Christianity in Nigeria

Assumpta Cathedral, a Roman Catholic church in Owerri
Street preacher
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Christianity in Nigeria represents one of several religious traditions in the country, including Islam and Traditional African religions.

Christianity arrived to Nigeria in the 15th century through Augustinian and Capuchin monks from Portugal.[citation needed] By 2020, it accounted for an estimated 46.18% of the Nigerian population; two-thirds of which are Protestant.[1] According to the Pew Research Center, in 2011, Nigeria had the largest Christian population of any country in Africa, with more than 80 million people in Nigeria belonging to various denominations.[2] Christianity is the majority religion in the southern and central region in Nigeria.[citation needed] The 2021-2023 Afrobarometer survey found that 54.2% of Nigerians were Christian and 45.5% were Muslim.[3][4]

Denominations

Christian denominations in Nigeria
Nigerian interchurch
African initiated
Anglican
Anabaptist
Baptist
Catholic
Holiness and Methodist
Lutheran
Pentecostal
Presbyterian and Reformed
Other Protestant

Figures in the 2020 edition of The World Christian Encyclopedia (Johnson and Zurlo 2020) drew on figures assembled and updated as part of the World Christian Database (WCD); these put those who identify as Christians on 46.3%, and Muslims on 46.2 and ‘ethnic religions’ on 7.2%.[5] Statisticians estimate that there may be up to a hundred million Christians in Nigeria.[6]

Statistics

Major Denominations Members (millions)
Anglican 22[7]
Roman Catholic 21
Church of Christ 8
Baptist 6.5
Evangelical Church 6
Redeemed Christian 5
Apostolic Church 4.5
Presbyterian 4
Assemblies of God 3.6
Lutheran 2.2
Methodist 2
QIC United Evangelical 2
Evangelical Reformed 1.5

Roman Catholicism in Nigeria

Main article: Roman Catholicism in Nigeria
A Catholic church in Maryland, Lagos

The Catholic Church has an increase of followers in Nigeria. In 2020, there were an estimated 32 million baptised Catholics in Nigeria.[8] The Archdioceses of the Roman Catholic Church are Abuja, Benin City, Calabar, Ibadan, Jos, Kaduna, Lagos, Onitsha, and Owerri.[9][10] Cardinal Francis Arinze is a Roman Catholic Cardinal from Nigeria.[11]

Anglican Church of Nigeria

The ecclesiastical provinces of the Church of Nigeria are Lagos, Ibadan, Ondo, Edo, The Niger, Niger Delta, Owerri, Abuja, Kaduna, and Jos.[12] Its primate is Henry Ndukuba.[12] The Church of Nigeria claimed about 18 million members in 2016, with an estimated 2 million members being active.[13]

The Apostolic Church Nigeria

The Apostolic Church Nigeria is a Pentecostal Christian denomination in Nigeria, affiliated with the Apostolic Church. Its headquarters is in Lagos. It had 4.5 million members in 2016.[14]

Assemblies of God

The General Council of the Assemblies of God Nigeria has its origins in the Nigerian Church of Jesus Christ and a partnership with the Assemblies of God USA in 1934. The council was founded in 1964. It had 16,300 churches and 3.6 million members as of 2019.[15][16]

Church of Christ in Nigeria

The Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN), formerly Church of Christ in Nigeria, is a Christian denomination in Nigeria. It was founded in 1904. Its headquarters is in Jos, Plateau State. It used to have the name of Ekklesiyar Kristi A Nigeria. It is estimated to have over 8,000,000 members.[17]

Evangelical Church Winning All

The Evangelical Church Winning All has about 6000 congregations and 6 million members.[18] It was founded by SIM, a missions organization established in Nigeria in 1893.[18]

Evangelical Reformed Church of Christ

The Evangelical Reformed Church of Christ was formed in Nasarawa State on 8 July 1916. The church has approximately 1.5 million members.[19]

Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria

The Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria (LCCN) is a major Lutheran denomination in Nigeria, a member of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). It was established as an independent church in 1913 from the Sudan United Mission, Danish Branch (SUMD), known today as Mission Afrika. The LCCN now has an estimated 2,200,000 members in over 2,400 congregations nationwide.[20]

Methodist Church Nigeria

The Methodist Church Nigeria is one of the largest Methodist denominations in the world and one of the largest Christian churches in Nigeria, with around two million members in 2000 congregations. It has seen exponential growth since the turn of the millennium.[21]

Nigerian Baptist Convention

The Nigerian Baptist Convention had about 6.5 million baptized members in 2008.[22] The Baptist Mission was started by Thomas Jefferson Bowen in 1850. It currently has thirty five conferences in different ecclesiastical in Nigeria. It has its headquarter in Dugbe, Ibadan, Oyo State.[22]

Presbyterian Church of Nigeria

The Presbyterian Church of Nigeria has almost 4 million members in thousands of congregations mainly in Nigeria, but has regional Presbytery in Togo as well as in Benin. It was founded in the mid-1800s, by ministers of the Church of Scotland. It is a member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches.[23]

Redeemed Christian Church of God

The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) is a Pentecostal mega church and denomination founded in Lagos, Nigeria. The General overseer (most senior pastor) is Enoch Adeboye, ordained in 1981. In 2008, it had 14,000 churches and 5 million members in Nigeria.[24]

QIC-United Evangelical Church

The QIC-United Evangelical Church (Founded as Qua Iboe Church) is a Christian denomination in Nigeria. It has existed since 1887.[1] It has more than 1,000 congregations and 2,000,000 members.[citation needed]

The Seventh-day Adventist Church

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nigeria as of 2016 has close to 250,000 members throughout Nigeria divided into three different unions.[25]

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Within Nigeria, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also has a growing presence. On January 1, 2012, the church claimed more than 100,000 members in the country[26] and had established 315 congregations.[26]

The church announced the creation of a new Owerri mission in Nigeria in 2016.[27]

Other

In 1970, 87,000 Jehovah's Witnesses were present in Nigeria,[28] which grew to more than 360,000 by 2014.[29]

The New Apostolic Church reported 300,000 members in 2016.[30][31]

Aladura is a classification of churches that abide by a Christian religious denomination or trend inspired by activities of progressive church elements, J.B Sadare, D.O. Odubanjo, I.O Sanya and others in 1918.[32] The denomination has over 3 million adherents worldwide. The Aladura movement started at Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria in 1918.[32] This movement later metamorphosed to Living Faith Church Worldwide (whose headquarters is the Faith Tabernacle) and to the Christ Apostolic Church. The Church of the Lord (Aladura) is an African Initiated Church founded by Josiah Olunowo Ositelu in 1925, and inaugurated in 1930 in Ogere Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria. Ositelu was born on 15 May 1900 at Ogere, ijebu-Remo, Ogun State in Nigeria.

Since the 1990s, there has been significant growth in many other churches, independently started in Africa by Africans, particularly the evangelical Protestant ones. These include the mostly charismatic and Pentecostal denominations such as Mountain of Fire and Miracles, Christ Embassy, Streams of Joy International, Celestial Church of Christ and Dominion City. These churches have further many millions of members and followers in Nigeria.[33] Estimates of Pentecostals in the country reach up to 40 million.[34]

National Church of Nigeria, Abuja

The National Church of Nigeria

The National Church of Nigeria (previously known as the Nigerian Ecumenical Centre and officially known as the National Christian Centre) is a non-denominational church building of the Christian Association of Nigeria, the umbrella body of many of Nigeria's Christian denominations.[35] The church is located in Abuja.

Freedom of religion

Nigeria is number six on Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List, an annual ranking of the 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution.[36] In 2022, the country was ranked number seven.

Persecution

According to the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, as reported on LinkedIn, there were 52,250 Christian deaths recorded from July 2009 to April 2023. This figure includes:

  • 5,068 Christians killed in 2022.
  • 1,041 Christians killed in the first 100 days of 2023.
  • 30,250 Christian deaths from June 2015 to April 2023, attributed to radical Islamism under the leadership of President Buhari.
  • 53,350 Christians killed since the Islamic uprising in July 2009, with 31,350 of those deaths occurring from June 2015 to May 2023.[37]

The killings have been referred to as a silent genocide.[38][39][40]

Persecution of Christians in Nigeria is pervasive and ongoing. "Christians are also routinely denied land to build churches. The last time a Certificate of Occupancy was issued for a church building within the Diocese of Maiduguri was in 1979. Christian students are denied Christian religious curricula in the primary and secondary levels, and instead are forced to study Islam. They’re denied jobs and promotions in government parastatals. And, lest they try to secure these rights through democratic means, Christians are routinely denied the right to seek public office."[41] The ongoing killings of Christian in Nigeria is “religiously motivated” and “almost entirely fuelled by Islamist extremism”.[42]

See also

Statewise

References

  1. ^ World Religions Database at the ARDA website, retrieved 2023-08-08
  2. ^ "Global Christianity: Regional Distribution of Christians". Pew Research Center. December 19, 2011. Retrieved August 11, 2013.
  3. ^ "Screenshot-20240403-125138 hosted at ImgBB".
  4. ^ Afrobarometer – Let the people have a say (in Chinese). 2023-04-01 https://www.afrobarometer.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/afrobarometer_release-dataset_nig_r9_en_2023-04-01.sav. Retrieved 2024-09-24. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ^ McKinnon, Andrew (2021). "Christians, Muslims and Traditional Worshippers in Nigeria: Estimating the Relative Proportions from Eleven Nationally Representative Social Surveys". Review of Religious Research. 63 (2): 303–315. doi:10.1007/s13644-021-00450-5. hdl:2164/16008. S2CID 233821494.
  6. ^ Kennett, R.; Thorne, S.; Barma, S.; Allen, T.; Durbin, E.; Hibbert, D.; Patel, Z.; Quinn, M.E.; Stevenson, M.; Stewart, F. (2023). A new focus on...The British Empire, c.1500–present for KS3 History. Hodder Education. p. 327. ISBN 978-1-3983-6306-9. Retrieved 2023-08-17.
  7. ^ Aberdeen University Research Archive
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  10. ^ "Catholic Dioceses in Nigeria (by Ecclesiastical Provinces)". www.gcatholic.org. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  11. ^ Carroll, Rory (2003-10-03). "The Guardian profile: Cardinal Francis Arinze". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
  12. ^ a b "Site of the Church of Nigeria". Archived from the original on 2011-01-10.
  13. ^ Gledhill, Ruth (12 November 2015). "Anglican membership figures could be out by millions". christianitytoday.com. Christianity Today. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
  14. ^ Bp-Relate (2016-09-08). "History Of The Apostolic Church Nigeria". Believers Portal. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  15. ^ Bp-Relate (2016-09-06). "History Of Assemblies of God Church, Nigeria". Believers Portal. Retrieved 2022-03-22.
  16. ^ "ABOUT". Assemblies of God Church, Obalende. 2019-01-18. Archived from the original on 2022-01-17. Retrieved 2022-03-22.
  17. ^ "History". Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  18. ^ a b "ECWA History". Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  19. ^ "Nigerian Brethren host the Fellowship of Christian Churches in Nigeria". Church of the Brethren. Archived from the original on 2020-02-06. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  20. ^ "About – The Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria". lccn.org.ng. Retrieved 2021-12-30.
  21. ^ "Teaching the who, what and why of The United Methodist Church". ResourceUMC. Retrieved 2022-02-18.
  22. ^ a b "Site of the Nigerian Baptist Convention". Archived from the original on 2007-08-24. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
  23. ^ "Presbyterian Church of Nigeria - World Council of Churches". www.oikoumene.org. January 1961. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  24. ^ "RCCG Miracle Center | History". www.rccgmunich.com. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
  25. ^ "2019 elections: SDA Church alleges disenfranchisement of over 250,000 members". Vanguard News. 2018-08-18. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  26. ^ a b "LDS Newsroom- country information- Nigeria". Newsroom.lds.org. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  27. ^ "Mormon Church announces in missions in Vietnam and Africa".
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  37. ^ "5,068 Citizens Massacred For Being Christians In Nigeria In 2022, 1,041 Slaughtered In First 100 Days Of 2023". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2024-02-23.
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  39. ^ "Nigeria's Silent Slaughter Genocide in Nigeria and the Implications for the International Community". International Committee on Nigeria.
  40. ^ Ibrahim, Raymond (2019-10-06). ""WORLD TAKE NOTE!": Genocide of Christians in Nigeria". Gatestone Institute. Retrieved 2024-02-23.
  41. ^ Portella, Mario Alexis (2019-10-10). "Breaking the Silence on Nigeria's Christian Genocide". Crisis Magazine. Retrieved 2024-02-23.
  42. ^ Gledhill, Ruth (2023-07-04). "Slaughter of Nigerian Christians is driven by religion, says report". The Tablet. Retrieved 2024-02-23.