Recent Testimonies
03-15-10 DAUGHTERS OF THUNDER speak out against ABORTION!
THIS ONE SIN BRINGS JUDMENT ON THE ENTIRE NATION! SELAH
Abortions: The law of man vs the Law of YHWH
Dear brother/sister in Messiah
Two weeks ago a young student made an unexpected confession during a mediation session at court. She was charged with assault upon a certain woman. The student had a relationship with the boyfriend of the woman. She confessed of having had an abortion of her 5 months old baby. It was against her principles (her words) to have an abortion, but she could not cope with pressure from her family and the father of the child. She reported having had repetitive dreams about the baby, sleeping problems and depression. Overwhelmed by guilt she wanted her baby back, but it was too late…
This incident re-sensitized my conscience….a reminder that the silent holocaust of thousands and millions of babies has slipped in a way through my fingers because I neglected to pray for them ; for mothers and fathers who may have no idea that innocent blood cries out to our Father in heaven. Is He not a just Father? Will He not answer each cry?
Let me say at once, I do not, and cannot judge! I was never put before a choice to have or not to have an abortion. Who knows what my choice would have been?
I could share with the student a story I heard (whether it was a vision, or just a story, I do not know)…of an aborted baby on the lap of our heavenly Father, asking questions like children do:
“ Where is my mother?” Our Father then told him where she is.
“Why am I not with my mother?” Father answered:”I do not know. I forgot….”
But…, dear believer…this is my dilemma, how does one pray, when Scripture teaches that:
Amongst 6 things our Father in heaven hates, and seven which are an abomination to Him, one is…
Hands shedding innocent blood (Prov 6:17)
The hands of an abortionist? Abortionists in private practice earn much more than most of us! By 1992 abortion was a five hundred million dollar a year industry in America alone. Worldwide it then was a ten billion dollar industry. The average annual income for a physician in the Portland, Oregon was just under 100 000 dollar. An abortionist in the same area testified in court that his income the previous year was 345 000 dollar. An abortionist working only 20 or 30 hours a week, with no overhead, can earn from 3 – 10 times as much as an ethical surgeon…they are not on call and work ordinary office hours!
What will make them stop? Repentance of their sins!
Cain was cursed because the blood of his (innocent) brother cried out from the ground (earth) to the Holy One. What would be the curse upon an abortionist (who does not repent) upon a government who approves of abortions, upon a nation witnessing the silent holocaust?
In Math 18:3, the words of Messiah: Whosoever receives one little child like this in My Name, receives Me….
Messiah spoke more than once about children..are we not to enter the Kingdom of Heaven like little children?
Is this nation better off than Yisrael?..
who sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons and shed innocent b.ood, the blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan and the land was defiled with blood, thus they become unclean by their own works and played the harlot by their own deeds. Therefore the wrath of the the Holy One burned against His people. Ps 106:37-38
To which god(s) are the sons and daughters of this nation being sacrificed?
For those who are prompted to stand in prayer, or to take some other action, please take note of the following:
A private members bill has just been filed to deal with mandatory counseling to ensure that a woman (including a minor) is able to make a fully informed choice regarding the termination of her pregnancy. The Bill will be dealt with in due course by the Parliamentary Committee. This is a new initiative following the defeat of a proposal by a minority group to amend the Constitution to prevent abortions.
Some of you may remember the landmark judgment of the Constitutional Court where it was decided that Parliament had failed to obtain a representative (majority) vote by the public before legalizing abortions in terms of the 1996 Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act. Government was then given 18 months to obtain the results of public hearings where the issue was debated. Sadly, the voices of more than 70 % of participants voting and debating against the legalization of abortions were blatantly ignored by Parliament when the 2008 Amendment Act was passed.
Do not be surprised… it is unlikely for any parent to debate in favor of abortions! A minority group succeeded to “force” the 1996 Act into operation. The group may have chanced faces, but the same minority group (mostly homosexuals, lesbians, fighting for “human rights”) succeeded to have same sex marriages legalized and attempted to have prostitution legalized before 2010.
The draft Bill proposes an amendment of Section 3 of Act 92 of 1996, by adding requirements to the place where termination of pregnancy may take place, for the patient to have:
access to ultrasound equipment which must be used to i) accurately determine the gestation period prior to TOP, ii) provide relevant information as to the state of development of the unborn child, thereby assisting the mother to make an informed choice.
Access to counseling which would provide sufficient information, including electronic pictures, or diagrams and photographs, to enable the woman to understand the development of the unborn child, including discussion of the extent of the risks involved in continuing the pregnancy as set against the risks involved in terminating the pregnancy, including breast cancer, depression and future difficulties in conceiving and bearing children and
Available alternatives to abortion including adoption, and state and other support available to the mother.
Remember! Pro-choice groups are careful not to show the mother the true picture of her baby. They use words like “empty the uterus” or “ we will scrape the lining of the uterus”; “ it is just a blob of tissue”…but never the truth…”we will suck out your baby…tearing the limbs and head apart”! Why do you think the heading of the Act was changed from “Abortion and Sterilization Act” to “choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act? It was planned to deceive…!
Consider the following facts:
Though carried inside the womb of the mother, the fetus has its own unique genetic code and cannot be regarded as part of her body.
Prof AW Liley, known as the “father of fetology” wrote: The conceptus is to a very large measure in charge of the pregnancy. It is the embryo who stops his mother’s periods and makes her womb habitable by developing a placenta and a protective capsule of fluid for himself. He regulates his own amniotic fluid volume and although women speak of their waters breaking or their membranes rupturing, these structures belong to the fetus.
A woman goes into labor not because her body is ready to surrender the unborn child, but because the unborn child is ready to leave her body. The unborn’s brain sends a message to his own pituitary gland which in turn stimulates the adrenal cortex to secrete a hormone which stimulates the mother’s womb to contract.
There is overwhelming and consistent medical and scientific proof that life starts at conception. From the moment of conception the unborn is not simple, but very complex.
Prior to the earliest first-trimester abortions, the unborn already has every body part he/she will ever have. After conception:
18 days – heart is forming and eyes start to develop
21 days – heart beating and pumping blood throughout the body
28 days – budding arms and legs
30 days – multiplied in size 10 000 times. He has a brain and blood flows through his veins.
35 days – mouth, ears and nose taking shape.
40 days – skeleton is formed and brain controls movement of muscles and organs. Unborn reflexively responds to stimulus, and may be capable of feeling pain. THIS IS BEFORE THE EARLIEST ABORTIONS TAKE PLACE.
45 days – 6-and-a-half weeks, when many women do not know that they are pregnant, Embryo weighs 1/3 of an ounce, has all the internal organs of the adult in various stages of development. It has a little mouth with lips, tongue and buds for 20 milk teeth. Sex and reproductive organs begins to sprout.
8 weeks – hands and feet almost perfectly formed, fingerprints developing. Mother’s movements stimulate fetus’s balance and motion detectors.
9 weeks – child will bend fingers around object placed in palm. Fingernails forming, child sucking its thumb. Has perfected a somersault, back flip and scissor kick!
10 weeks – child squints, swallows and frowns.
11 weeks – urinates, kicking, turning his feet, curling and fanning his toes, making a fist, moving thumbs, bending wrists and opening his mouth.
ALL THIS HAPPENS IN THE FIRST TRIMESTER, THE FIRST THREE MONTHS OF LIFE. IN THE REMAINING 6 MONTHS IN THE WOMB NOTHING NEW DEVELOPS OR BEGINS FUNCTIONING. THE CHILD ONLY GROWS AND MATURES.
The prophetic vision of David when he describes the unborn child in Ps 139:13 surpasses all pictures modern technology could possibly give us about the wonder of life being formed in the womb of a mother:
For you formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb; I will praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed, and in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them.
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you…I ordained you as a prophet to the nations Jer 1:5
Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die…Prov 31:8
When my father and my mother have forsaken me, then YHWH does take me in. Ps 27:10.
Are we to interfere with the Hands of our Creator when He is at work to form a new life?
Linda Gerber (prev van Wyk)
March 2010
03-15-10 Bro David WAC has a big wish list for all the FBF Men in Several West Africa Nations!
DEAR BRO. ROBERT,
I APPRECIATE WHAT THE LORD IS USING YOU AND THE ENTIRE FBF GLOBAL TEAM TO DO IN OUR PRESENT GENERATION.
I PRAY THAT THE LORD WILL GIVE YOU MORE GRACE AND RESOURCES TO DO MORE.
THIS IS TO INFORM YOU ABOUT THE LIST OF RESOURCES NEEDED IN THE COURSE OF OPEN AIR PREACHING TO EXPAND THE WORK IN WEST COAST:
BAYELSA STATE====== 2 BULL HORNS & 4 T-SHIRTS,
OSUN STATE======== ‘’ ‘ ’
ONDO STATE======== ,, ,,
OSUN STATE======== ,, ,,
8 BULL HORNS
16 T-SHIRTS
……………………………………………………………
TOGO============= 3 BULL HORNS & 5 T-SHIRTS
COTE D’VOIRE======== ,, ,,
CAMEROUN============= ,, ,,
BURKINA FASO=========== ,, ,,
SIERRA LEONE=========== ,, ,,
LIBERIA================ ,, ,,
GAMBIA================ ,, ,,
35 T-SHIRTS [FOREIGN]
21 BULL HORNS
GRAND TOTAL OF ITEMS NEEDED 51 T-SHIRTS
29 BULL HORNS
IN STOCK=== 2O T-SHIRST NEWLY PRINTED,
3 BULL HORNS LEFT.
10 BANNERS FRENCH AND ENGLISH
SHIPPING COST OF TWO BANNERS TO BELOW LISTED COUNTRIES :
DR.CONGO 6,200
TANZANIA 6,700
BURUNDI 6,700
RWANDA 6,700
AWAITING YOUR REPLY.
GOD BE WITH US AS WE EXPAND THE WORK IN JOINT EFFORT TO EXPAND HIS KINGDOM.
THANK YOU FOR THE RECOMMENDATION.I AWAIT YOUR RESPONSE.
DAVID O
PS> These are our URGENT PRIORITIES:
BAYELSA STATE====== 2 BULL HORNS & 4 T-SHIRTS,
TOGO============= 3 BULL HORNS & 5 T-SHIRTS FRENCH
COTE D’VOIRE======== ,, ,, ,,
CAMEROUN============= ,, ,, ;;
SIERRA LEONE=========== ,, ,, ENGLISH
LIBERIA================ ,, ,, ,,
TOTAL 17 BULL HORNS 29 T-SHIRTS
I WANT TO SEND THE BANNERS/BULL HORNS TO CAMEROUN,TAKE TO TOGO,COTE D’VOIRE AND LIBERIA
THESE ARE THE URGENT NEED.
david ojelade
03-15-10 Bro Amos writes of revelation in prayer
Hi Bro Robert,
Writing to say that we miss you! The holy spirit is requesting us his servsnts to start freshly walk by the purpose of God into our sanctified hearts so that we can be able to impacting the world’s citizens.
Read James 1:22-25;Matthew 7:21-27.God bleass you.
Your’s Amos
03-14-10 Bro Jeevan FBF East India requests prayer amongst the Hindu’s being saved!
Dear Beloved Pastor.ROBERT EPHRATA in the Lord Christ Jesus,
I greet you in the name of Jesus, brethren I request you to pray for one another for the days we are living are not good the devil is working to destroy unity among believers and leaders of the church to day rise up pray.
We had 3 days opener meetings in different places and 8 Hindus are saved and we gave baptism to in the river. We Praise God.
Greet all for us and know that we love you and praying for you all always
Because He cares and hears our prayers
May God bless you,
Bro Prassana J. B.
03-12-10 Bro Harrison FBF Kenya north reports many getting saved
at Matungu and Wogalo markets!
Dear Brother Robert,
Did you reach well?How was your journey?I was over joyed when we communicated to each other although we did not meet face to face.Back here we are going on well,I want also to tell you that Brother Omunyala Amukowa welcomed me to his meeting at Matungu and Wogalo markets on 7-8th March 2010.There was a breakthrough and it was wonderful as many people came to Jesus.
NB There is still a problem with the Goverment on preaching on the markets.
God bless you.
Bishop Harrison Omusula.
03-12-10 Bro Omunyala A and Bro Harrison working the fields together… and God blessed them!
Dear Brother Robert,
Praise the Lord and I hope you are ok.I want to let you know that I invited Bishop Harrison Omusula to Matungu and Wogalo markets on 7-8th March 2010.We see the Hand of the Lord as many people embraced the Gospel and responded to be saved.I will be telling you more as I will be meeting Bishop Omusula to arrange more outreaches.
God bless.
Bishop Omunyala A.
03-12-10 Bro Whachana/ FBF East Uganda coordinator attests to continued revival!
We give thanks to God for what He means to us or has done to us( 1 thess 3:18) thank Him for what He has given us ( salvation food, through our founder FBF brother Robert Ephrata & J\mes sam from kisumu kenya Brother you are moving to six nations, phil 4:6. We have no anxious about anything but in everything we put you in prayer and petition with thanks giving present your request to God.
Evangelism? Greek word means to preach the Gospel.
The Gospel= death, burial & resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The lord Jesus says to us, His disciples “ Go ye into all world,and preach the Gospel to every creature“( mark 16 v 15)
Paul wrote to the Romans `for whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved. How then shall they call Him in whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, how beautiful are feet of them that preach gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” ( Romans 10 v 13, 14 and 15)
Paul reminded Timothy “Do the work of an evangelist” (Timothy 4 v 5)
When you left us in Muwayo the saints increased up to 200 on that day and those who came from Bwaku came with your gift of male goat it is kept to the treasure Mrs Agiry.
Brother you said that you will support us fully we started to contribute iron sheets to build fbf center at muwayo if you have anything to help us please do it, for us we are contributing 40 iron sheets. Nothing you will send about fbf that will get lost.
I remain yours in Christ
Wachana B
FBF Uganda.
02-23-10 Bro Augustin from Bujumbura Burundi sends in report and new work of FBF
Dearest Brother Robert,
I greet you so much in the might name and wonderful Jesus Christ, I want to taking this wonderful opportunity to thank so much our king of king’s Jesus Christ for give their servants of God to starting this wonderful program, you God is good all the time because I have 32 age, I was receiving Salvation when I have 16 age but I was starting to preach the gospel to different countries and many street, different countries, markets…
I thank so much because I’m senior Pastor of Calvary Mountain Church here in Bujumbura-Burundi, by grace of God we have 2 churches, one here in Bujumbura and another to Ndava Province all his new and young, we pay rent every month to primary school class, glory to God because we starting all this churches by evangelization only, one church have 35 members and another have 50 members, we have the program of every MONDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY all members we going to preach and teaching to different places.
This is the fruit of your teaching you was teach us yesterday I was starting to put that teaching’s in ACTIONS.
We love you us praying for you.
Pastor Augustin O
Calvary Mountain Church
Bujumbura-Burundi
02-18-10 Bro Eliezer loves the Open Air in Kampala!
Hello sir hop the time in East Africa is going on fruitfully. By the way, this is Eliezer whom you met at Dr. Lumala’s Church in kampala. I want to say that the outreach was a wonderful experience for me. I had never done such a kind before. I only used to preach door to door. I think we will have to adopt that method for crusades and the like. God bless you and hop to keep in touch.
I am not yet conversant with skype and I am still learning some more things.
God Bless You
Eliezer K.
02-18-10 Bro Jacob writes in from West Kenya with thanks giving for FBF
Dear Bro. Robert,
Greetings of love i send to you. where are you now? are you in Kenya? if yes. in which place, am much interested to see you. i have missed you for a long time. indeed i love you. if you are in Kenya, how will i meet you? Thank you very much for the high calling. may the lord give you wisdom of reaching the unreached. Here am ready to stand with you together in the ministry of FBF in order to see that the body of christ is buid up. in all circumstances, am ready to be with you to see that the great commission is fulfilled in the ministry of FBF. Do you know there are people here who wear the gaments of the sheep but they are not sheep, they are wolves. they pretend to be preachers but they are not. they only need money from you and after getting from you they kick you. God had a purpose for bringing you to Kenya for the purpose of extension of His kingdom. only that it has taken time before i meeting you. i believe as i will meet you we shall talk more.
I wish to have your phone numbers for more communication. I do not want to miss to see you. Do you stil remeber when we were preaching on the way one day going to Katakwa?
Yours in the Lord
Pastor James.
02-16-10 Bro Gaby writes in from DR Congo… we met in Uganda conference.
Hello brother Robert,
Praise the Lord,
Again let me say that it has been a pleasure meeting you. I hope you are having a wonderful time in Uganda and that your visit to Congo will be fruitful for the kingdom of God.
I’m still in Uganda but I hope to be leaving for Bukavu-Congo next week. We did not get time to talk at length and get to start knowing each other but hope the Holy Spirit has reserved us wonderful opportunities ahead of us. You could also have a glance at our website which is under construction by now.
God bless you. Greetings to your Kenyan colleague.
Gaby.
02-15-10 Benin FBF Bro Godwin appreciates working with FBF/ West Africa!
DEAR BELIOVE.
IAM ONE OF THE MISSIONARY HERE IN REPUBLIC DU BENIN I LOVE YOUR WORK THAT IS WHY I WANT TO JOINE WITH YOU PLEASE I WANT YOU TO KONW THIS I WANT TO INVITE YOU ACCORDING TO HOLY SPIRIT PLEASE I WANT YOU TO COME AND HELP US IN BREACH PROGRAM WHICH GOD HAVE GIVE US VISSION WE ARE ONE FAMILY IN THE LORE.
THIS PROGRAM WILL START ON APRIL 2010 PLEASE THIS NEED TO COME TO CHRIST WE NEED YOU AS THE GUEST PLEASE CALL ME
SO THAT WILL WILL SEE FACE TO FACE I THANKS GOD FOR YOUR LIFE AND WORK.
THNKS PASTOR GODWIN.
PLEASE SIR
I AM SPENDING ALL MY MONEY FOR THIS NETWORK NO ONE IS ABLE TO HELP ME I CALL THEM WITH MY MONEY AND HOST THEM WITH MY MONEY.AND ALL SAID THAT THEY WANT TO SEE YOU PLEASE COME ON THIS DATE AND REPLY TO ME.
PLEASE SEND US BOOKS PRENCH ONE AND ENGLISH ONE PASTOR DIVED SAID HE WILL COME I DID NOT SEE ANY OF THEM.SO HERE IN BENIN NON OF THEM IS HAPPY THERE WANT TO SEE YOU AND YOU WILL HAVE SERMINSER WITH THEM.
02-09-10 Pastor invites into Western Kenya… prayer and fasting church wide.
Dear dad Robert
We love you all and thanks for your prayers. God’s purpose shall be fulfilled if her to wants be involved in the ministry. But I am still weak just as Moses was met by God and asked to be sent on a mission to bring the Israelites to the promised land.
He did not just yes I am ready to God. Instead God had to equip him plus promising him his own brother Aron as a companion if he needed one. I am waiting for all that and which does God want me to go and on what mission.
My prayers are with you always. Ia m praying for you and your team for coming welcome here Bungoma people were eager for your asked about your teachings your am believing in the lord that next week shall feed with the word of God you shall visit us again here Tulumba church visit my country kenya and bless my people with the word of God we are start today praying and fasting up to Sunday morning put us in your prayers . I do know when exactly cause I have long way we need God tell my dad most welcome we love your teachings so much
God bless you all. let me hear more from you
your pastor isaac and eunice
02-09 10 Bro Omunyala A Deals with the trials of new law banning bull horns in Kenya! Nevertheless, people continue to get saved in the continuing revival in East Africa! Amen.
Dear Brother Robert,
Praise the Lord.It is indeed long time I have not communicated to you
but I read of your mail last week.
Here we are doing well,although the ban imposed on public address system has affected the Gospel ministers here in Kenya so much.We believe that is one of the vices that the devil wants to apply to hinder the Gospel but I believe as the Bible says in ISAIAH 54:17 that no weapon forged against us will prevail….AMEN.Please keep on praying for this nation.
I have shared with brother Ben on this issue and we see that the Lord is doing something and the is a proven breakthrough.I was in Nakuru and Gilgil on 1-3 Feb 2010 and preached in Free area in Nakuru where six persons came to Christ.In Gilgil there is a market near Kenya Arny Barracks I preached here and four people got saved and I directed the to REDEEMED GOSPEL CHURCH under brother Andrew Sondoro and his wife Lucy.
I will be going to Nairobi next month and hope the Lord is going to open the way.
Brother Robert,God bless you for your concern in Africa by encouraging us to reach the unreached whom we thought and forgot to be needing Christ.
Blessings.
Bishop Omanyala
02-09-10 New web site
Bro.Robert,
I feel very much encouraged from your mail. .Let the Lord be with you and stand with you in your vision.
Blessings.
Bishop Amukowa.
02-09-10 Bro George appreciates the content in the Web Site
Robert,
Thank you for your news letter and thinking of us.I have down loaded the info so that we can digest the info. Keep up the good work, we appreciate the new site!
best wishes
George.
02-08-10 Pastor Kisira encourages FBF Brothers for 2010 and beyond! Good will!
Hope all is well in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our God is good al the times. He is taking us to another level this year. Preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to all Nations. That is our call. May God help you in all
I will stand with you in prayers.May God give you strength to do His will.Let
Let God meet the desires of your hearts.Aim always to do Gods will.Preach the word of God nothing else.
Greet the saints there. I love them. May God bless you in all that you do
Yours in Christ Pastor N Naipanoi
02-08-10 Revival Spirit in Africa now a world force that has it’s own legs!
Article: Africa as Christian Centers today: Web Site:
Christianity’s New Center - Africa
http://network.nationalpost.com/
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It is a vision most mainstream Canadian church leaders can only dream of: Sunday mornings in which parishioners dance and sing through three-hour services. Seminaries overflowing and unable to keep up with demand for pastors as the number of the newly baptized rises.
The dream is a reality in such places as Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda, where there is an explosion in Christianity. In the past decade, this demographic surge has started to spill out of Africa, as well as Asia and Latin America, in the form of missionaries to the West, a trend influencing everything from styles of worship to doctrine.
John Allen, in his most recent book, The Future Church, a look at global Catholicism over the next 100 years, wrote that issues such as abortion, condoms and female priests will not even be on the table in part because of the African influence.
Even the woes of the Anglican Church of Canada can be put on the doorstep of surging African Anglicanism. The conservative parishes that deserted their far more liberal national Church in the past decade received their moral support primarily from the conservative bishops of Africa.
The reasons for this growth and subsequent influence are complex, but simple demographics help tell some of the tale: Western birth rates are in sharp decline while African rates are soaring.
In 2008 there were 973 million Africans, up from 767 million in 1999 — an increase of 27% — according to UN statistics. By contrast, the population of North America grew from 307 million to 337 million, up 10%, and in Europe from 729 million to 732 million, an increase of just 0.4%.
As populations explode, more people turn away from failing nation states and toward to the relatively stable churches for food, shelter, education and medicine.
According to the World Christian Database, 2% of the world’s Christians lived in Africa in 1900; today it is 20%. In less than 40 years Africans will comprise 30% of the world’s Christians; taken together with Asia and Latin America, it will be 71%. In 1900, 82% of the world’s Christians were in Europe and North America.
“I see people turning to the Church like in the Gospels they turned to Jesus, namely, with inarticulate faith and trembling hope that He can resolve their most pressing afflictions and ailments,” said Pastor Michael Czerny, who runs the African Aids Network in Nairobi, Kenya.
With the growing number of Christians has come a surge in vocations. One seminary alone in southeast Nigeria has 1,100 seminarians - one fifth the number of all the seminarians in the United States.
Pastor James Okoye, a Nigerian theologian now at the Theological Union in Chicago, said the entire history of the Church has been one of reordering balance, in which areas with the most fervour and numbers find their way to the regions in religious decline or need.
So it is not surprising, he said, that while the flow of religious teachers once went from Europe and North America to Africa, it is now moving in the opposite direction.
With that new guard of leaders comes an altering in the style of worship and perhaps a gradual relaxation in the rigid boundaries between religious institutions and secular society.
“Church and liturgy are a fundamental part of the African community,” said Pastor Victor Eze, a Nigerian pastor in Red Deer, who has been in Alberta for five years. “If you’re not there on a Sunday people will ask what is wrong with you. It’s like a local festival in the community. Going to church is a religious and social demand. In Nigeria religion and the broader society are interwoven and it’s hard to tell where one begins and the other ends.”
He remembers his first Alberta service and laughs at the obvious cultural differences.
“I began the usual way, ‘In the name of the Father, Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ And I waited for the ‘Amen” response and there was silence - or that was how it appeared to me. I was used to a response that was thunderous…. The first time I heard nothing. They spoke, but it was so soft. I thought I didn’t say it loud enough.”
The export of a more exuberant style of worship is only a small part of the transformation of Christianity now underway.
Eze said that the conservatism that one sees in African churches relates directly to the fact that all religion, including tribal religions, were always integrated into the larger culture — and not pushed by a secular barricade.
“Africans are traditionalists and that translates into orthodoxy,” said Eze. “We believe it was always this way and always will be. There isn’t much question about why things have happened. The general attitude is this is the way it’s always been and this is the way it always will be. Not much question of why this or should there be a change here or there. This could also be negative.”
In the Anglican Church, the influence of African orthodoxy is being deeply felt in churches in Canada and the United States.
In this past decade, conservative Anglican parishes unhappy with the slide into liberalism of their national churches, especially over the issues of same-sex marriage and the ordination of female bishops, have formed their own province, the first to cross national boundaries. Many of those parishes found the blessings of African Anglican bishops who share those conservative views.
Indeed, half of the world’s 70 million Anglicans now live in Africa.
The reaching out to the West is part of the evolution of Christianity in Africa, said Harvard Professor Jacob Olupona, an Anglican theologian from Nigeria.
Christianity started in the form of small regional and independent churches that reflected local culture.
“At first they didn’t see mainline Christianity as Christian enough,” said Prof. Olupona.
But that has been replaced with a desire to join something that is greater than Africa, something that is global, he said.
For years Africans were ignored by the Western churches, said Prof. Olupona, but now “we have the numbers” so the West has to listen.
“A global Anglican Church based in Canterbury is almost over,” said Prof. Olupona. “There are now going to be competing centres of Anglican Christianity.”
Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, the Anglican bishop in charge of the breakaway Canadian and American parishes, was even more blunt in his assessment.
“In the year 2000 the Archbishop of Canterbury was the second most important Christian leader in the world,” Bishop Duncan said. “In a short space of time that office has utterly been diminished. It shows that the British model of Anglicanism has failed. The new Canterbury will be in Africa.
It is the realignment of “a new Reformation of Christianity sparked by Africa.”