Nathaniel Aipa
Benson Nathaniel Aipa was a Malawian Anglican bishop. He was the third bishop of Southern Malawi in the Church of the Province of Central Africa from 1987 until forced to resign amid scandal in 1996.
Early life and education
Aipa grew up in Malindi and was influenced by early African Anglican priests such as Habil Chipembere. He was one of several priests mentored by Bishop Donald Arden in his quest to raise up more indigenous Malawian priests and eventually bishops for the Anglican church. Arden sent Aipa to St. John's Seminary in Lusaka.Ordained ministry
After his ordination, Aipa began training additional ordinands in Malawi at the homegrown theological school, first in Mpondas and later Chilema. Early in his career, Aipa was regarded by Arden as a potential episcopal successor, being appointed archdeacon in charge of theological education and eventually vicar general of the newly formed Diocese of Southern Malawi.In 1981, Aipa was a candidate for diocesan bishop to succeed Arden; suffragan bishop Dunstan Ainani was elected. He continued his studies at the College of the Asension in England.In the mid-1980s, he was again appointed vicar general, and he was elected diocesan bishop after Ainani's resignation in 1986. Church historian Henry Hastings Mbaya has attributed two factors to Aipa's victory: strong political organization of the laity of the diocese and a tribal sense that it was time for Southern Malawian leadership.
Aipa was consecrated a bishop on 4 January 1987 at Blantyre in the presence of President Hastings Banda. His early episcopacy was marked by a visit from Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie to Blantyre in 1989. Aipa returned the diocese to the Anglo-Catholic ceremonial inherited from the Universities' Mission to Central Africa that Arden and Ainani had downplayed. As bishop, Aipa affected an autocratic and manipulative style, asking to be addressed as "my lord bishop" and requesting that his episcopal ring be kissed as a symbol of subordination. Politically active as bishop, he chaired the Censorship Board during the 1980s.