Anglican leader's plea to faithful claims extra wives are 'making a mockery' of the church

http://news.scotsman.com/world/Anglican-leader39s-plea-to-.4071486.jp

[Scotsman] 11 May 2008--Mirroring the renewed drive in the US to combat polygamy, Nigeria's Anglican leader has this week told the country's many Christian polygamists that the time has come to give up their extra wives.

In a letter to the faithful, Archbishop Peter Akinola warned the issue could "make a mockery" of the church. Until now, converts to Christianity have been allowed to keep their polygamous relationships.

Bishop Ali Buba Lamido said that it was difficult to convert polygamous Muslims to Christianity unless they could keep their wives, while Bishop Ali Buba of the Wusasa diocese in northern Kaduna State said 10% of some congregations in the north can be in polygamous marriages.

As with Sudan, Nigeria is deeply divided between the mostly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian and animist south.