“Our Lord Jesus Christ was sacrificed for us; this morning we are here with mixed feelings,” the bishop added. “For about 10 months, we couldn’t open the church because of attacks that happened in this church [on June 5, 2022].”
“The attack embarrassed us; how could someone come to church, the church that is the beauty of Owo town?” he asked, recalling the events of Pentecost Sunday 2022. “A joy that is the joy of God’s people; why will anyone come here to hurt people?”
The bishop attributed the attack to the works of evil, saying: “We know the evil ones are always at work.”
He went on to recognize the dozens who “were called to heaven” during the Pentecost Sunday attack and stated: “We have resumed worship in this church, thanks be to God. l wish to empathize with those who lost their loved ones.”
The bishop compared the painful events of the attack to Good Friday, asking: “But how do we explain this in relation to the death of our beloved Jesus Christ? We can explain by our faith also by the joy we bring to our brothers and sisters.”
“We have to call ourselves back to the greater understanding of what is happening in our society today,” he said. “I have never seen a nation so comfortable watching the killings of its citizens on a daily basis in [the] hundreds and nothing has been done for the past 15 years.”