Church of Nigeria Consecrates three Bishops

On the 3rd of June 2018, the Primate of Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) and Bishop of Abuja Diocese, the Most Rev'd Nicholas Okoh consecrated four Bishops at the All Saints Cathedral Onitsha:

1. The Rt Rev’d Wisdom Ihunwo as the Bishop of Niger Delta North Diocese who will succeed The Most Rev'd ICO Kattey.
2. The Rt Rev’d Dr. Solomon Olusola Akanbi as the Bishop of Offa Diocese who will succeed Rt Rev’d Akintunde Popoola.
3. The Rt Rev’d Godwin Anyigor Awoke as the Bishop of Ngbo Diocese.
4. The Rt Rev’d Prosper Afam Amah as the Bishop of Ogbaru Diocese who will succeed Rt Rev’d Samuel Ezeofor.

Please pray for them for God's guidance and favour. Pray that they will follow Jesus and lead the flock of God to follow Him wherever He leads.

At last, The Anglican Church begins to take a stand

The one week-long Primates Meeting in England is coming to an end and a consensus statement has been made concerning the homosexual stance of the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA). This is good news but as the Archbishop of Uganda, Rt. Rev. Stanley Ntagali rightly said, "this action must not be seen as an end, but as a beginning."

The implication of this is that the "Episcopalians "no longer represent us on ecumenical and interfaith bodies," and have the equivalent of observer status in Anglican commissions" according to the statement.

We all wish that God will prevail upon every heart so that when we are confronted with our sins, instead of defending and finding ways to justify ourselves, we simply repent and ask God for mercy. Homosexualism is just one of sexual perversions that have been from of old.

Read more on this story here.

Please pray for the Rev Chander Mani Khanna

A few months ago, the Rev Chander Mani Khanna of the All Saints Church, Kashmir India,baptized 7 converts from Islam. Since then, there have been fireworks of persecution against him.

He was arrested and put in jail in November. The Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association has called on its members not to provide Rev Khanna with legal counsel. Though the court has granted him bail, there is great fear that his life may be at risk even after his release.

A few days ago, the pastor’s wife, Kanta Khanna, spoke with her husband by phone. “I was concerned about his health,” she told AsiaNews. “He’s diabetic and his eyesight is deteriorating. Nevertheless, his thoughts are for our children and me. He continued to reassure us, saying that God is with us. He told me to find strength in the Scriptures, to read Chapter 10 in the Gospel of Matthew and the Act of the Apostles. He is frail in body but firm in his faith.”

Pray for the Underground Church. Christianity preaches Life that is irresistible to any hungry soul. It's not just a religion. Because their powerless message cannot match the Life Christ offers, they resort to violence and intimidation, and it's happening all over the world. But thank God for a lot of testimonies of what God is doing in Islamic world.

Please thank God for the Bishop of the Diocese of Amritsar, bishop P.K. Samantha Roy, and Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) for their support for the Rev. Khanna. Pray for courage for him stand firm till the end and that he may be released. Pray for his family that God may protect them and keep them. God bless!

Appeal from Archbishop of Sudan to Governments and others following recent atrocities

APPEAL regarding the recent atrocities in Jonglei and Western Equatoria States

On Saturday 29th August 2009 I received reports from Wernyol, Twic East County, Jonglei State, that there had been another attack on the peoples of the area in which over forty people – men, women and children – were killed. Amongst the dead were Ven. Joseph Mabior Garang, Archdeacon of Wernyol and Archbishop’s Commissary in the new Diocese of Twic East, who was shot at the altar of the church in Wernyol during a service of Morning Prayer. Tens of others have been wounded, some very seriously with gun-shot wounds and broken limbs. Only a few of these have been taken to Juba Military Hospital, whilst the rest are still in Bor Hospital.

I have leant from Episcopal Church sources on the ground that the attackers were well armed with new automatic weapons, dressed in army uniforms, and appeared well-organized and properly trained. Instead of attacking a cattle camp, this was an attack on a Payam headquarter town. Consequently in the view of the Church, this was not a tribal conflict as commonly reported, but a deliberately organized attack on civilians by those that are against the peace in Southern Sudan. These reports confirm the suspicions that I aired in my May 2009 appeal to the diplomatic and international community in Sudan.

Last week I received the news from Ezo, Ezo County, Western Equatoria State, that there had been another devastating attack by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on Ezo town on 12th/13th August in which three people, including an Episcopal Church lay reader had been murdered. The attack included the abduction of children from the Episcopal church building in Ezo, and several thousand more people have been displaced into Ezo town – people that the local churches are struggling to care for. Ezo Hospital was also attacked, medicine stolen and equipment destroyed.

I hear from Bishop John Zawo of the Episcopal Diocese of Ezo that the attack could have been avoided if better military security had been given to the town.

I am therefore appealing to the government and the international community at large to act swiftly in order to prevent such atrocities from occurring in future. Continuing violence such as this is not only a crime against the innocent people killed and injured, it is a crime against the peace of the Sudan and if left unchecked will do great damage to the smooth implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

Brethren we need to pray for missions in Sudan. May God help us to wake up to our responsibilities. When many are suffering and are in need of basic provisions, others are exploiting the church members so as to purchase unnecessary 4-Way Drive jeeps just for enjoyment.

Funds for the 39,000 displaced persons and the bereaved family of Archdeacon Garang may be sent to Anglican Mainstream (for AID – Sudan) 21 High Street, Eynsham, OX29 4HE UK or donated through the paypal link on Anglican Mainstream website. All funds will be sent directly through with no deductions.

Read more here.

APPEAL FOR TESO SUB-REGION: DIOCESE OF UGANDA

The Archbishop of Uganda’s secretary for International Relations writes:

"Uganda is experiencing serious drought and famine in northeastern, northern, and northwestern Uganda. People have now started to die. The government says it can handle the situation, but that’s what the government is supposed to say. And, if they could handle the situation, people should not have already started to die.

We are seeking for funds for emergency relief for famine victims in Uganda. The hardest hit area is the Teso sub-region (Soroti, Kumi areas, if you’re looking at a map) in eastern Uganda.

Please click here to support!

At last Episcopal Church in America passes resolution D025 and C056

Just read down. Homosexuality has been officialy accepted as a way of life for ECUSA.
D025: Both gays and lesbians can now be leaders and be ordained into the orders of Deacon, Priest and Bishops. This was done without any recourse to all the concerns the other members of the Anglican Communion have been expresing over the years.

C056: The Book of Common prayer is going to be revised to include "theological resources and liturgies of blessing for same-gender holy unions". This will likely be accomplished in the next two years.

It is most likely that very soon, persecution of the faithful will start. Let he that is faithful continue to be faithful still.

Read all here.

Final Resolution on the Anglican Communion Covenant

The ACC:

• thanks the Covenant Design Group for their faithfulness and respons­iveness in producing the drafts for an Anglican Communion Covenant and, in particular, for the Ridley Cambridge Draft submitted to this meeting;

• recognises that an Anglican Communion Covenant may provide an effective means to strengthen and promote our common life as a Communion;

• asks the Archbishop of Canter­bury, in consultation with the Secre­tary General, to appoint a small work­ing group to consider and consult with the Provinces on section 4 and its possible revision, and to report to the next meeting of the Joint Standing Committee;

• asks the JSC, at that meeting, to approve a final form of section 4;

• asks the Secretary General to send the revised Ridley Cambridge text, at that time, only to the member Churches of the Anglican Consultative Council for consideration and decision on acceptance or adoption by them as the Anglican Communion Covenant;

• asks those member Churches to report to ACC-15 on the progress made in the processes of response to, and acceptance or adoption of, the Covenant.

This is real confusion. Just like one commenter at anglicantv.org said:

"We can take heart that in MANY places around the globe there are VERY DEAR brothers and sisters in Christ who are focused, that is GOSPEL FOCUSED, and going about the Masters business pointing people to the
Saviour of the world, in accordance to the Great commission.
Sadly there are others who are navel gazing big time while in the area
where they could be reaching a harvest 'of souls'there are men and women dying in there sin.
We need to be going to the scriptures DAILY with an open mind seeking to
WALK in obedience to the Masters leading."

The church must march on and the gates of hell will not rpevail against it.

Apostacy and Deception

"We cannot afford to pin our hopes on ecclesiastical structures or even on individual leaders. The hope for a vibrant, robust, faithful Anglican witness to the gospel of Christ in this century rests in God and his work to bring about genuine repentance and faith in the lives of men and women."

This is a wonderful write up on the Anglican Consultative Council ging on in Jamaica currently. The earlier we begin to put our trust in God instead of men (even men of God) the better for us. See more here.

Tension in the LAMBETH Conference as Sudan addresses the press

On Tuesday 22nd of July, the conference experienced a shake up when the Archbishop of the Sudan released a statement calling for the Episcopal Church of the United States to repent, and to cease “with immediate effect” its advocacy of gay bishops and blessings.

Rebuffed by conference organizers in releasing his message, Dr. Daniel Deng, Archbishop of Juba and Primate of the Sudan, went round them and held an impromptu press conference in the media room, and issued a call for Gene Robinson to step aside to save the Communion.

If [Gene Robinson] were a real Christian he would resign” Archbishop Deng said on July 22, as the Episcopal Church’s media handlers looked on in shock. A number of American bishops were taken aback by the Sudanese statement, as Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and a number of her colleagues spent the days before the opening of Lambeth with the Sudanese bishops in Salisbury.
From here, here and here

Read the full address of the Primate of Sudan Dr Daniel Deng Bul here

GAFCON Petition

I love what some folks in the Church of England are doing right now. Thank God for the GAFCON conference and all the people that God used to draft the final statement that has given a lead to what I see will bring sparks of revival in the Anglican Communion.

A petition is available for online signature for those individuals who wish to indicate their solidarity with the GAFCON movement. The wording of the petition is,

"I stand in solidarity with the Jerusalem Declaration and Statement on the Global Anglican Future."

Just click here to sign online

Remember the GAFCON Statement is here

GAFCON Final Statement

Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) has been on for the past one week in Jerusalem. Anglicans from around the world, who protest the ordination of an openly professed gay as a bishop in The Evangelical Church of the United States of America, organized this conference to discuss the future of the Anglican Communion. The authority of the scripture was emphasized throughout the period of the conference. We must hold the Bible as our ultimate Source for faith and practice. We will be making reference to the implications of this conference from time to time in this blog. Read the final statement of the conference.

From here

GAFCON Final Statement

STATEMENT ON THE GLOBAL ANGLICAN FUTURE
Praise the LORD!
It is good to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. (Psalm 147:1-2)
Brothers and Sisters in Christ: We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, send you greetings from Jerusalem!
Introduction
The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), which was held in Jerusalem from 22-29 June 2008, is a spiritual movement to preserve and promote the truth and power of the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ as we Anglicans have received it. The movement is global: it has mobilised Anglicans from around the world. We are Anglican: 1148 lay and clergy participants, including 291 bishops representing millions of faithful Anglican Christians. We cherish our Anglican heritage and the Anglican Communion and have no intention of departing rom it. And we believe that, in God’s providence, Anglicanism has a bright future in obedience to our Lord’s Great Commission to make disciples of all nations and to build up the church on the foundation of biblical truth (Matthew 28:18-20; Ephesians 2:20).
GAFCON is not just a moment in time, but a movement in the Spirit, and we hereby:
• launch the GAFCON movement as a fellowship of confessing Anglicans
• publish the Jerusalem Declaration as the basis of the fellowship
• encourage GAFCON Primates to form a Council.
The Global Anglican Context
The future of the Anglican Communion is but a piece of the wider scenario of opportunities and challenges for the gospel in 21st century global culture. We rejoice in the way God has opened doors for gospel mission among many peoples, but we grieve for the spiritual decline in the most economically developed nations, where the forces of militant secularism and pluralism are eating away the fabric of society and churches are compromised and enfeebled in their witness. The vacuum left by them is readily filled by other faiths and deceptive cults. To meet these challenges will require Christians to work together to understand and oppose these forces and to liberate those under their sway. It will entail the planting of new churches among unreached peoples and also committed action to restore authentic Christianity to compromised churches.
The Anglican Communion, present in six continents, is well positioned to address this challenge, but currently it is divided and distracted. The Global Anglican Future Conference emerged in response to a crisis within the Anglican Communion, a crisis involving three undeniable facts concerning world Anglicanism.
The first fact is the acceptance and promotion within the provinces of the Anglican Communion of a different ‘gospel’ (cf. Galatians 1:6-8) which is contrary to the apostolic gospel. This false gospel undermines the authority of God’s Word written and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the author of salvation from sin, death and judgement. Many of its proponents claim that all religions offer equal access to God and that Jesus is only a way, not the way, the truth and the life. It promotes a variety of sexual preferences and immoral behaviour as a universal human right. It claims God’s blessing for same-sex unions over against the biblical teaching on holy matrimony. In 2003 this false gospel led to the consecration of a bishop living in a homosexual relationship.
The second fact is the declaration by provincial bodies in the Global South that they are out of communion with bishops and churches that promote this false gospel. These declarations have resulted in a realignment whereby faithful Anglican Christians have left existing territorial parishes, dioceses and provinces in certain Western churches and become members of other dioceses and provinces, all within the Anglican Communion. These actions have also led to the appointment of new Anglican bishops set over geographic areas already occupied by other Anglican bishops. A major realignment has occurred and will continue to unfold.
The third fact is the manifest failure of the Communion Instruments to exercise discipline in the face of overt heterodoxy. The Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada, in proclaiming this false gospel, have consistently defied the 1998 Lambeth statement of biblical moral principle (Resolution 1.10). Despite numerous meetings and reports to and from the ‘Instruments of Unity,’ no effective action has been taken, and the bishops of these unrepentant churches are welcomed to Lambeth 2008. To make matters worse, there has been a failure to honour promises of discipline, the authority of the Primates’ Meeting has been undermined and the Lambeth Conference has been structured so as to avoid any hard decisions. We can only come to the devastating conclusion that ‘we are a global Communion with a colonial structure’.
Sadly, this crisis has torn the fabric of the Communion in such a way that it cannot simply be patched back together. At the same time, it has brought together many Anglicans across the globe into personal and pastoral relationships in a fellowship which is faithful to biblical teaching, more representative of the demographic distribution of global Anglicanism today and stronger as an instrument of effective mission, ministry and social involvement.
A Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans
We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, are a fellowship of confessing Anglicans for the benefit of the Church and the furtherance of its mission. We are a fellowship of people united in the communion (koinonia) of the one Spirit and committed to work and pray together in the common mission of Christ. It is a confessing fellowship in that its members confess the faith of Christ crucified, stand firm for the gospel in the global and Anglican context, and affirm a contemporary rule, the Jerusalem Declaration, to guide the movement for the future. We are a fellowship of Anglicans, including provinces, dioceses, churches, missionary jurisdictions, para-church organisations and individual Anglican Christians whose goal is to reform, heal and revitalise the Anglican Communion and expand its mission to the world.
Our fellowship is not breaking away from the Anglican Communion. We, together with many other faithful Anglicans throughout the world, believe the doctrinal foundation of Anglicanism, which defines our core identity as Anglicans, is expressed in these words: The doctrine of the Church is grounded in the Holy Scriptures and in such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the said Scriptures. In particular, such doctrine is to be found in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal. We intend to remain faithful to this standard, and we call on others in the Communion to reaffirm and return to it. While acknowledging the nature of Canterbury as an historic see, we do not accept that Anglican identity is determined necessarily through recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Building on the above doctrinal foundation of Anglican identity, we hereby publish the Jerusalem Declaration as the basis of our fellowship.

The Jerusalem Declaration
In the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit:
We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, have met in the land of Jesus’ birth. We express our loyalty as disciples to the King of kings, the Lord Jesus. We joyfully embrace his command to proclaim the reality of his kingdom which he first announced in this land. The gospel of the kingdom is the good news of salvation, liberation and transformation for all. In light of the above, we agree to chart a way forward together that promotes and protects the biblical gospel and mission to the world, solemnly declaring the following tenets of orthodoxy which underpin our Anglican identity.
1. We rejoice in the gospel of God through which we have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Because God first loved us, we love him and as believers bring forth fruits of love, ongoing repentance, lively hope and thanksgiving to God in all things.
2. We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God written and to contain all things necessary for salvation. The Bible is to be translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church’s historic and consensual reading.
3. We uphold the four Ecumenical Councils and the three historic Creeds as expressing the rule of faith of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
4. We uphold the Thirty-nine Articles as containing the true doctrine of the Church agreeing with God’s Word and as authoritative for Anglicans today.
5. We gladly proclaim and submit to the unique and universal Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, humanity’s only Saviour from sin, judgement and hell, who lived the life we could not live and died the death that we deserve. By his atoning death and glorious resurrection, he secured the redemption of all who come to him in repentance and faith.
6. We rejoice in our Anglican sacramental and liturgical heritage as an expression of the gospel, and we uphold the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as a true and authoritative standard of worship and prayer, to be translated and locally adapted for each culture.
7. We recognise that God has called and gifted bishops, priests and deacons in historic succession to equip all the people of God for their ministry in the world. We uphold the classic Anglican Ordinal as an authoritative standard of clerical orders.
8. We acknowledge God’s creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family. We repent of our failures to maintain this standard and call for a renewed commitment to lifelong fidelity in marriage and abstinence for those who are not married.
9. We gladly accept the Great Commission of the risen Lord to make disciples of all nations, to seek those who do not know Christ and to baptise, teach and bring new believers to maturity.
10. We are mindful of our responsibility to be good stewards of God’s creation, to uphold and advocate justice in society, and to seek relief and empowerment of the poor and needy.
11. We are committed to the unity of all those who know and love Christ and to building authentic ecumenical relationships. We recognise the orders and jurisdiction of those Anglicans who uphold orthodox faith and practice, and we encourage them to join us in this declaration.
12. We celebrate the God-given diversity among us which enriches our global fellowship, and we acknowledge freedom in secondary matters. We pledge to work together to seek the mind of Christ on issues that divide us.
13. We reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied the orthodox faith in word or deed. We pray for them and call on them to repent and return to the Lord.
14. We rejoice at the prospect of Jesus’ coming again in glory, and while we await this final event of history, we praise him for the way he builds up his church through his Spirit by miraculously changing lives.

The Road Ahead
We believe the Holy Spirit has led us during this week in Jerusalem to begin a new work. There are many important decisions for the development of this fellowship which will take more time, prayer and deliberation. Among other matters, we shall seek to expand participation in this fellowship beyond those who have come to Jerusalem, including cooperation with the Global South and the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa. We can, however, discern certain milestones on the road ahead.
Primates’ Council
We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, do hereby acknowledge the participating Primates of GAFCON who have called us together, and encourage them to form the initial Council of the GAFCON movement. We look forward to the enlargement of the Council and entreat the Primates to organise and expand the fellowship of confessing Anglicans.
We urge the Primates’ Council to authenticate and recognise confessing Anglican jurisdictions, clergy and congregations and to encourage all Anglicans to promote the gospel and defend the faith.
We recognise the desirability of territorial jurisdiction for provinces and dioceses of the Anglican Communion, except in those areas where churches and leaders are denying the orthodox faith or are preventing its spread, and in a few areas for which overlapping jurisdictions are beneficial for historical or cultural reasons.
We thank God for the courageous actions of those Primates and provinces who have offered orthodox oversight to churches under false leadership, especially in North and South America. The actions of these Primates have been a positive response to pastoral necessities and mission opportunities. We believe that such actions will continue to be necessary and we support them in offering help around the world.
We believe this is a critical moment when the Primates’ Council will need to put in place structures to lead and support the church. In particular, we believe the time is now ripe for the formation of a province in North America for the federation currently known as Common Cause Partnership to be recognised by the Primates’ Council.
Conclusion: Message from Jerusalem
We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, were summoned by the Primates’ leadership team to Jerusalem in June 2008 to deliberate on the crisis that has divided the Anglican Communion for the past decade and to seek direction for the future. We have visited holy sites, prayed together, listened to God’s Word preached and expounded, learned from various speakers and teachers, and shared our thoughts and hopes with each other.
The meeting in Jerusalem this week was called in a sense of urgency that a false gospel has so paralysed the Anglican Communion that this crisis must be addressed. The chief threat of this dispute involves the compromising of the integrity of the church’s worldwide mission. The primary reason we have come to Jerusalem and issued this declaration is to free our churches to give clear and certain witness to Jesus Christ.
It is our hope that this Statement on the Global Anglican Future will be received with comfort and joy by many Anglicans around the world who have been distressed about the direction of the Communion. We believe the Anglican Communion should and will be reformed around the biblical gospel and mandate to go into all the world and present Christ to the nations.
Jerusalem
Feast of St Peter and St Paul
29 June 2008

8 Mistakes the American Church made

This is a sermon by Lee Grady of Charisma Magazine in Nigeria in 2002. It was reproduced in The Nigeria Anglican, the official magazine of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion. I'm convinced it worths repeating in this blog.

Eight Mistakes the American Church Made That I Hope You Don’t Repeat

When in 2002 I was in Nigeria conducting interviews, I was invited to speak at a growing Church that meets near a University in Lagos. Knowing that future Church leader would be in the audience that Sunday morning, I wanted to deposit something that could shape the destiny of Africa. My message was title “Eight Mistakes the American Church Made That I Hope You Don’t Repeat”. I don’t have the kind of pulpit savvy that gets people shouting ‘amens’ and waving handkerchiefs. Yet this sermon struck a chord not only with my Nigerian friends, but also with Americans who heard about it when I returned. I am sharing the gist of the message with you because I know it’s not too late to learn from our blunders. Here’s my list of the American Church’s all-time biggest goofs:

1. We made unbelief a doctrine:

While Christians in Chine, Latin America and Africa were casting out devils and healing the sick, we were teaching seminary students that the Holy Spirit doesn’t do miracles any more. That’s really bad theology.

2. We tolerated division:

Who needs the devil when Christians are perfectly OK with hating one another in the name of denominational loyalty? Why should the world listen to us teach about family values when the family of God is so fractured?

3. We cultivated a religious spirit:

We taught converts that Christianity is all about daily Bible reading, Church attendance and avoiding cigarettes and beer. Genuine faith became drudgery. Christians trapped in dry legalism lost their joy because they thought intimacy with God could be achieved by their performance.

4. We encouraged “superstars:

We elevated ministers to celebrity status, and some of them actually believed they deserved the titles, the pedestals, the grand entrances and the first-class seats next to Jesus’ throne. They stopped modeling servant hood and as a result the Church forgot that Jesus washed the feet and rode on a donkey.

5. We equated money with success:

We taught that biblical prosperity could be obtained by inserting our tithes into a heavenly slot machine. LOTTO fever spread throughout the Church and we found a way to legitimate greed and materialism when we should have been using our wealth to feed the poor, adopt orphans and fund missionary ventures.

6. We wouldn’t release women in ministry:

We let gender prejudice have more control of the Church that the Holy Spirit. He is ready to send an army of dedicated women to the front lines of spiritual battle but He is waiting for us to bury our stinking male pride.

7. We stayed in the pews and became irrelevant:

We insisted on letting a group of older white men in dark suits represent our faith in the marketplace, and we freaked out when somebody tried to use rap, punk or metal music to reach the younger generations. Instead of engaging the culture, we hid from it.

8. We taught people to be escapists:

Jesus told us to occupy the planet until He returns. But most of us were reading rapture novels when we should have been praying for our brothers and sisters who were on the verge of martyrdom. They were willing to suffer and die for the cause. Why can’t we have that kind of faith?