The Episcopal cathedral occupies a commanding site on the hill on the main street of Monrovia. It is probably the biggest church building in the country, elaborately furnished, with the organ donated by the Firestone family. Services were in English. The cathedral attracted about 200 worshippers to its main Sunday service. Just 500 yards away, on a much less impressive site, met the Transcontinental Evangelistic Association Church (Transcea). This was founded in 1982, 142 years after the Episcopal Church came to Liberia. It had no buildings of its own, and rented schoolrooms each Sunday. Yet 1,600 people attended the Sunday morning services. Services were conducted in English, and groups outside the windows had the sermon translated into four local languages. One might conclude from this that the independent sector was the sector with the vitality.

Generally speaking, there was a clear distinction between the mainline churches and the independent. The mainline (often called in Liberia the ‘civilised’) churches did cater for the more powerful and affluent. This was strikingly evident at times. All churches in Liberia used the rally as a method of fund-raising. The Episcopal Cathedral's rally on 3 September 1989 to raise funds for a new floor brought in $27,000 in thirty minutes. Rallies in some independent churches took several hours and raised only a few dollars, most of it in small coins. Also, the mainline churches had clear Western links.