Nigeria: Church praying for safe release of kidnapped archbishop

A senior leader in the Anglican Church of Nigeria is still missing after being kidnapped last Friday.

Archbishop Ignatius Kattey was taken along with his wife, Beatrice, close to their home in Port Harcourt, in the south of the country.

Although Beatrice was released a few hours later, Archbishop Kattey's whereabouts remain unknown.

No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of the Archbishop, who is provincial dean of the oil rich Niger Delta.Provincial communications director, Canon Taiwo Faluso, told the Anglican Communion News Service: "We are praying that God in his infinite mercy will grant us, very quickly, the dean's release from the hoodlums that took him."

Church leaders have decided to go ahead with the bi-annual meeting of the Church's Standing Committee despite the Archbishop's kidnapping.

The meeting will be attended by Nigerian Primate, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh.

Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese in Europe, the Right Reverend David Hamid, appealed on his blog for prayers for Archbishop Kattey.