Something I wrote back in 2008

At the end of 1966, Jean and I were sent as appointed missionaries of the Episcopal Church to the Church in Nigeria. I arrived in late December, 1966, and Jean (with our first baby) in mid-February , 1967. We were assigned to the port Harcourt Project in the then Eastern region of the Federation of Nigeria. the year 1966 had been marked by terrible massacres and there was increased speculation of a breakup of the Nigerian Federation and the possibility of a civil war. At the time we arrived there was a major crisis in the Federation at least once every six weeks. Shortly after there came a major crisis every month, then every three weeks, then every two, then every week, and then multiple times a week. At a certain time the Eastern Region seceded as the Republic of Biafra, and the civil war began. We observed the nature of the "dialog" between the Federal Government and the Eastern Region Government in the conflict. Each side operated on exactly the same premises: "Whatever I say must be taken exactly at face value; and whatever you say must be searched for the hidden and opposite meaning which is surely there." Both sides were talking past each other and both sides were claiming the oil revenues that flowed from the Eastern region. Jean and I have observed to each other many times, as the pace of crises has picked up in the Anglican Communion, that there are many parallels between what is happening now in the Anglican Communion and what happened then in Nigeria. We regret that neither side then nor now has been able to see the integrity of the other side's position. Nigeria plunged into a civil war with a couple hundred thousand soldier and civilian casualties. Already there are casualties in the beginnings of the civil war in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. I still remember the morning of July 6, 1967, as the Biafra National Anthem was played for the first time. It was the hymn, "Be still, my soul, the Lord is on thy side," played to the tune from "Finlandia" by Sibelius. I still cry whenever I hear this hymn or "Finlandia." Who will cry for the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as they are rent by civil war?