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The Church of the Lord

The expansion of a Nigerian Independent Church in Sierra Leone and Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

H. W. Turner
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Extract

The most striking religious phenomenon in the African continent today is the development of what are variously described as the separatist sects or independent churches, akin to prophet movements, largely indigenous in origin, and much more African in belief and practice than the churches founded by or in association with Christian missions. For want of a more succint and specific term we shall speak of African independent churches. Since Sundkler's pioneer study in 1948, an increasing volume of work has been done in this field, setting forth the diverse circumstances and causes, the manifold forms and African-wide distribution of this movement for spiritual autonomy and cultural integrity that may prove in the end to be a profounder counterpart of the development of political independence that holds the public attention for the present.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , March 1962 , pp. 91 - 110
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1962

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References

1 Sundkler, B. G. M., Bantu Prophets in South Africa, 1948, and 2nd revised edition 1961;Google ScholarParrinder, E. G., Religion in an African City, 1953;Google ScholarSchlosser, Katesa, Eingeborenkirchen in Süd-und Südwestafrika, 1958;Google ScholarAndersson, E., Messianic Popular Movements in the Lower Congo, 1958;Google ScholarRaymaekers, P., L'Eglise de Jésus Christ sur la terre par le prophète Simon Kimbangu, Zaīre, XIII, 7 (1959), 675–756;Google ScholarPauw, B. A., Religion in a Tswana Chiefdom, 1960;Google ScholarBaëta, C. G. K., Prophetism in Ghana, unpublished thesis for Ph.D. (London), 1959;Google ScholarWelbourn, F. B., East African Rebels, 1961; J. V. Taylor and Dorothea Lehmann, Christians of the Copperbelt, 1961. And see periodial literature given in these, the major works.Google Scholar

2 This and subsequent quotations from Church of the Lord sources are taken from sundry publications and records held at the Church of the Lord headquarters in Freetown. The chief of these are The Church Record Book or Diary, from 1947 to 1961; the Record Book 1950 for the church at Bonthe; and the Minutes of the annual conferences from 1952 onwards.Google Scholar Acknowledgement is made of the assistance given by the Administrator-General, Apostle E. O. A. Adejobi, and in his absence by his wife, in providing access to this material. Besides the brief reference in Parrinder cited above, the only published material on the Church of the Lord (apart from its own publications) is as follows: Banton, M., ‘An Independent African Church in Sierra Leone’, Hibbert Journal, LV (10 1956), 57–63;Google ScholarTurner, H. W., ‘The Litany of an Independent West African Church’, Sierra Leone Bulletin of Religion, 1, 2 (12 1959), 48–55,Google Scholar and ‘The Catechism of an Independent West African Church’, idem, II, 2 (Dec. 1960), 45–57.

3 The Daily Guardian, 7.5.47, and 8.5.47.Google Scholar

4 The Evening Despatch, 10.5.47, 20.5.47, and 21.5.47.Google Scholar

5 The Sierra Leone Weekly News, 26.4.47.Google Scholar

6 Ibid. 5.7.47.

7 The Sierra Leone Daily Mail, 3.9.47.Google Scholar

8 Johnson, T. S., an African bishop of the Sierra Leone Church (Anglican), The Fear- Fetish: Its cause and Cure, Freetown, 1949, 40.Google Scholar