Understanding Celestial Church of Christ: The Remarks of Author, Stakeholders at the Book Launch

By Abayomi Elias

As the holy spirit intervened through mother in the Lord A.M.C Sharon Efunkoya to write a book in correcting the misconceptions non-celestials and new converts harbour about Celestial Church of Christ, few remarks have emerged at Saint S.B.J Oshoffa Cathedral, International Headquarters, Ketu, the venue where the book written to address these concerns was launched.

Newsconnect reports that a lot of people are in the dark about the church and this has led them to go out there spread so much misinformation so much so that when people see the members of the fold in their white gamete , they tend to look at them as fetish and diabolical people.

In an interview at the book launch with journalists, the author and convener A.M.C Sharon Efunkoya reiterated what informed the title of the book.

She said;

“The holy spirit inspired the title of the book, because I don’t know how that name came about. I just knew I heard the voice.

“The idea of writing the book is to throw more light on why we do some certain things in celestial Church of Christ. Our doctrines because some people find it very strange that we don’t wear shoes, we wear white, and use candles.

“So this book will throw more light to educate non Celestials and new converts”. She said.

The Secretary of the Pastor in Council and the Head of Media and Publicity of the Celestial Church of Christ Kayode Ajala talked about the significance of the event. In his words, he said;

“What we are trying to do is to disseminate knowledge, disseminate information, a lot of people are in the dark about the church and this has led them to go out there spread so much misinformation so much so that when people see the members of the fold in their white gamete , they tend to look at them as fetish and diabolical people.

“They tend to look at them and classified them as non christians. The Celestial church of Christ is a Bible based church, everything we do in this church, can be found in the scriptures. If you read the book, you would see the practice of the Church outlined and you would see the scriptures backing this practice are also outlined.

“So that is what we are trying to do with this book, correct the negative perception and spread the right knowledge and right information for the sake of the name and image of the church.

For those soiling the name of the church with practice that are not scriptural, he said;

“The internal organ of the church are working on that. In recent times, at least two parishes of the Celestial Church had been shutdown by authorities of the Church, not by the government or the police.

“Because they were engaged in acts that do not align with what we represent. We took decisions that those parishes must be shutdown and they were shutdown. Infact as I speak to you one of them is still under lock and key, the second one was opened just last week.

“I don’t have a message for those committing those atrocities, you commit the atrocity, we will come after you and we will deal with you.

“I want to encourage the author because it is rare to see a woman , a member of the feminine gender going to this length to correct anomalies within the church. She has not only written this book under the guidance of holy spirit, she has also spent a lot of money to put things together, to print, to publish, to organise an event like this.

“She flew in all the way from Netherland on her own expenses. She was not bankrolled by the Church in anyway . For that we need to encourage her, not to relent. The Church is fully in support of what she is doing”. He said .

A student of Celestial Church of Christ Theological Seminary Brother Olusayo Ayobade talked about his expectation in the book having bought it.

“I have bought the book. I am eager to see what she wrote on the mission, the vision, objectives, the doctrines of the celestial Church of Christ. I am happy the book is in English, Yoruba and in French.

“I wish the book can be published in Cotonou and Egun because that is where baba came from. It would not be nice to leave them out of it. If we are producing the book in French, we should be able to produce it in Cotonou language.

“We are the last pot of salvation, to cleanse the world as directed by the holy spirit, through Jesus Christ. We have a mission, a vision and objective.

“I want to encourage the author to write more books, am impressed”. He said.