Classification Protestant | Region Worldwide | |
 | ||
Orientation African initiated church Founder Samuel Joseph Bilewu Oschoffa Origin 29 September 1947
Benin Churches Parishes all over the world | ||
The Celestial Church of Christ is an African Initiated Church founded by the Rev. Samuel Biléhou Joseph Oshoffa on 29 September 1947 in Porto-Novo, Benin. Mainly located in Africa and in the Afro-descendant communities in the world, particularly in Benin and Nigeria.
Contents
History
The movement was founded by Samuel Joseph Bilewu Oschoffa, a former carpenter born in Dahomey (now Benin) in 1909. Raised as Protestant (Methodism), he had a divine revelation on 27 May 1947, during a solar eclipse, in a forest where he was lost. He felt called to pray, to heal the sick and raise the dead and founded his church in September 1947. Having appointed himself prophet, Reverend, pastor and founder, he occupied the highest office of the movement he had just founded. The hegemony he exercised on doctrine and discipline issues made his succession difficult after his death in 1985 in Lagos (Nigeria).
The movement has continued to grow since Oshoffa's death, but has also suffered setbacks—the most immediate being severe difficulties related to the matter of succession. Oschoffa was succeeded by Alexander Abiodun Adebayo Bada, who was head of the church until his death on 8 September 2000. Bada was briefly followed as leader by Philip Hunsu Ajose, who died in March 2001. There was a dispute over the succession to Ajose, with some declaring Gilbert Oluwatosin Jesse the leader, while others recognised the Reverend Emmanuel Oschoffa, son of Samuel Oshoffa. Following Jesse's death, his faction declared that Superior Evangelist Paul Suru Maforikan was the new spiritual leader of the church.
Contrary to the procedure of succession in Nigeria, Porto-Novo, the supreme headquarter, successfully chose Benoit Agbaossi(1931-2010) to the head of the church, who in his turn appointed Benoit Adeogun as the next Rev. Pastor shortly before his death in 2010. The Celestial Church of Christ (CCC) was recognized and authorized by the Republic of Dahomey (former name of Benin) in 1965. From 1976, the church launched an evangelistic campaign in former colony of the French West Africa, which became independent in 1960. From the late 1990s, this church has shown its willingness to use the Internet as a privileged means of evangelization thus allowing the many existing branches of the church within the African Diaspora (United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, France, USA) to maintain contact with each other and with Nigeria, the country in which the church is the most popular.
On Wednesday 10 June 2015, the Celestial Church of Christ was enmeshed in another leadership crisis as Rev Olatosho Oshoffa, another son of the late founder of the church, declared himself as a unification leader worldwide. His elder brother, Emmanuel Mobiyina Oshoffa, is one of factional head of the church until this latest development. Prior to this, there had been issues between the two Oshoffa brothers. Reverend Olatosho claimed he saw his father twice in his dream mandating him to unite all factions claiming right to the pastoral seat and he has reached out to his elder Rev Emmanuel Mobiyina Oshoffa, Rev Owodunni, Rev Adeogun, Rev Paul Maforikan, Rev Shoneken and others for unification of the church worldwide and to make Imeko the Celestial holy site accessible to all worshipers.
Beliefs
The Celestial Church of Christ is prophetic with Christian background. The faithful are called “Celestians”, and the church is sometimes informally called “Cele”. The official name of the church is inspired by a vision by which Jesus would have said that Church members adore him as do the angels in heaven. The name of the church comes from the Bible: Deuteronomy 26:15 "Look down from thy Holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel and the land which thou hast given us, as thou didst swear to our father, a land flowing with milk and honey". The name signifies that they deem themselves as celestial or a representative of the heavenly on Earth. The church claims inspiration from God through the manifestation of the Holy Spirit among the faithful. Its doctrinal teachings are based on the Bible, and any superstition or animist belief from traditional African religions is excluded, as in other churches in the Aladura movement.
The church is governed by twelve major recommendations, consisting several banned things, including food, common to other monotheistic religions. Tobacco, alcohol and eating pork are forbidden. The faithful must remove their shoes for prayer and in the places of worship. Men and women are separated at the church. Menstruating women and those who have recently given birth are unclean and cannot attend church events for seven days in the first case after which they would be "sanctified". Members of Celestial Church of Christ are forbidden to engage or participate in any form of idolatory, fetish ceremony or cults, black magic and charms. Only men who are anointed are allowed to access to the altar.
The church uses the King James Bible and the Yoruba translated versions. Although the church takes elements from Gungbe and Yoruba thought, it also has strong similarities to the "purification movements" against paganism that are relatively common in African Christianity. Oshoffa believed he had a mission to combat "'Satan', 'fetish priests' and other 'powers of darkness'."(Marburg article)
Architecture
The temples of worship in Celestial Church of Christ always face East.
Reception
In 2001, it was the second largest church in Benin by the number of its practitioners (nearly half a million).
In France, the church is suspected by two anti-cults associations, ADFI and CCMM, of "cultic deviances" and of having committed acts of violence involving the death of a fifteen-year minor.