Josiah Idowu-Fearon
|
The Most Reverend Josiah Idowu-Fearon |
|
|---|---|
| Secretary General of the Anglican Communion | |
| Church | Church of Nigeria |
| In office | 2015–present |
| Predecessor | Kenneth Kearon |
| Other posts | Archbishop of Kaduna (2002-2009) Bishop of Kaduna (1998-2015) Bishop of Sokoto (1990-1998) |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 1971 |
| Consecration | 1990 by J. Abiodun Adetiloye |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Josiah Atkins Idowu-Fearon |
| Born |
17 January 1949 Kerinye, Kogi State, Nigeria |
| Nationality | Nigerian |
| Denomination | Anglicanism |
| Spouse | Comfort Amina |
| Children | Three |
| Education | Immanuel Theological College, Ibadan, Nigeria; St John's College, Durham University, UK; Birmingham University, UK; Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria; Hartford Seminary, USA; University of Jordan, Jordan |
Josiah Atkins Idowu-Fearon (born 17 January 1949) is a Nigerian Anglican bishop. Since 2015, he has been Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council. He was previously the Bishop of Kaduna diocese and the Archbishop of the Province of Kaduna in the Church of Nigeria.
Josiah Idowu-Fearon was born Kerinye, Kogi State on 17 January 1949.
Idowu-Fearon is married to Comfort Amina; they had two sons, Ibrahim and Dauda, and a daughter Ninma. Dauda died at age 24 from Meningitis while a Medical student in Bristol, U.K.
Mrs. Comfort Amina Idowu-Fearon served as Diocesan President, Mothers’ Union, Women’s Guild & Girls' Guild during Idowu-Fearon’s tenure as bishop of Kaduna.
Idowu-Fearon trained briefly as a soldier before he changed to theological training for the priesthood. He describes the change this way. “I came to Christ at the Nigeria Military School, Zaria in my second year (1964)” and two years later (1966) the Lord called “me to be a soldier in His Army.” Idowu-Fearon was given a ‘sympathetic’ discharge by late General Hassan Katsina in Lagos so that he could begin training for the priesthood.
Idowu-Fearon is noted as “a strong intellectual inquirer and student.” He has “a higher education than most bishops, both within Africa and throughout the [Anglican Communion]. He groups his overseas undergraduate and graduate study as the four years in the United Kingdom (1976-1981) and the three years in the United States (1990-1993). His studies in Nigeria occurred before 1976 and in the 1980s.
After his decision to become an Anglican priest, Idowu-Fearon enrolled in Immanuel Theological College, Ibadan. It was there that he was introduced to the “World of Islam,” an introduction that eventually became his “passion for the Muslim as a potential child of God by adoption.”
In 1976, Idowu-Fearon went to St. John’s College, University of Durham in the UK for an “Honours class in Theology” that included “in-depth course on “Islamic Civilisation”. He graduated with a Bachelors in Theology.
After receiving his theology degree from the University of Durham, Idowu-Fearon went on to earn a Masters in Islamic Studies and Muslim-Christian relations at Birmingham University. At Birmingham Idowu-Fearon read “Islam, And Christian-Muslim Relations” and wrote “a major paper on “The Status of a Non-Muslim (thumma) In an Islamic State”. It was then, he says, "I knew the Lord was calling me [to be] a bridge builder."
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