Archbishop Joseph Adetiloye of Nigeria dead at 82: The Church of England Newspaper, January 20, 2013 p 7.

The man who oversaw the rapid growth of the Anglican Church in Nigeria that saw the West African church become the largest province in the Anglican Communion in the 1990’s has died. Archbishop Joseph Adetiloye died suddenly at his home on 14 Dec 2012, his family reports. He was 83.

Born on Christmas Day in 1929 on a small farm in Ekiti State, the future archbishop lost his father at the age of 3 and worked on the farm as a child to help support the family.  At the age of 8 he won a place at an Anglican mission school and began the training that led to his ordination as a priest and election as second Bishop of Ekiti in 1970.  In 1985 he was translated to Lagos and in 1988 he was elected the second Archbishop of Nigeria, retiring in 1999. At the 1998 Lambeth Conference Archbishop Adetiloye was the behind the scenes leader of the conservative coalition that codified the Anglican Communion’s views on human sexuality as expressed in Lambeth Resolution 1.10.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan observed: “Archbishop Adetiloye will be long remembered for his zeal and passion for evangelism and planting of churches and his interest in not only the spiritual life of church members but also their education, health and economic well-being.”