Episcopal Apostolate

During the holiday periods, he would normally go to take over the mission in Ewulu from the expatriate priests who travel to their own towns for their own holiday. It was at such a time in 1973 that he was invited to Benin-City and informed by Bishop Kelly of the decision of Rome to appoint him a Bishop. Hence, with the canonical erection of the Catholic Diocese of Issele-Uku on 5th July, 1973, he was ordained the first Bishop of the Diocese on 30th September 1973. Beginning the young Diocese was not easy for the new Bishop as the effects of the war was still being felt in different parts of the diocese and there was little manpower available.

In addition to those, the Baptist Church had taken strong root in Issele-Uku. However, this did not affect the Church adversely as Rev. Martins of the Baptist Church welcomed and helped Bishop Gbuji to settle down and set out well. As the Bishop’s House was not ready, he had to live in one classroom for about eight months until it was ready. With contributions from the sons and daughters of the Diocese, support from Rome and from the government of Gen. Ogbemudia, he was able to kick off in building up the Diocese.

While the infrastructural development was going on, he was equally working for the pastoral and spiritual growth of the Diocese. To handle the problem of the insufficient manpower, he resorted to an intensive programme of training for catechists. These trained catechists were assigned to places where there are no resident priests. He embarked on the formation of the Confraternity of the Christian Doctrine (CCD), and trained volunteer religion teachers to run courses at centres all over the Diocese of Issele-Uku.

These centres were later known as the Small Christian Communities (SCC). They spread quickly and are doing there a good work of evangelization at the grass-root level. All along the work of deepening of the faith of the Christians and making them share their faith with others was the main objective of the programme thus initiated.

After making use of St. Paul’s Minor Seminary, Benin-City for a while in the training of future priests, he established St. Felix Minor Seminary, Ejeme-Aniogor in 1983 for the same purpose. In 1984, he opened the Mother of Perpetual Help Girls’ Juniorate, Issele-Uku, primarily to initiate young girls into full Christian education tradition as religious beings.

With the incessant calls of Pope John Paul II for a New Evangelization and charged with the animation of pastoral affairs at the national level, he was encouraged by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) to search for a solution to deepen and strengthen the faith of our people. He discovered the programme of Evangelization 2000 already started in Rome in 1985 by Rev. Father Tom Forrest, a Redemptorist priest. People must be trained to deepen their faith and share it with others.

In 1987, he attended a conference on New Evangelisation in Monrovia where he met with Fr. Jim Bermingham (SSP), co-founder of Evangelisation 2000. This meeting and several others created in him the idea of the first School of Evangelization on the African continent. Hence, in 1989, he founded that school and named it Emmaus School of Evangelisation. The Emmaus School of Evangelization thus established has succeeded in training priests, religious sisters and lay persons for the work of deepening the faith of the faithful believers.

On July 1, 1993, having received permission of the Apostolic See and with the help of Sr. Mary Augustine Onwubiko DMMM, Bishop Gbuji founded the Congregation of the New Evangelisation Sisters of the Mother of Perpetual Help.

Earlier on, after the death of Bishop GMP Okoye, the Bishops’ Conference asked him to head the Pastoral Department of the Catholic Secretariat, a position he held from 1977 to 1980. Working with the likes of the then Fr. John Onaiyekan (now John Cardinal Onaiyekan) as the secretary of the department, he was able to see to the successful visit of Pope John Paul II in February 1982.

With that visit, the Holy Father renewed his call for the Church in Nigeria to embrace a New Era of Evangelisation. Bishop Gbuji was mandated to oversee the implementation of the challenge. Within this period, he moved from the Pastoral Department to the Liturgy Department. Other offices he also occupied over the years in the Catholic Secretariat included, the Chairman of the Legal Department from 1980 to 1997, Chairman, Department of Pastoral Affairs from 2001 to 2003.

From 1977 until his retirement, he was a member of Canon Law Commission and Mission Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria. In 1986, he founded the Canon Law Society of Nigeria. He has been a member of the following boards: Evangelization 2000 International (1987 to date); Legal Adviser and Board – Evangelization 2000 (1988 to date). He was also a member of Pilgrimage Board, Delta State from 1995 to 1996.