The Church and Social Responsibilities: A Case Study of the Development of Church Schyools in the Diocese of Kaduna, Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion

Abstract

This project looks at the coming of the Christian Missionary Society (CMS) to Nigeria, and how they established schools in order to carry out their mission which was evangelization of the local populace. It looks at the principles which the CMS used to run their schools in Nigeria and how those principles enabled the CMS schools deliver quality education with good moral standards, and made education affordable and accessible to all. The project also looks at the period in which the Nigerian government took over the educational sector from the Church and how this resulted in a steady downward trend in education, until in recent years when the Church rose up to salvage it. This intervention by the Church has not yielded the same results witnessed during the time of the CMS. Church schools today are very expensive beyond the reach of the average Nigerian, and moral standard is still a huge struggle. Therefore, this project proposes the use of the principles of ethics of land highlighted in Ellen F. Davis’s Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture, An Agrarian Reading of the Bible, and the biblical use of money and possessions in Walter Brueggemann’s Money and Possessions, in addressing the various challenges facing the Church schools in Nigeria and in the Diocese of Kaduna Anglican Communion in particular, and finally proffers suggestions on the way forward.