The Celestial Church of Christ is one of the oldest Christian denominations in the land. The iconic and highly revered Samuel Bilehou Joseph Oshoffa founded the Celestial Church of Christ in 1947 in Porto-Novo, Benin. He established the church after reportedly having a spiritual experience, during which he received the gifts of healing and prophecy. The church later expanded to Nigeria in 1951.
Known for their unique and eye caching white garment and often colourful way of worship, the Celestial church of Christ has grown exponentially with very strong presence of massive followership in every continent of the world. Even in the remotest parts of Europe and Asia, you will find some significant presence of the Celestial Church of Christ. But with this massive growth come its own challenges and issues bedeviling the church. Several factions have sprung up, several claims to leadership by a few members within the top hierarchy of the church have been made. A couple of them have gone a step further to take the existing leadership of the church to court to address their demands and grievances. Indeed, but for timely intervention by prominent personalities such as the President of the Republic Of Benin, Patrice Talon, things have very nearly gotten messy, to say the least.
Not long ago, Kayode Ajala, former HINTS Editor and now, the Head of Media and Publicity of the Celestial Church of Christ world wide, spoke to City People Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE and Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) about steps the leadership of the church has been taking to resolve the leadership crisis confronting it. Ajala is also the secretary of the Pastor in Council. The Pastor in Council is the highest policy-making body of the church. Here are excerpts of the conversation.
What makes the Celestial church of Christ different from other churches?
There are so many things that make the church different. To start with, the Celestial church of Christ was not created by man. He was descended by God through S.B.J. Oshofa.
If you read the story of how the church came to be, Oshofa was a carpenter. He went into the forest, called the place Agbngie in the Republic of Benin, to look for wood for his trade and that was where the spirit of God took over. He was in that forest for a long time. He couldn't even find his way out.
Within that time a lot of things happened, including the revelation about the church. He himself was transformed such that by the time he came out of the forest he would lay hands on the sick and they would heal. He would pray for the dead and they would wake. So it wasn't a man-made church.
It wasn't like a man of God church just sat down and came up with a concept that this is the kind of church I want to set up. Celestial church of Christ wasn't like that. The thing is that the church is highly spiritual. I agree that there are a lot of challenges these days. The untruthful ones, the black sheep, like we have them everywhere, they are also in the church. But the church is a very spiritual church.
I just told you an experience that I had and how I got into that church at Abeokuta. What I went to do at Abeokuta was to tell my uncle to use his influence to call people at the top, but he told me straight away I'm not going to do all that, I’ll take you to my church, they’ll pray for you and you’ll be fine.
That my Uncle is late now. And I followed him. One of the things they told me was, hey, after prayers and all that, you are going to be in this church next Sunday.
And you are going to worship with us. But you are going to leave now and go to the police. And face the problem...You have been declared wanted, so you’re not going to stay here. Go there, go and report to yourself, face it with courage. That's what the Holy Spirit has said. But Sunday next week, you are going to be here and we’re going to do this service together.
I didn't believe. I went. And I was detained.
But I was released after four days. And on that Sunday, I was in that church. So that tells me it's a very spiritual church.
I have had other experiences. I encountered God in so many different ways in that church. That's another unique quality of the Celestial church of Christ.
Yes, worldliness has crept in. Some form of canality has crept in. But those who know and are focused on what they are supposed to focus on in that church, still get the kind of results that they should get.
How do you also react when you read all the negatives about the church from those who don’t know much about it?
I came to the conclusion that I cannot react to all those negatives. As Head of media of the church, if I continue to react to all those negative things, I will also be promoting those negatives.
And I don't want to be seen as doing that. So most of the time, I just let it ride.
But I focus on projecting the church positively. I don't want to start giving attention to every dog that barks. I just look at some of those things, but instead of reacting to them directly, I project the church in positive light. And that's what I've been doing. And to a large extent, it's been working.
My challenge is not even the outsiders that speak negatively about the church. Those ones are not my challenge. My challenge comes from those that are members of the church. I’m talking about members of the church who call themselves bloggers and go on social media to project the church negatively. Because, I mean, you are a member of the church, you wear the white garment, you walk around, people see you in that white garment, and then you go on social media and you are projecting that same church negatively. I can't understand, I can't put it together.
It's like you are projecting yourself negatively. So those ones are my headache, really. Not the outsiders.
The outsiders don't know what the church is about. But the ones that are already inside, they worship, they bow down to God, they get spiritual messages, they do the things we do, they sing, they dance, and then they get home, they carry their phones and begin to write rubbish. Those ones are a big challenge for me.
But I believe God will soon take charge.
Is there anything you've been able to do to either engage them, speak to them?
Well, to some extent, yes. But, and I want to say this.
You see, I discovered something, I have done my background work, and I discovered that some of them that are doing what they are doing are not doing it because they just want to do it. They are doing it because they are being sponsored by some people. And why are they being sponsored by some people? The church has become so big.
There are divisions in the Celestial Church of Christ. Yes. There are people who are fighting the leadership. There are people who have even dragged the leadership of the church to court. So, some of these members writing these negative things and calling themselves bloggers are actually agents of some of these factions. And so they do these things and they get paid for doing it.
Although they are not going to tell you that they are being paid, but they get paid for doing it. We know that they get paid for doing it. You know, so that's exactly what is happening.
And when it's like that, what kind of engagement can you do? How much can you engage such people? They are like mercenaries. They are working. They have paymasters. They give them money and tell them, go and do this. So as you start engaging them, you are not going to make much impact.
What is the leadership of the Celestial Church doing to see how it can harness all of these different factions, bring them together and unite the church? Is there any hope that at some point there will be a solution to this problem?
In recent times, even the President of the Republic of Benin, President Patrice Talon, has stepped in to ensure a peaceful resolution is reached. You know, the Celestial Church started in the Republic of Benin.
And we have the Supreme Headquarters of the Church there. So he stepped in and he brought all the major factions together. We were in the Republic of Benin not long ago.
We had meetings with the other side, with our own side. And right now, a council has been put together and they are working on that unification. For the first time this year, I think, during the 40th anniversary memorial celebration of the founder of the Church, those from the Republic of Benin came to Nigeria, to the Sepulchre, where he was buried.
And they had their activities there. I just came back from Meko yesterday, where we had a special service.
They were also adequately represented at that service. And these are very positive developments. I think they have their own activities there too.
We are also going to join them. The council is working around the clock. The President of the Republic of Benin, President Talon, determined that he will bring all factions together.
And we are cooperating with him. We are working with him. I'm hopeful that very soon this is also going to show.
Is the President himself a member?
That's the amazing thing. He's not a member, but one of his deputies, a Major General, is.
He's also the chairman of the council that was put together. We're making progress in that direction. So, in the coming months, it's likely we'll see resolutions being reached. So, with all these steps being taken, we're going to unify all that. What we wear here is what we wear there. The way we conduct our service is the way they conduct their service.
We're going to unify all these and then, of course, it will snowball into the leadership, like who's going to be the head and who's going to fill up the other positions that will be available. So, we're making progress. When the time comes, it will all be made public.
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