From Porto-Novo to Rayleigh: How a West African Church Learned to Worship Across the World

From Porto-Novo to Rayleigh: How a West African Church Learned to Worship Across the World

The Celestial Church of Christ began in Porto-Novo, in what is now Benin, in September 1947. Today its white-garmented worshippers gather in places the founder's first congregation could hardly have pictured, from Lagos and Cotonou to London, Germany, France and the United States.

According to Wikipedia's summary of the church's history, the movement's growth abroad followed the African diaspora into Europe and North America. The photo with this post shows a good example: a parish in Rayleigh, Essex, worshipping in a red-brick building that was once an evangelical church. A familiar sign over the door, and the same seven-candle worship inside, can make a quiet English street feel a little like home.

Wikipedia also notes that since the late 1990s the church has used the internet as a tool for evangelism, helping branches in the UK, Germany, Austria, France, the United States and elsewhere keep in touch with each other and with Nigeria, where the church is most widely followed. Anyone who has watched a harvest thanksgiving or a revival streamed from another continent will recognise how much that connection matters.

Over to you:
- If you worship abroad, what did your parish do to make the building and the services feel like home?
- How has online worship changed the way you stay connected to your family parish?

Sources: Wikipedia, "Celestial Church of Christ"; Wikimedia Commons file description for the Rehoboth Parish, Rayleigh photo.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons (CC0), Celestial Church of Christ Rehoboth Parish, Rayleigh, May 2024