Clerics call for peace, love, humility at Ash Wednesday

The Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Abakaliki, Monday Nkwegu, has called for peace, love and greater unity among Nigerians.
Nkwegu made the call in a sermon at a solemn service in Abakaliki to mark the Ash Wednesday and beginning of the this year’s Lenten Season.
“As Christians, we should be good Ambassadors of Christ. The Ash Wednesday is the beginning of 40 days of praying and fasting before the Easter.
“We should participate in fasting, prayer and reflection.
“The period symbolises the fasting and prayer that Jesus had in the desert before his execution,” the cleric said.
The Chairman, Board of Trustees of Motailatu Church of God, Senior Superintendent Gabriel F. Akinadewo (Omo Jesu II), advised Nigerians to turn from their wicked ways for God to intervene in the various crises in the land.
Quoting from II Chronicles 7:14, he said there was nothing too difficult for God to handle “if His children are sincere with him”.
Akinadewo said: “95 per cent of the crises in Nigeria can be described as man-made. Nigerians are the problems of Nigeria. We have a constitution. No matter how imperfect it is, if the letters are faithfully followed, Nigeria will not be in the mess it is right now.
“As we begin the lenten season today, God is calling on Nigerians to humble themselves, pray, seek His face and turn from their wicked ways.
“The moment Nigerians do all these, God will hear from heaven, forgive our sins and heal the land”.
Also, Rev. Fr. Michael Okeke, the Parish Priest of Our Lady of Lourdes Chaplaincy, Mile-4 Abakaliki, described the season as a period for repentance, fasting, abstinence and prayer.
Okeke called on Nigerians to use the opportunity to pray for the nation’s leaders and oneness of Nigeria.
In a similar vein, the Presbyter of the Methodist Church, Abakiliki, Rev. John Chemeke, also described the lenten season as a period of sober reflection.
Chemeke, therefore, urged Christian faithful all over the world to use the period “to reflect on their relationship with God,” in order to reconcile back to Him, where necessary.