Here Are The Five Oldest Church Dominations In Igboland

It is noteworthy the Anglican church mission introduced what is known as Pentecostalism into Igboland through their charismatic displays and activities long before the churches that strictly claim exclusive Pentecostalism came, and that was about a century later.

When Ajayi Crowther became bishop in 1964, he was in charge of the Diocese of Equatorial West Africa headquartered in Onitsha. This became the centre from which Anglicanism was launched into Igbo hinterland. Today the succeeding Diocese on the Niger with its Cathedral Church of All Saints in Ozala, Onitsha, is referred to as the “mother diocese”.

The Catholic Church

The first sustained Catholic mission, which was led by French Holy Ghost priests, arrived in the area of Igboland particularly east of the Niger in the year 1885. On the Niger River, In Onitsha, Obi Anozonwu offered them land for a church and school and granted them permission to establish mission stations in nearby villages too.

The very few Catholic missionaries available meant that they depended on educating local converts to educate and catechize others. Joseph (Ignatius) Shanahan, an Irish priest who later became bishop in Nigeria, once said, “If we go from town to town talking only about God, we know from experience that much of our effort has brought no result. But no one is opposed to schools.”

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Indeed, villages approached mission clergy asking for schools more often than they could be immediately be accepted and accommodated.

History explains that Catholic clergy were so “Covered up” from the beginning by their keen focus on hospitals and schools that much of the duty of catechizing was mainly done by trained, lay Igbo catechists. Bishop Shanahan, who established the strategy, described the Igbo catechists as “helpers” despite being fully aware of their major role in sharing the gospel amongst their own people.

“Local catechists were in control of  day-to-day spiritual affairs,” Jacinta Nwaka reports, “such as instruction, baptisms, conducting daily prayers, home visitations, burying the dead, and settling cases between and among families.”

The Holy Ghost missionaries were not too quick to develop an Igbo clergy rather slow, focusing instead on sending missionaries from Ireland. Meanwhile, as the number of Igbo Catholics continued to multiply, the foreign missionaries were always stretched to keep up the work.

Perhaps it os the strategy of building schools and hospitals more than churches that helped give Catholicism the edge it enjoys in Igboland today.

The Methodist Church

A third missionary activity towards the evangelization of Igboland was started by the primitive of the Methodist society in 1892 in the area between the Qua Iboe River and the Port-Harcourt.

Earlier, in 1879, The Rev. John Milum, leader of the Methodist in Lagos, had toured the Niger Delta areas and was cordially received by the famous king Jaja of Opobo who promised to support the missionary work of the Wesleyans if it would be manned by Europeans.

However, it was the opening up of the Railway from Port-Harcourt to Enugu in 1911 that led to the effective penetration of Methodists into Igboland with Uzoakoli, present-day Bende Local Government Area, Abia State, as its headquarters. It was from which places like Umuahia, Ihube, etc. were reached with financial supports from the Methodist Society in London.

Qua Iboe Mission, Church 

After the advent of the Methodist Society, as recorded in a book written by Edmund Ilogu (Christianity and Ibo Culture), another missionary activity geared towards the evangelization of the Igboland began by what was later known as the Qua Iboe Mission. George Watts, was a British trader who established a school at Ibuno by the banks of Qua Iboe River in the Ibibo country.

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Later, this school was maneuvered by the interdenominational Missionary body by the name Qua Iboe Mission with their headquarters in Belfast, Ireland. This same Missionary body later moved to Igboland especially in the Ngwa areas in Aba. Aba remains the first place to encounter the Qua Iboe Mission in Igboland

Qua Iboe Mission been in existence since the year 1887 and was founded by an Irish missionary, Rev. Samuel Alexander Bill the first of many missionaries who served with The Qua Iboe Mission, now known as Mission Africa, which is based in Ireland, Belfast particularly.

But there is no record of them coming into Igboland before 1900.

The Presbyterian Church

Later on, The Presbyterians through their establishments at Calabar in the year1846 had penetrated into Iboland around places like Arochukwu, Uburu, Ohafia, Afikpo, and Abiriba. These Igbo areas along the Cross River state which is a part of south south zone became, as it were, the only missionary boundary of the Presbyterian, through the United Church of Scotland in Iboland until slightly recently, when churches were gradually built by them in some places like Enugu and Abakaliki.

The Presbytery of Biafra was formed in the year 1858. The Synod of Biafra formed in 1921. The development of the church happened rapidly when the Presbyterian Church of Biafra was created, with the Synod recognized as the highest court. The Presbyterian Church became independent. The Presbyterian Church of Biafra later became the Presbyterian Church in East Nigeria in 1952.

On 16 June 1960, the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria was born. In 1987 the General Assembly was created with two Synods.

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