Celestial Church of Christ

Celestial Church of Christ
"spiritual headwashing" in Cotonou, Benin
Classification	Protestant
Orientation	African initiated church
Region	Worldwide
Founder	Samuel Joseph Bilewu Oschoffa
Origin	29 September 1947 Benin
Churches	Parishes all over the world
Official website	http://www.celestialchurch.com/

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.

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.