The African Church

The Arch Cathedral Bethel, Lagos

The African Church was established in Nigeria in 1901. It was established after strong disagreements arose between the European leadership of the Anglican Church and the native African leadership. Following the installation of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (one of the foremost black African Leaders of the Anglican Church and translator of the Bible into the Yoruba language) as the head of Church of Nigeria, a number of African clerics obtained progressive education that did not however translate to advancement in the leadership of the Church. This led to schisms that finally led to the formation of the indigenous African Church.

The African Church is always remembered for leading a revolution. In 1901, one elder Jacob Kehinde Coker who was then called the People's Warden, led some people out of the Anglican church in protest over the ill treatment meted on Africans in the white dominated church. These revolutionaries protested the mode of worship, which had no regard for African musical instruments and the fact that people had to wear European clothes and sing only Western hymns.

The Church held its first service on October 17, 1901 by J.K Coker and a group of ministers that disagreed with the Anglican Church European leadership led by Bishop Turgwell then of St. Paul's Church. The church met at the Rose Cottage, Marina for its first service (this is the present site of Leventis Stores, Marina)

Relating the first worship experience at this young church in 1901, the Pa Coker in his unpublished biography wrote:

On Sunday, the 20th of October, 1901 the first divine services was held in Rose Cottage under a canopy. It was estimated that between 600 and 800 worshippers gathered at Rose Cottage for this memorable service. Some of those who had formed the church acted as the choir and Lay Preacher D. A. J. Oguntolu preached his first powerful sermon taking his text from Song of Solomon chapter 1 verse 6: "Don't look down upon me because I am black because the sun has tanned me,--my brothers were angry with me and made me work in the vineyard. I had no time to care for myself." (R.S.V) Mr. Oguntolu emphasized that Africans have been worshipping Christ as Europeans who were watching, guarding and guiding their customs, beliefs and mode of worship while they had neglected their own. He emphasized that Christ to Europeans was a European and to Africans he should be an African. He stressed that they had been sufficiently taught to know that Christianity should now become an African religion.

The Church in its early history faced persecution in the hands of the colonial led government in Lagos under the influence of the CMS Church (Anglican) from which it had broken away. Due to its inability to obtain land, it resorted to leasing land from influential members for five years and through this method built its first church in Lagos, the Bethel Church leased by B. A. Roberts, A. E. Coates and D. A. J. Oguntolu on Balogun street. The church was initially built in twenty eight days with three hundred and fifty pounds to accommodate 600 members. It was dedicated on December 22, 1901 by Rev. J. S. Williams, vicar of St. Jude's Church, Ebute-Metta (who later became Primate). A second church known as African Church, Salem was later separately incorporated and led expansion efforts separately. The merger of the Salem and Bethel parts of the Church was later made possible under the name, African Church Incorporated. Moves however to incorporate similar African Churches (specifically,United Native African Church (U.N.A.) and the United African Methodist Church (U.A.M.) ) nearly engulfed the African Churches in an internal crisis between 1927 and 1937. This effort was led by J.K Coker, a wealthy lay man often regarded as the father of African Independent Churches. The major source of disagreement was polygamy, which was forbidden by the African Church for the clergy but was allowed by these other churches. The merger was scuttled and these churches survived distinctly from the African Church. The African Church however unlike the Anglican Church (of those days) did baptize offspring of polygamists and allowed its members to take traditional titles.

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