The purposes and principles of marriage as given in the Book of Common Prayer defines marriage, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, told his diocese’s 16th Annual Women’s Conference

The purposes and principles of marriage as given in the Book of Common Prayer defines marriage, the Primate of All-Nigeria, the Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, told his diocese’s 16th Annual Women’s Conference last week in Abuja. Attempts by some western churches and nations to redefine marriage to include covenanted relationships between persons of the same gender were theologically impossible and morally suspect, he said. “In our context, marriage is the relationship between a man and a woman, any other thing is an abomination. The purpose is for companionship and strength whereby the wife is strength to her husband and so also the husband. It should not only be in their youth but also as they grow older they begin to complement each other in a very strong way so that they kill the boredom of loneliness,” he said on 10 Oct 2015. Attempts to separate marriage from procreation were unnatural, he observed. “The western world may want to adopt people’s children but certainly the child is not their own and in fact their influence on such children is not going to be very healthy.” Christians were called to control their appetites, he said, stating the only proper expression of genital sexual congress was within male-female marriage. We are not animals that express their emotions and sexual feelings on the road, so marriage is honourable and dignified as described in the Bible,” the archbishop said.