Benjamin Kwashi
Quick Facts
Biography
Benjamin Ben Argak Kwashi (born Plateau State, 1955) is a Nigerian Anglican archbishop. He is married to Gloria and they have six children, one of them is also a priest. They have 54 orphans living with them in Jos, Northern Nigeria.
He was born in Amper village in Plateau State, in a Christian family. His father was a respected teacher.
Kwashi at first wanted to follow a military career but he felt a religious calling in 1976, and decided to follow a religious life. He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1982. He went to serve in several rural and urban parishes. He also would be Rector of a Theological College. In 1987, his church and vicariate were totally burned during Muslim riots. He became the first bishop of the newly created Anglican Diocese of Jos in 1992. In 2008, he was consecrated Archbishop of Jos Province in the Church of Nigeria.
He has been a leading name in the Anglican realignment, attending GAFCON II, held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 21–26 October 2013.
In November 2014, after a bombing in Potiskum killed forty Muslim schoolchildren, Kwashi released a statement strongly criticizing the idea that Boko Haram violence was the result of poverty. Kwashi said it was important that the issues of poverty, corruption, and extremist violence should not be conflated and confused.
At the conclusion of GAFCON 3 on 22 June 2018 in Jerusalem, Israel, it was announced that in early 2019 Archbishop Kwashi will succeed Archbishop Peter Jensen, former Archbishop of Sydney, as GAFCON's General Secretary.
He published Evangelism and Mission (2018) and Neither Bomb nor Bullet (2019), co-written with Andrew Boyd.