Bishop of Gboko
William Amove Avenya is Bishop of Gboko, Nigeria. William Amove Avenya was born on 21 June 1955 in Ishangev Tiev, Konshisha Local Government Area, Benue State, in the Diocese of Makurdi. After attending Saint Gabriel's Secondary School, he completed ecclesiastical studies at the major seminary of Jos (1975-1981). He was ordained a priest on 30 May 1981 and incardinated in the Diocese of Makurdi. After priestly ordination he held the following offices: in 1981-1982, briefly in charge of Saint Charles Parish at Adoka and then parochial vicar of Saint William Church in Lafia; in 1982-1984, transferred to Liberia to teach at the major seminary of Gbarnga; in 1984-1989, studies in England for the Master in Education and doctorate in Philosophy at the University of Manchester; in 1989-1990, acting medical administrator in Makurdi; and in 1990-1996, director of Catholic Education Services in Makurdi. From 1996 he was secretary general of AECAWA, also rendered AECWA in the second Vatican source. In 2000 he obtained a diploma in Management and Development of Non-Governmental Organizations from Galileee College, Israel, and on return resumed the office of secretary general. On 28 November 2008 the Pope appointed him auxiliary of the Diocese of Makurdi, assigning him the titular episcopal see of Tucca di Mauritania. He received episcopal consecration on 24 January 2009.