations in theology and it is precisely
in this respect that the current extreme revisionist liberalism of the Episcopal Church of America is to us
abhorrent and totally unacceptable. Innovations in theology and churchmanship that pay no attention to
the yearnings and faith aspirations of the majority of believers falls short of fundamental evangelistic
and fellowship tenets.
In a world where and when many people outside the church are looking up to the church for some life
anchoring realities, those inside the church cannot afford to toy with historical biblical teachings of the
church in the name of modernization, enculturation or inclusiveness. Such insensitivity will only widen
the unavoidable gap between those who hold to orthodoxy and the revisionist liberals as it is today in the
Communion. For those of us who have cherished and still cherish the fellowship we share, this is very
painful, and we have been trying to avoid the continuous drifting apart. I have chronicled our effort in
this respect in “A Most Agonizing Journey towards Lambeth 2008.”
Unfortunately, our friends on the other side prefer to interpret our effort as a show of cowardice and
inability to take a stand with them. For them, they have always blazed the trail and we have always
followed, having no options by virtue of our poverty, illiteracy and long standing dependency on their
patronizing generosity. Thank God, our efforts at ensuring that Africa comes of age are beginning to
bear fruit. But, were the bone of contention to be on some insignificant matter with acceptable options,
we would have, for sure, and as usual followed them, but in this case, it is one step gone too far in the
increasing watering down of biblical faith and practice. It is one step too many in legitimizing human
frailty that makes nonsense of most of what believe, preach and practise.
I think it is appropriate to suggest that the seminary is one place where the current controversy and the
battle for the authority of Scripture can be won or lost. If we can get it right in the seminary, then there is
hope for the church. This is because the seminary provides the much needed opportunity for would-be
pastors and those already ordained to continuously reflect upon the practices of the church while
acquiring and perfecting the necessary skills for such practices. In fact the seminaries should be properly
positioned to push forward the frontiers of our theological knowledge through appropriate teaching and
research activities. However, such activities should not just be mere ivory tower exercises but such that
foster the improvement of existing church knowledge and practices based on the principle of ‘faith
seeking understanding.”
It is in this regard that we call on those who bear responsibility in this area of our work, especially the
Deans and Faculty, to rise up to the challenge of overhauling the seminary curriculum in such a way that
it pays due attention to our faith context and biblical heritage. We also plead with the various levels of
our church leadership and administration to lend their support to this task.
It is worth repeating, people of God, that theology is in essence a special education that godly handled
stimulates obedience. Obedience engendered by faith in the Word of God Incarnate and the word of God
written remains the only clear evidence that we know and love the Lord [John 14.15 and 21] At any
point in time when theological education fails to honour God and undermines the fundamental principle
of obedient faith, there will be the danger for the body of Christ the seminary exists to serve becoming
the body of crises as it is today.
Theological education therefore should no longer be seen as inimical to vibrancy of faith. On the
contrary, true theological education which is based on the Word of God makes for a vibrant faith. We
urge those who prefer to see theological education from a purely intellectual perspective and thus
disparaging it as a faith killer to realise that theological education properly understood is squarely based
on faith which comes from hearing the Word of God (Rom. 10:17).
The current clamour by many in the West for a post-Enlightenment hermeneutic fails to recognize the
fact that the Biblical text is not just like any other text. Rather it is a text that emanates from the context
of a covenant relationship. As such it has a relationship angle to its proper understanding that makes it
difficult for outsiders to understand. This is part of what it means that “the letters kill but the Spirit gives
life.” It is like the language of communication between husband and wife or family members which is
often poorly understood by outsiders. It is in this regard that we continue to call for a return to biblically
faithful theological education and practice in our Communion.
The Lord said to Jeremiah, “do not say I am only a child, you must go to everyone I send you to and say
whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them.” And as the Apostle Paul charged Timothy, so I
charge you in the name of the Lord to “Guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from
godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed
and in so doing have wandered from the faith. Grace be with you [1 Tim 6.20-21].

Let us pray.