The Birth of RCCG

The Egbe Ogo Oluwa maintained a quasi-affiliated relationship with the Mount Zion C&S Church, Ebute Metta. Although it was organised from within the church it had members who were not bona fide members of the church. Most of its activities took place outside the church, primarily in the residence of the chairperson of the group, Prophet Josiah. These activities included prayer meetings, night vigils, healing sessions and counselling of members with difficulties. As the society was increasing in number, so Josiah found it necessary to relocate from a small residential place to a larger one: from Oloto street to Kano Street and finally to number 122 Bola street, all in Ebute-Metta. The well-being of the society now defined his personal preferences. The search for a physical place to hold their meetings and activities was also a search for an identity for group, an identity distinct from that of the C&S. Holding their meetings outside the perimeters of C&S church effectively restricted the control of the mother-church in much the same measure as it increased the authority of Josiah as the head of the group.

The search for an independent place for worship and other activities was achieved when a member of the group, Mr. S. A. Olonade donated a piece of undeveloped property at number 9 Willoughby Street, Ebute-Metta.The acquisition and development of this property drew a line in the sand between the authority of C&S and Josiah, marking him out as one with intention to

secede from the mother church. The new place of activities was completed in 1950; Adekola (1989: 69) reports that Apostle Abraham Onanuga, the head of the C&S church at Ebute-Metta was “invited for the opening ceremony and dedication of the building” on the first Sunday in July 1950. Apostle Abraham Onanuga died in 1946 (see Omoyajowo 1982: 193). It must, therefore, have been his successor, Amodu, who performed the dedication ceremony referred to here. The society now had some officers to run its affairs: Josiah was returned as chairperson; George Fakunmoju was appointed protem secretary until such time that Matuloko was appointed permanent secretary. As a quasi-autonomous society, the members of this group intensified its activities for they have now achieved a measure of pride and identity. The religious zeal of the members resulted in a widely reported revival barely a year after it relocated to its new building, a revival that brought in more members into its fold. The prophetic authority of Josiah was confirmed within this group as many miracles were reported to have accompanied his preaching and healing ministry (Adekola 1989: 70; Ajayi 1997: 42).

Both Adekola (1989:69f) and Ajayi (1997: 40-41) report that Onanuga was kindly disposed towards Josiah’s personal ministry. However, Josiah did not find the same favour with Onanuga’s successor. There was no unanimity in his selection as Baba Aladura. Factions soon developed within the body of the Mount Zion C&S such that different individuals laid claims to the headship of the church. However, with the growth of the Glory of God Society, Josiah found himself a formidable power-broker within the C&S church. One of the contestants sought Josiah’s support, a request he declined. Ajayi (1997: 43) reports that those jostling for positions within the church soon started invoking the spirit of the late founder of the C&S movement, Prophet Moses Orimolade Tunolase, by going to his gravesite at Ojokoro cemetery to pray and call on him to settle the disagreement within the church. According to him, the burial ground visits were designed “to settle grievances and determine who will occupy what position” (Ajayi 1997: 43). Josiah was against this practice and therefore refused to participate in it. “This practice”, writes RCCG at 50 (p. 10), “was totally unacceptable to Prophet Josiah who, through his deep study of the Bible knew that such a practice is an abomination to God”.

However, Omoyajowo (1982: 38) reports that since 1934, an annual memorial service has been held at the grave site of Orimolade by the Mount Zion Ebute-Metta C&S church.

Praying at the gravesite of Moses Orimolade Tunolase (who died on 19 October 1933) was not a formal practice of the C&S, but could be seen as part of the honour accorded Orimolade as a man thought to have found favour in the sight of God. Hence, the invocation of “the God of

Moses Orimolade”. Such invocation is also common among the Celestial Church of Christ members where “the God of Oshoffa” is a favourite form of prayer (Adogame 1999: 62). This practice can be traced to such Old Testament phrases as “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” or “the God of Elijah”. Although the RCCG tries hard to distance itself and its rituals from Aladura practices, there are still certain continuities between what it is and does at present and its roots in Aladura Christianity. The popular invocation of “the God of Enoch Adeboye” is a clear indication of one such continuity.

In 1952 Josiah finally left the C&S church. Many reasons are given both in the official church documents and in other sources for this. Documents from the church give the impression that Josiah left the C&S of his own accord. In other words, he seceded from the C&S. For an example, the official history of the RCCG states that

In 1947, he (Josiah) started to become concerned that the church (that is, C&S) was departing from the true word of God in some of its practices. By 1952, he felt totally persuaded to leave the church.⁶²

Similarly, Ajayi (1997: 43-44) writes that “in 1952 he (Josiah) left the Cherubim and Seraphim church”. Depending on Ajayi (1997) as source, RCCG at 50 (p.11) writes that “he [Josiah] left Cherubim and Seraphim church in 1952”. However, Adekola (1989: 72) reports that Josiah and the group of which he was head were “excommunicated” by the C&S church. Tony Ojo (1997:

6) also writes that “Pa Akindayomi was actually sent away from Cherubim and Seraphim”.

Different reasons are given for Josiah’s departure from the C&S. Ajayi (1997: 40-44) specifies in what ways the C&S “was departing from the true word of God” by claiming that Josiah left the C&S because of the introduction of some syncretic practices into the church. He fails to specify the nature of “the syncretic practices” but defines “syncretism” as “[t]he practice of mixing witchcraft with christianity” (sic) (p. 40). The implication of this assertion is that the C&S was mixing witchcraft with Christianity, an allegation that may have been a later reading of the events of the period.

Joseph Erinoso (1999: 20) provides two additional reasons when he states that i) Josiah was excommunicated because he was accused of “incitement of church members against the head of the cherubim and Seraphim church”, and ii) Josiah resented the “collection of fees for

62 Information from the official website of RCCG: http://www.rccg.org/Church_Ministry/Trustees/history.htm (accessed: 25.03.01)

prayer, healing and deliverance” by the C&S. Erinoso is alone in recording this case of incitement. The allegation of “selling prayers” may not be the case as it is a normal practice for prophets to receive gifts and money from their clients and members of their congregations.

Callaway (1980: 325) has investigated the activities of C&S prophets in Ibadan and came to the conclusion that a prophet’s clients part with some money for the services rendered.

However, to both parties, this is not a commercial transaction for “[p]ayments are made on a voluntary basis, a shilling or two at a time”. Josiah himself received “freewill gift and money”

from “people who were coming for prayers when he was in the C&S”.⁶³

For some members of RCCG doctrinal issues were the bases of disagreement between Josiah and the C&S. According to Josiah’s son, his father

[...] left the C&S then because there was no restitution. [Furthermore], Members of the C&S would love a prophet to have many wives, and they were not ready to restitute. He (Josiah) talked to them about the necessity to change but they said no; the doctrine he was trying to bring was too tough. When he discovered they did not want to change he had to move on to establish his own group.⁶⁴

Doctrinal issues may not have been the immediate cause for the expulsion of Josiah from the C&S. This may have been articulated and inserted into the narrative much later. Doctrinal matters became highlighted after the split when Josiah came under the influence of friends who were members of the Apostolic Church, Four Square Gospel Church and the Faith Tabernacle Church.⁶⁵

Tony Ojo (1997: 6), another senior pastor of RCCG, writes that Josiah’s “steadfastness in his observance of holiness especially in his discouragement of the youths from going to the cemetery to pray”. RCCG at 50 (p. 11) reports that Josiah’s opposition to “the practice of going to the burial ground to consult the dead” was the reason for his departure from the C&S.

This source further reports that because Josiah opposed the consultation of spirits of the dead,

63 RCCG at 50, p. 13

64Interview with Deacon Ifeoluwa Akindayomi, op. cit. Restitution is an important practice within RCCG; it means giving back something for some harm caused another. In context of the above discussion, it means those with more than one wife will have to send away the other women in the house except one; adherence to strict Christian monogamy. The Biblical basis of restitution will be shown shortly.

65 Interview with Pastor J. A. Bolarinwa, the office of the Vice Principal (Academic), The Redeemed Christian Bible College, Redemption Camp, Lagos, on 1 June 2001. Bolarinwa is the Vice Principal (Academic) of the Redeemed Christian Bible College (RCBC) where he teaches Church History. He is also a doctoral student in Church History at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

the C&S “fought back and excommunicated him, accusing him of organising bible study outside the C&S church with the motive of stealing the church’s flock to establish his own [church]” (RCCG at 50: 11).

The issue of pray at the cemetery does not appear as a sufficient cause for expelling Josiah.

Praying at the cemetery, as pointed out earlier, was not a new introduction in the C&S; Josiah must have been participating in it from the time he joined the C&S branch at Ebute-Metta. It is very probable that Josiah would have seceded from the C&S if the church authority had not excommunicated him. Adekola (1989: 72) came close to this conclusion when he writes that between 1951 and 1952 Josiah resisted the suggestions of some of his followers to declare the Ogo Olowa group an independent church, but was unwilling to relinquish authority over it.

The excommunication that was handed down by the C&S was on Josiah and the Glory of the Lord society. If Josiah had not been excommunicated, he would have seceded nonetheless because he had in place all the structure, physical and spiritual, to do this. The question of control is pertinent in situating the expulsion of Josiah and his group. As the group expanded and appointed officials to manage its affairs it acquired property of its own. Soon the question of who controls it inevitably became pressing for both the group and the mother-church.

Having laboured and made personal sacrifices in order to organise and maintain the group, giving up control to the C&S mother-church would have amounted to a great personal loss for Josiah. He would have lost his power-base as well as all spiritual, material and symbolic privileges attached to leading the group.

By 1952 he had risen to the rank of “Elder” (alagba) and “Apostle” which is the highest office in the C&S hierarchy (see Omoyajowo 1982: 193). He was authoritative enough to head the group and not concede to the desire of the parent group for supervision. As a result he was

“excommunicated” by the C&S church along with the Ogo Oluwa group. Conceivably, as a result of Josiah’s preoccupation with the affairs of Egbe Ogo Oluwa, he was indifferent to the goings-on within the larger church. Consequently, his excommunication in 1952 was for gross insubordination to the constituted authority of C&S and intention to nurture the Ogo Oluwa group into a full-fledged church independent of the C&S mother church. Josiah had demonstrated unwillingness to bring his group under the authority and supervision of the C&S parish. This explains why he and the group were jointly excommunicated.

In an interview with Olu Okeyemi, the present Baba Aladura of the Mount Zion C&S church from where Josiah was formally excommunicated, the church authority maintained that the issues that caused the expulsion of the Josiah were indeed “minor and negligible”. According to Okeyemi, the escalation that followed was because of the minimal level of education of both Josiah and the then leadership of the C&S church. He insists that ego, pride and personal interest were all at play then, making it difficult for minor differences to be resolved among members. Furthermore, he observes that the history of successful group disaffiliations from the C&S encouraged and reinforced clerical recalcitrance and insubordination.⁶⁶ Omoyajowo (1982: 82) observes that early in the history of C&S, “secession became the usual means of resolving misunderstandings among leaders, especially whenever the question of control was involved”. The control of the Ogo Oluwa prayer group could have been an added cause of the rift between Prophet Josiah and the C&S authority that finally culminated in excommunication for the former.

However, the C&S had read the handwriting on the wall and pre-empted such move to secede before it was fully carried out. It can therefore be rightly argued that having ceased all activities with the C&S, Josiah had to all practical purposes left the church, but since this abandonment was not formal, the church took the initiative to act formally in excommunicating him and his group. This understanding of the events reconciles the apparent divergent positions evident in our investigation. Therefore, the expulsion preceded and became the necessary condition and immediate cause for secession.

When Josiah was expelled from the C&S, he formally constituted his Egbe Ogo Oluwa into a church. A member of the fellowship suggested that the name of the group be changed to Ijo Ogo Oluwa,⁶⁷ meaning “God’s Glory Church” (GGC). Adekola (1989: 72) who alone records this event, reports that this suggestion was approved by Josiah after a period of fasting and prayer. This new Ijo Ogo Oluwa, however, was both like and unlike the C&S. It was like the parent church in those specific practices and teachings that Josiah had no problems with:

fasting and intensive prayers, prognostications and spiritual healing practices, the use of (holy or olive) oil. Above all, it was like the C&S in the definition of Josiah’s ministry and charisma as it related to women: praying for the barren, spiritual care for the pregnant as well as spiritual attention for babies and children. These spiritual and material concerns of Josiah were

66 Personal interview with Baba Aladura E. Olu Okeyemi, Mount Zion C&S church, Ibadan Street, Ebute-Metta, Lagos, 8 November 2002.

67Personal interview with Ifeoluwa Akindayomi, op. cit.

overs from the C&S. These concerns have remained central in the RCCG to the present day. It was unlike the parent church for the reasons that the foundation members were not all from the C&S; many came from different religious backgrounds, bringing along some practices unique to their tradition. Josiah was also under the strong external influence of friends in the Faith Tabernacle church in Nigeria

When Baba [Josiah] gave his life to Christ (that is, ceased from being a C&S prophet), he was exposed to Faith Tabernacle of U.S.A. And Faith Tabernacle and The Apostolic Faith have many things in common and because of this, you can imagine the strict nature of RCCG during his time as General Superintendent.⁶⁸

Such influence was mediated through printed materials like books, pamphlets and tracts that originally went to the Apostolic Faith church in Nigeria (see Omoyajowo Jr. 1998: 67-118) and from there to Josiah Although Josiah could not read the tracts that were in English, he had friends who were educated enough to read English. The Apostolic Faith church in Nigeria had people who were enlightened. According to a senior pastor, Josiah interacted and “rubbed minds with these people, he listened to them and was tutored in the doctrine of Faith Tabernacle and he incorporated this in his religious practice”.⁶⁹ From 1952 (till 1982) the new group formed by Josiah adopted the Sunday school manual of the Assemblies of God church,⁷⁰ an American “classical” pentecostal church that came to Nigeria in 1939.71 This Assemblies of God Sunday school text was a strong source of influence and pentecostal identity for the new group as it tries to construct a different identity distinct from its Aladura roots.

There was a conscious effort for Josiah and his group to be different from the C&S, not only as a result of external influence but also as a direct consequence of the hostility directed towards him and his group from their mother-church. He discarded the white flowing robe and bell characteristic of C&S prophets; he started dressing in European-styled suits and changed his name from Josiah Olufemi Akindolie to Josiah Olufemi Akindayomi. Josiah’s son, Ifeoluwa, in an interview, claims that there was no religious significance in the change of name, for it is a cultural practice of the Ondo people to change surnames from that of the grand father to that of

68Personal interview with Pastor J.A. Bolarinwa, op. cit.

69Ibid.

70 According to Kalu (2000: 111) the Assemblies of God church first came to Nigeria through the invitation of the founder of Church of Jesus Christ (CJC), a group that broke away from Faith Tabernacle (Nigeria) in 1934 in eastern Nigeria.

71 The RCCG, Sunday School Manual, (Lagos: The Directorate of Christian Education, 2002/2003), p. 132; Tijani 1985: 9).

their father. Furthermore, he relinquished all the titles he got from the C&S such as “elder”,

“apostle” and “prophet”. He still felt the need for a title though and so adopted one:

“Reverend”.⁷²The choice of “Rev.” points to a departure from Aladura Christianity as a result of influences of such churches as Assemblies of God, the Four Square Gospel Church, the Faith Tabernacle Church (Nigeria) and the Apostolic Faith Church. All the pastors of RCCG were bearing this title till when Josiah died in 1980 and his successor dropped it for “pastor” as the official designation of RCCG ministers

Between 1941 and 1952, Josiah had taken three wives. He took a second wife when the first was pregnant for their second child. The second wife had abandoned him because of some domestic misunderstanding; the first wife, Esther, and the third wife (whose names have been suppressed in RCCG documents) were living with him at the time he was excommunicated. He was said to have confessed before his small congregation thus: “God spoke to me that I am the number one adulterer in this place”.⁷³ As the last element in the constitution of a new identity, he restituted; he sent away his junior wife. Josiah took the first wife away from the house and asked the younger wife to take whatever property she wanted or needed from their home and leave. As Josiah’s first wife later recounted, the younger wife “took pots, spoons, jewels, etc.

Between 1941 and 1952, Josiah had taken three wives. He took a second wife when the first was pregnant for their second child. The second wife had abandoned him because of some domestic misunderstanding; the first wife, Esther, and the third wife (whose names have been suppressed in RCCG documents) were living with him at the time he was excommunicated. He was said to have confessed before his small congregation thus: “God spoke to me that I am the number one adulterer in this place”.⁷³ As the last element in the constitution of a new identity, he restituted; he sent away his junior wife. Josiah took the first wife away from the house and asked the younger wife to take whatever property she wanted or needed from their home and leave. As Josiah’s first wife later recounted, the younger wife “took pots, spoons, jewels, etc.