History
The evangelical movements of the 18th Century gave rise to many missionary societies such as that of the Baptist (1792), "the joint efforts" (1795) and Church Missionary Society — CMS (1799). Closely related to them was the birth of the British and Foreign Bible Society (1804) and the CMS-inspired founding of the West African Mission [3] in the same year. There was also the Niger Expedition of 1841 which was a response by both the Church Missionary Society and Wesleyan Missionary Society to evangelise newly freed slaves in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Henry Townsend of the CMS and Birch Freeman of the Wesleyan Missionary Society made exploratory visits to Badagry in 1842, giving a joint service of Eucharist and thanksgiving on Christmas Day 1842.
Early missionaries such as Henry Townsend, Charles Andrew Gollmer [4] and Samuel Ajayi Crowther gave rise to the Yoruba Mission. [5] Gollmer was made Deacon in 1841, and priest the same year. Samuel Ajayi Crowther was consecrated a bishop in London on 29 June 1864 and served as Bishop of Western Equatorial Africa. Crowther had founded the All-African Mission in 1847, [6] and headed it until his death in 1891. Following Crowther's death, the CMS home office (secretariat) in London chose Joseph Sidney Hill as successor instead of any of the more suitable Africans, nearly all of whom were already serving as Assistant Bishops. Among them were Archdeacons James Johnson, Henry Johnson, Dandeson Crowther (son of the late bishop), James Quaker, Isaac Oluwole and Charles Phillips. Hill assumed leadership [7] and invited Oluwole, Adolphus Howells and Phillips to be his Assistant Bishops.
In 1894, Herbert Tugwell was consecrated Bishop of West Equatorial Africa, and James Johnson became a "half-bishop". There was a sub-division into two of what was the still the Diocese of Western Equatorial Africa. On 10 October 1919, the Nigerian country, West and North of the Niger were cut off from the Diocese to form the new Diocese of Lagos. F. Melville Jones, a European Missionary educationist [8] and Principal of St Andrew's College, was consecrated as the first Bishop of Lagos. The remaining part — east of the country, was renamed Diocese on the Niger. Its formal inauguration took place on 5 March 1920 with Tugwell remaining as first bishop.
F. Melville Jones served as Bishop of Lagos from 1919 to 1940, and was succeeded by Assistant Bishop of the Diocese on the Niger Leslie Gordon Vining. On 17 April 1951 at the inauguration of the Province of West Africa, Vining was elected and presented as the first Archbishop of the new Province (i.e. of all West Africa). Under him, Lagos and Niger dioceses were divided to create four more dioceses (Niger Delta, Ibadan, Kaduna and Ondo inaugurated in 1952). Vining died at sea in March 1955 and was succeeded by Adelakun Howells. Then following in succession, the episcopacy of Seth Irunsewe Kale from 1963 to 1974; Festus Oluwole Segun from January 1975 to 1985 and Joseph Abiodun Adetiloye from 1985 to 1999.
From 2000 to 2018, the Diocese of Lagos has led by Ephraim Ademowo as both Bishop and Archbishop of Province 1 (comprising all the dioceses geographically located in the Southwest and Midwest areas of the country). In 2008, he was re-elected for another 5-year term as Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Lagos.
The Church of Nigeria is the Anglican church in Nigeria. It is the second-largest province in the Anglican Communion, as measured by baptised membership, after the Church of England. In 2016 it stated that its membership was “over 18 million", out of a total Nigerian population of 190 million. It is "effectively the largest province in the Communion." As measured by active membership, the Church of Nigeria has nearly 2 million active baptised members. According to a study published by Cambridge University Press in the Journal of Anglican Studies, there are between 4.94 and 11.74 million Anglicans in Nigeria. The Church of Nigeria is the largest Anglican province on the continent of Africa, accounting for 41.7% of Anglicans in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is "probably the first [largest within the Anglican Communion] in terms of active members."
The Church of the Province of West Africa is a province of the Anglican Communion, covering 17 dioceses in eight countries of West Africa, specifically in Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Ghana is the country with most dioceses, now numbering 11.
Samuel Crowther, was a Yoruba linguist, clergyman, and the first African Anglican bishop of West Africa. Born in Osogun, he and his family were captured by Fulani slave raiders when he was about twelve years old. This took place during the Yoruba civil wars, notably the Owu wars of 1821–1829, where his village Osogun was ransacked. Ajayi was later on resold to Portuguese slave dealers, where he was put on board to be transported to the New World through the Atlantic.
Henry Townsend (1815–1886) was an Anglican missionary in Nigeria.
Isaac Oluwole (1852–1932) was a Nigerian bishop of Sierra Leonean and Egba heritage. He was one of the most prominent emigrants from Sierra Leone resident in Lagos during the second half of the nineteenth century. From 1879 to 1893, he was the principal of the CMS Grammar School, Lagos and was later ordained a priest. During his time, he was one of the most loved among his peers of clergymen. A reason which may have led to his recommendation as a bishop after a leading radical candidate, James Johnson, complained about the neglect of indigenous control of the Church of Missionary Society.
Leslie Gordon Vining CBE, was an English Anglican bishop and the first Archbishop of the Church of the Province of West Africa, from 1951 to 1955.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Osogbo is a diocese located in the city of Osogbo, Osun State in the ecclesiastical province of Ibadan in Nigeria.
The Anglican Diocese on the Niger is the mother diocese of the Church of Nigeria. It is one of 10 Anglican dioceses in the Anglican Province of the Niger within the Church of Nigeria. The diocese was created in 1864 as the 'Diocese of West African Territories Beyond the British Dominions' or 'Diocese of the Niger' with Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther as the bishop. At Crowther's death in 1891, the diocese was merged with the Lagos and Yoruba sections of the Nigerian mission which had been under the Diocese of Sierra Leone and renamed 'the Diocese of Western Equatorial Africa' with Bishop John Sidney Hill as bishop. He was succeeded by Bishop Herbert Tugwell. In 1920 the Diocese of Equatorial West Africa was divided into two: an eastern part and a western part. A part of the Diocese on the Niger was subsequently carved out in 1946 to create the Niger Delta Diocese.
Herbert Tugwell was a colonial Anglican bishop in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. ordained priest the following year;
Joseph Abiodun Adetiloye was the former Primate of the Church of Nigeria. He was married briefly for 11 months, until his wife's death in 1968; they had a son.
The Cathedral Church of Christ Marina, Lagos is an Anglican cathedral on Lagos Island, Lagos, Nigeria.
The Ecclesiastical Province of Lagos is one of the 14 ecclesiastical provinces of the Church of Nigeria. It comprises 13 dioceses:
The Anglican Diocese of Guinea is one of 17 dioceses in the Church of the Province of West Africa and comprises the nation of Guinea. It was created in 1985 by the partition of the Diocese of Gambia and Guinea into the English-speaking Diocese of Gambia and the French-speaking Diocese of Guinea.
Archdeacon Dandeson Coates Crowther was born on 24 September 1844 in Sierra Leone. He is the son of Archbishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther. He was a leader of the Anglican Church in West Africa. He was a part of the Christian Missionary Society (CMS) in 1870 and titled as "Archdeacon" of the Niger Delta in 1876. He is credited with initiating the "mass movement" towards Christianity in the 1870s and ultimately the first African secession from the Anglican Church when he founded the Niger Delta Pastorate.
Seth Irunsewe Kale, OON, CFR was a Nigerian Anglican bishop who served as Principal of CMS Grammar School, Lagos from 1944 to 1950 and as Bishop of Lagos from 1963 to 1974.
The Anglican Province of the Niger is one of the 14 ecclesiastical provinces of the Church of Nigeria. It comprises 9 dioceses:
Humphrey Bamisebi Olumakaiye was a bishop of the Church of Nigeria and Archbishop of the Anglican Province of Lagos, Nigeria. Until his death, he was the Bishop of Lagos, and Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Lagos, Church of Nigeria having been Bishop of Osun North East Diocese, Otan Ayegbaj until 2018, and presented as the Archbishop of Lagos Ecclesiastical Province on 7 November 2021, at the Cathedral Church of Advent, Life Camp, Abuja.
The Anglican Diocese of Osun North East is one of 17 within the Anglican Province of Ibadan, it is one of the 14 provinces within the Church of Nigeria. The Diocese is inaugurated in 2009. The first Bishop is Rt. Rev. Humphrey Bamisebi Olumakaiye, who was succeeded in 2019 by Rt. Rev. Ebenezer Akorede Okuyelu.
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