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American Cardinal Raymond Burke, a darling
of conservative Catholics who is virulently anti-
gay, has confirmed to BuzzFeed what rumors
from Rome have said for weeks. He will be
demoted by Pope Francis from the head of
the Roman Catholic Church's version of the
Supreme Court to a figurehead role as the
Patron of the Knights of Malta, a chivalrous
order known for its work among the sick.
This is not the first demotion for Burke, who
was dropped by Francis almost a year ago
from an important Vatican bureau that selects
bishops around the world. Burke was replaced
on The Congregation for Bishops by Cardinal
Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., who,
while also conservative, does not use the
inflammatory rhetoric that has made Burke a
favorite of the far-right in the Catholic
Church.
Burke recently told an interviewer that legally-
married gay and lesbian family members
should be shunned from family celebrations
during the upcoming holidays, asking “what
would it mean to grandchildren to have
present at a family gathering a family
member who is living [in] a disordered
relationship with another person?”
Burke's strong criticism of a preliminary
document that included more inclusive
welcoming of LGBT community members in
the life of the Church and his challenge to
Francis, who is seen to have had a hand in
the drafting of the document, were apparently
the last straw for the Pope.
Francis recently replaced outspoken Chicago
Cardinal Francis George with the more
conciliatory Bishop Blase Cupich of Spokane,
Washington, a major promotion for the 65-
year-old native of Omaha, Nebraska.
Admittedly, George was two-and-a-half years
beyond the age of 75, when bishops and
cardinals submit their resignations to the
pope. However, some cardinals have been kept
on the job until age 80 when they lose their
right to vote in the conclave that selects a new
pope after the death or resignation of the
reigning pontiff.
These moves are thought by Vatican watchers
to be signs that Francis wants to tone down
the attacks on communities that are
marginalized by the Catholic Church,
including LGBT parishioners and divorced and
pro-choice Catholics. Burke is a major
proponent of the Latin Mass and is known for
his fondness of clerical garb that went out of
style following the Second Vatican Council in
the 1960s, which attempted to modernize the
Church in worship and its relationship to Jews
and to other Christian faiths. Burke opposes
those reforms and his move to Rome from St.
Louis, where he served as archbishop, was seen
as a sign of favor by the ultra-conservative
Pope Benedict XVI.
Burke's influence on the Congregation for
Bishops was seen in the naming of several
controversial choices in major positions in the
American Catholic Church, including Salvatore
Cordileone, the Church's leader in the
successful Prop 8 movement that reversed
marriage equality in California, from
Oakland to San Francisco, an obvious thumb
in the eye of the large LGBT community there.
In Chicago, Cupich will take over from George
in November. While, for example, Cupich
opposes marriage equality, in Spokane he is
one of the rare U.S. Church leaders to speak
out against attempts “to incite hostility
towards homosexual persons or promote an
agenda that is hateful and disrespectful of
their human dignity.” Cupich wrote in a
pastoral letter that was read in all Catholic
parishes in the diocese, “It is deplorable that
homosexual persons have been and are the
object of violent malice in speech or in action.
Such treatment deserves condemnation from
the Church’s pastors wherever it occurs.”
The first major appointment of an American
Archbishop tipped Francis' hand as to how he
wanted a change of tone among the hierarchy
in the U.S. He named the affable Bishop
Bernard Hebda, who had served as head of
the diocese of Gaylord, Michigan for only four
years, to be co-adjutor bishop with right of
succession to the authoritarian and
controversial Newark Archbishop John Myers,
in 2016 when Myers turns 75.
How long Francis will have to change the
leadership of the U.S. Catholic Church remains
to be seen, as the vast majority of current
ecclesial office-holders were appointed by
conservatives John Paul II and Benedict XVI over
a 35-year period. In his initial choices, Francis
is veering slightly left in tenor. However, it is
doubtful that any change in doctrine will be
put in place during the remaining years of
his pontificate.
Image from wikimedia
shape of a cross and frequently have a tower
or dome. More modern church buildings
have a variety of architectural styles and
layouts; many buildings that were designed
for other purposes have now been converted
for church use, and, similarly, many original
church buildings have been put to other
uses.
The four traditional “notes of the Christian
Church” are unity, holiness, catholicity, and
apostolicity. In the phenomenological sense,
there are many associations that call
themselves Christian churches.
Here is the List has some of the most
beautiful churches all over the earth. Enjoy
and share the knowledge.
Las Lajas Sanctuary is a minor basilica
church located in the southern Colombian
Department of Nariño, munici
shape of a cross and frequently have a tower
or dome. More modern church buildings
have a variety of architectural styles and
layouts; many buildings that were designed
for other purposes have now been converted
for church use, and, similarly, many original
church buildings have been put to other
uses.
The four traditional “notes of the Christian
Church” are unity, holiness, catholicity, and
apostolicity. In the phenomenological sense,
there are many associations that call
themselves Christian churches.
Here is the List has some of the most
beautiful churches all over the earth. Enjoy
and share the knowledge.
Las Lajas Sanctuary is a minor basilica
church located in the southern Colombian
Department of Nariño, municipality of Ipiales
and built inside the canyon of the Guáitara
River.
The present church was built-in Gothic
Revival style in 1949. The name Laja comes
from the name of a type of flat sedimentary
rock similar to shale.
The inspiration for the church’s creation was
a result of a miraculous event in 1754 when
an Amerindian named Maria Mueces and her
deaf-mute daughter Rosa were caught in a
very strong storm.
The two sought refuge between the gigantic
Lajas, when to Maria Mueces’s surprise, her
mute daughter, Rosa exclaimed “the mestiza
is calling me…” and pointed to the lightning-
illuminated silhouette over the laja. This
apparition of the Virgin Mary caused
pilgrimage to this location, with occasional
miraculous cases of healing reported. The
image on the stone is still visible today.
The existence of a shrine in this location was
recorded in the accounts of friar Juan de
Santa Gertrudis’s journey through the
southern region of the New Kingdom of
Granada between 1756 and 1764. The first
shrine was built here in the middle of 18th
century from straw and wood. It was
replaced with a new, larger shrine in 1802,
which in turn was extended and connected to
the opposite side of canyon with a bridge.
Current church was built-in the time period
from January 1, 1916 to August 20, 1949,
with donations from local churchgoers. It
rises 100 m high from the bottom of canyon
and is connected with 50 m tall bridge to the
opposite side of the canyon.
The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada
Família commonly known as the Sagrada
Família, is a large Roman Catholic church in
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, designed by
Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926).
Although incomplete, the church is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in
November 2010 was consecrated and
proclaimed a minor basilica by Pope
Benedict XVI.
Though construction of Sagrada Família had
commenced in 1882, Gaudí became involved
in 1883, taking over the project and
transforming it with his architectural and
engineering style—combining Gothic and
curvilinear Art Nouveau forms.
Gaudí devoted his last years to the project
and at the time of his death in 1926, less
than a quarter of the project was complete.
Sagrada Família’s construction progressed
slowly as it relied on private donations and
was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War—
only to resume intermittent progress in the
1950s. Construction passed the mid-point in
2010 with some of the project’s greatest
challenges remaining and an anticipated
completion date of 2026—the centennial of
Gaudí’s death.
The basílica has a long history of dividing
the citizens of Bapality of Ipiales
and built inside the canyon of the Guáitara
River.
The present church was built-in Gothic
Revival style in 1949. The name Laja comes
from the name of a type of flat sedimentary
rock similar to shale.
The inspiration for the church’s creation was
a result of a miraculous event in 1754 when
an Amerindian named Maria Mueces and her
deaf-mute daughter Rosa were caught in a
very strong storm.
The two sought refuge between the gigantic
Lajas, when to Maria Mueces’s surprise, her
mute daughter, Rosa exclaimed “the mestiza
is calling me…” and pointed to the lightning-
illuminated silhouette over the laja. This
apparition of the Virgin Mary caused
pilgrimage to this location, with occasional
miraculous cases of healing reported. The
image on the stone is still visible today.
The existence of a shrine in this location was
recorded in the accounts of friar Juan de
Santa Gertrudis’s journey through the
southern region of the New Kingdom of
Granada between 1756 and 1764. The first
shrine was built here in the middle of 18th
century from straw and wood. It was
replaced with a new, larger shrine in 1802,
which in turn was extended and connected to
the opposite side of canyon with a bridge.
Current church was built-in the time period
from January 1, 1916 to August 20, 1949,
with donations from local churchgoers. It
rises 100 m high from the bottom of canyon
and is connected with 50 m tall bridge to the
opposite side of the canyon.
The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada
Família commonly known as the Sagrada
Família, is a large Roman Catholic church in
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, designed by
Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926).
Although incomplete, the church is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in
November 2010 was consecrated and
proclaimed a minor basilica by Pope
Benedict XVI.
Though construction of Sagrada Família had
commenced in 1882, Gaudí became involved
in 1883, taking over the project and
transforming it with his architectural and
engineering style—combining Gothic and
curvilinear Art Nouveau forms.
Gaudí devoted his last years to the project
and at the time of his death in 1926, less
than a quarter of the project was complete.
Sagrada Família’s construction progressed
slowly as it relied on private donations and
was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War—
only to resume intermittent progress in the
1950s. Construction passed the mid-point in
2010 with some of the project’s greatest
challenges remaining and an anticipated
completion date of 2026—the centennial of
Gaudí’s death.
The basílica has a long history of dividing
the citizens of Barcelona—over the initial
possibility it might compete with Barcelona’s
cathedral, over Gaudí’s design itself, over the
possibility that work after Gaudí’s death
disregarded his design, and the recent
possibility that an underground tunnel of
Spain’s high-speed train could disturb its
stability.
Describing Sagrada Familia, art Critic Rainer
Zerbst said “it is probably impossible to find
a church building anything like it in the
entire history of art” and Paul Goldberger
called it ‘the most extraordinary personal
interpretation of Gothic architecture since
the Middle Ages’.
The Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy
Theotokos on the Moat popularly known as
Saint Basil’s Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox
church erected on the Red Square in Moscow
in 1555–61. Built on the order of Ivan the
Terrible to commemorate the capture of
Kazan and Astrakhan, it marks the
geometric centre of the city and the hub of
its growth since the 14th century. It was the
tallest building in Moscow until the
completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower
in 1600.
The original building, known as “Trinity
Church” and later “Trinity Cathedral”,
contained eight side churches arranged
around the ninth, central church of
Intercession; the tenth church was erected in
1588 over the grave of venerated local saint
Vasily (Basil). In the 16th and 17th centuries
the church, perceived as the earthly symbol
of the Heavenly City, as happens to all
churches in Byzantine Christianity, was
popularly known as the “Jerusalem” and
served as an allegory of the Jerusalem
Temple in the annual Palm Sunday parade
attended by the Patriarch of Moscow and the
tsar.
The building’s design, shaped as a flame of a
bonfire rising into the sky, has no analogues
in Russian architecture: “It is like no other
Russian building. Nothing similar can be
found in the entire millennium of Byzantine
tradition from the fifth to fifteenth century
… a strangeness that astonishes by its
unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling
interleaving of the manifold details of its
design.” The cathedral foreshadowed the
climax of Russian national architecture in the
17th century.
A victim of state atheism, the church was
confiscated from the Russian Orthodox
community as part of the Soviet Union’s anti-
theist campaigns and has operated as a
division of the State Historical Museum since
1928. It was completely and forcefully
secularized in 1929and, as of 2011, remains a
federal property of the Russian Federation.
The church has been part of the Moscow
Kremlin and Red Square UNESCO World
Heritage Site since 1990. It is often
mislabelled as the Kremlin owing to its
location on Red Square in immediate
proximity of the Kremlin.
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox
patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now
a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. From the
date of its dedication in 360 until 1453, it
served as the Greek Patriarchal cathedral of
Constantinople, except between 1204 and
1261, when it was converted to a Roman
Catholic cathedral under the Latin Patriarch
of Constantinople of the Western Crusader
established Latin Empire. The building was a
mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931, when
it was secularized. It was opened as a
museum on 1 February 1935.
The Church was dedicated to the Logos, the
second person of the Holy Trinity, its
dedication feast taking place on 25
December, the anniversary of the Birth of
the incarnation of the Logos in Christ.
Although it is sometimes referred to as
Sancta Sophia “Church of the Holy Wisdom
of God”.
Famous in particular for its massive dome, it
is considered the epitome of Byzantine
architecture and is said to have “changed the
history of architecture.” It was the largest
cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand
years, until Seville Cathedral was completed
in 1520. The current building was originally
constructed as a church between 532 and
537 on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor
Justinian and was the third Church of the
Holy Wisdom to occupy the site, the previous
two having both been destroyed by rioters.
It was designed by the Greek scientists
Isidore of Miletus, a physicist, and
Anthemius of Tralles, a mathematician.
The church contained a large collection of
holy relics and featured, among other things,
a 49-foot (15 m) silver iconostasis. It was the
seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople and
the religious focal point of the Eastern
Orthodox Church for nearly one thousand
years. It is the church in which Cardinal
Humbert in 1054 excommunicated Michael I
Cerularius – which is commonly considered
the start of the Great Schism.
In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by
the Ottoman Turks under Sultan Mehmed II,
who subsequently ordered the building
converted into a mosque. The bells, altar,
iconostasis, and sacrificial vessels were
removed and many of the mosaics were
plastered over. Islamic features – such as the
mihrab, minbar, and four minarets – were
added while in the possession of the
Ottomans. It remained a mosque until 1931
when it was closed to the public for four
years. It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum
by the Republic of Turkey.
For almost 500 years the principal mosque of
Istanbul, Hagia Sophia served as a model for
many other Ottoman mosques, such as the
Sultan Ahmed Mosque the Şehzade Mosque,
the Süleymaniye Mosque, the Rüstem Pasha
Mosque and the Kılıç Ali Paşa Mosque
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially
known in Italian as Basilica Papale di San
Pietro in Vaticano and commonly known as
Saint Peter’s Basilica, is a Late Renaissance
church located within the Vatican City. Saint
Peter’s Basilica has the largest interior of any
Christian church in the world. While it is
neither the official mother church of the
Roman Catholic Church nor the cathedral of
the Pope as Bishop of Rome, Saint Peter’s is
regarded as one of the holiest Catholic sites.
It has been described as “holding a unique
position in the Christian world” and as “the
greatest of all churches of Christendom”.
In Roman Catholic tradition, the basilica is
the burial site of its namesake Saint Peter,
who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus
and, according to tradition, the first Bishop
of Rome and therefore first in the line of the
papal succession. Tradition and some
historical evidence hold that Saint Peter’s
tomb is directly below the altar of the
basilica. For this reason, many Popes have
been interred at St. Peter’s since the Early
Christian period. There has been a church on
this site since the 4th century. Construction
of the present basilica, over the old
Constantinian basilica, began on 18 April
1506 and was completed on 18 November
1626.
St. Peter’s is famous as a place of pilgrimage,
for its liturgical functions and for its
historical associations. It is associated with
the papacy, with the Counter-reformation
and with numerous artists, most significantly
Michelangelo. As a work of architecture, it is
regarded as the greatest building of its age.
Contrary to popular misconception, Saint
Peter’s is not a cathedral, as it is not the
seat of a bishop. It is properly termed a
papal basilica. The Archbasilica of St. John
Lateran is the cathedral church of Rome.
Notre Dame de also known as Notre Dame
Cathedral or simply Notre Dame, is a Gothic,
Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half
of the Île de la Cité in the fourth
arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the
cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of
Paris: that is, it is the church that contains
the cathedra (official chair) of the
Archbishop of Paris, currently André Vingt-
Trois. The cathedral treasury houses a
reliquary with the purported Crown of
Thorns.
Notre Dame de Paris is widely considered
one of the finest examples of French Gothic
architecture in France and in Europe, and
the naturalism of its sculptures and stained
glass are in contrast with earlier
Romanesque architecture. The first period of
construction from 1163 into 1240s coincided
with the musical experiments of the Notre
Dame school.
The cathedral suffered desecration during
the radical phase of the French Revolution in
the 1790s, when much of its religious
imagery was damaged or destroyed. An
extensive restoration supervised by Eugène
Viollet-le-Duc removed remaining decoration,
returning the cathedral to an ‘original’ gothic
state.
The Hallgrímskirkja is a Lutheran (Church
of Iceland) parish church in Reykjavík,
Iceland. At 74.5 metres (244 ft), it is the
largest church in Iceland and the sixth tallest
architectural structure in Iceland after
Longwave radio mast Hellissandur, the radio
masts of US Navy at Grindavík, Eiðar
longwave transmitter and Smáratorg tower.
The church is named after the Icelandic poet
and clergyman Hallgrímur Pétursson (1614 to
1674), author of the Passion Hymns.
State Architect Guðjón Samúelsson’s design
of the church was commissioned in 1937. He
is said to have designed it to resemble the
basalt lava flows of Iceland’s landscape. It
took 38 years to build the church.
Construction work began in 1945 and ended
in 1986, the landmark tower being completed
long before the church’s actual completion.
The crypt beneath the choir was consecrated
in 1948, the steeple and wings were
completed in 1974. The nave was consecrated
in 1986. Situated in the centre of Reykjavík,
it is one of the city’s best-known landmarks
and is visible throughout the city. It is
similar in style to the expressionist
architecture of Grundtvig’s Church of
Copenhagen, Denmark, completed in 1926.
The church houses a large pipe organ by the
German organ builder Johannes Klais of
Bonn. It has mechanical action, four manuals
and pedal, 102 ranks, 72 stops and 5275
pipes. It is 15 metres tall and weighs 25
tons. Its construction was finished in
December 1992. It has been recorded by
Christopher Herrick in his Organ Fireworks
VII CD.
The church is also used as an observation
tower. An observer can take a lift up to the
viewing deck and view Reykjavík and the
surrounding mountains. The statue of
explorer Leif Eriksson (1929–32) by
Alexander Stirling Calder in front of the
church predates its construction. It was a
gift from the United States in honor of the
1930 Alþingi Millennial Festival,
commemorating the 1000th anniversary of
Iceland’s parliament at Þingvellir in 930 AD.
In 2008, the church underwent a major
restoration of the main tower, and was
covered in scaffolding. In late 2009,
restoration was completed and the
scaffolding was removed.
The Jubilee Church, formally known as Dio
Padre Misericordioso, is a church and
community center in Tor Tre Teste in Rome.
According to Richard Meier, its architect, it is
“the crown jewel of the Vicariato di Roma’s
(Archdiocese of Rome) Millennium
project” (p. 354). The Church serves eight
thousand residents of the Tor Tre Teste area
and was meant to socially “revive” Tor Tre
Teste. It is paid homage to in the video game
Hitman: Blood Money, with a very similar
church as the setting of the game’s final
mission.
he south side of the church features three
large curved walls of pre-cast concrete. (The
walls form segments of spheres.) Meier
claims to have designed the church to
minimize thermal peak loads inside. The
large thermal mass of the concrete walls
control internal heat gain; the result is less
temperature variation, and supposedly more
efficient use of energy.
The walls also contain titanium dioxide to
keep the appearance of the church white.
Enrico Borgarello, the director of research
and development for Italcementi, the
company that designed the cement, claims
that the cement destroys air pollution.
The Church’s site is divided into four main
parts: first, the precinct, including the
church and community center; second, the
northeast terrace; third, the northwest
recreation court; fourth, the west parking
area.
The chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, designed
by Le Corbusier, is located in Ronchamp. The
Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut, a shrine for
the Catholic Church at Ronchamp was built
for a reformist Church looking to continue its
relevancy. Warning against decadence,
reformers within the Church looked to
renew its spirit by embracing modern art
and architecture as representative concepts.
Father Couturier, who would also sponsor Le
Corbusier for the La Tourette commission,
steered the unorthodox project to completion
in 1954.
This work, like several others in Le
Corbusier’s late oeuvre, departs from his
principles of standardization and the
machine aesthetic outlined in Vers une
architecture. It is interesting to note though,
that even in this project, the structural
design of the roof was inspired by the
engineering of airfoils.
The chapel is clearly a site-specific response.
By Le Corbusier’s own admission, it was the
site that provided an irresistible genius loci
for the response, with the horizon visible on
all four sides of the hill and its historical
legacy for centuries as a place of worship.
This historical legacy weaved in different
layers into the terrain — from the Romans
and sun-worshippers before them, to a cult
of the Virgin in the Middle Ages, right
through to the modern church and the fight
against the German occupation. Le Corbusier
also sensed a sacral relationship of the hill
with its surroundings, the Jura mountains in
the distance and the hill itself, dominating
the landscape.
The nature of the site would result in an
architectural ensemble that has many
similitudes with the Acropolis, starting from
the ascent at the bottom of the hill to
architectural and landscape events along the
way, before finally terminating at the
sanctum sanctorum itself, the chapel.
The building itself is a comparatively small
structure enclosed by thick walls, with the
upturned roof supported on columns
embedded within the walls. In the interior,
the spaces left between the wall and roof, as
well as asymmetric light from the wall
openings serve to further reinforce the sacral
nature of the space and buttress the
relationship of the building with its
surroundings.
The Crystal Cathedral is a Christian church
building in Garden Grove, Orange County,
California, United States. The building,
designed by architect Philip Johnson, was
completed in 1981 and seats 2,736 people.
Since its construction the building has been
the principal place of worship for Crystal
Cathedral Ministries, a Protestant Christian
church organization founded in 1955 by
Robert H. Schuller and affiliated with the
Reformed Church in America.
Crystal Cathedral Ministries filed for
bankruptcy in October 2010 and
subsequently, in February 2012, sold the
building and its adjacent campus to the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange for future
use as the diocese’s cathedral. Under the
terms of the sale the building and most of
the campus will continue to be used by
Crystal Cathedral Ministries for up to three
years before being renovated for use as a
Roman Catholic cathedral.
OTA Nigeria (Reuters) - When a guesthouse belonging to
one of Nigeria's leading Christian pastors collapsed last
month, killing 115 mostly South African pilgrims, attention
focussed on the multimillion-dollar "megachurches" that
form a huge, untaxed sector of Africa's top economy.
Hundreds of millions of dollars change hands each year
in these popular Pentecostal houses of worship, which are
modelled on their counterparts in the United States.
Some of the churches can hold more than 200,000
worshippers and, with their attendant business empires,
they constitute a significant section of the economy,
employing tens of thousands of people and raking in
tourist dollars, as well as exporting Christianity globally.
But exactly how much of Nigeria's $510 billion GDP they
make up is difficult to assess, since the churches are, like
the oil sector in Africa's top energy producer, largely opaque
entities.
"They don't submit accounts to anybody," says Bismarck
Rewane, economist and CEO of Lagos consultancy
Financial Derivatives. "At least six church leaders have
private jets, so they have money. How much? No one really
knows."
When Nigeria recalculated its GDP in March, its economy
became Africa's biggest, as previously poorly captured
sectors such as mobile phones, e-commerce and its prolific
"Nollywood" entertainment industry were specifically
included in estimates.
There was no such separate listing for the "megachurches",
whose main source of income is "tithe", the 10 percent or so
of their income that followers are asked to contribute.
As the churches have charity status, they have no
obligation to open their books, and certainly don't have to
fill in tax returns -- an exemption that is increasingly
controversial in Nigeria, where poverty remains pervasive
despite the oil riches.
The pastors argue their charity work should exempt them.
"We use the income of the church to build schools, we use
the income of the church to serve the needs of the poor,"
David Oyedepo, bishop of the popular Winners Chapel, told
Reuters in an interview. "These are non-profit organisations."
PASTORS ON FORBES LIST
Nonetheless, the surging popularity of the megachurches
among the Christians who make up half of Nigeria's 170
million population has propelled their preachers into the
ranks of the richest people in Africa.
In 2011, Forbes magazine estimated the fortunes of Nigeria's
five richest pastors. Oyedepo topped the list, with an
estimated net worth of $150 million.
He was followed by "Pastor Chris" Oyakhilome of Believers'
LoveWorld Incorporated, also known as the Christ Embassy
and popular with executives and politicians, on $30 million
to $50 million.
TB Joshua, pastor of the Synagogue Church of All Nations,
at the centre of the recent diplomatic storm over the deaths
in its guesthouse, was thought to have $10 million to $15
million.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) declined to
comment on how churches fit into their GDP figures, but a
source there said they were included as "non-profit", which
falls under "other services" in the latest figures. In 2013, the
category contributed 2.5 percent of GDP, the same as the
financial sector.
A former banker at Nigeria's United Bank for Africa, who
declined to be named, recalled being approached five years
ago by a church that was bringing in $5 million a week
from contributions at home or abroad.
"They wanted to make some pretty big investments: real
estate, shares," he said. "They wanted to issue a bond to
borrow, and then use the weekly flows to pay the coupon."
In the end, he said, the bank turned down the proposal on
ethical grounds.
Yet Nigerian churches do often invest large amounts of their
congregations' money in shares and property, at home and
abroad, he and another banking source said.
One pastor bought 3 billion naira ($18 million) worth of
shares in the defunct Finbank, which later merged with
FCMB, after it was rescued in a bail-out in 2009, a fund
manager who handled the deal told Reuters. The pastor
used a nominee trust account to keep his name off the
books.
In 2011, Oyakhilome was investigated by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and charged with
laundering $35 million of contributions to his church in
foreign bank accounts. He denied all wrongdoing and the
case was dismissed for lack of evidence.
Oyakhilome was not available for comment and Joshua's
media team declined a request for an interview with him.
MIDAS TOUCH
Oyedepo's headquarters, "Canaanland", is a 10,500-acre
(4250-hectare) campus in Ota, outside the commercial
capital Lagos. It comprises a university, two halls of
accommodation, restaurants and a church seating 50,000
people, with a total overflow capacity of five times that.
"You can see that everything this man touches turns to
gold," Nigerian Agriculture Minister Akinwumi Adesina
said in a speech at a reception for Oyedepo's 60th birthday
at Canaanland last month.
"May the grace of God abide with you," he added, to a
rapturous "Amen!" from the guests in a marquee.
Other dignitaries present included twice-president
Olusegun Obasanjo and former military ruler Yakubu
Gowon. A choir sang gospel songs as the guests cut an
elaborate six-tiered cake and popped fizzy grape juice out of
champagne bottles in golden wrapping -- alcohol is
banned in Canaanland.
The next day, he delivered four Sunday services in a row to
tens of thousands of cheering followers, his white-suited
figure projected onto large flat-screen televisions all around.
"From today, no evil spirit, no demon will survive the
Almighty!" he shouted, and the crowd roared "Amen!".
A spokesman said the church has 5,000 branches across
Nigeria, and 1,000 more in 63 other countries across five
continents. But Oyedepo's empire also includes two fee-
paying universities that he built from scratch, a
publishing house for Christian self-help books, and an elite
high school.
Other pastors have similarly diversified ways of getting the
Gospel of Christian salvation out.
Oyakhilome owns magazines, newspapers and 24-hour TV
station, and Joshua draws miracle-seekers from all over the
world with claims that the holy water he has blessed cures
otherwise incurable ailments such as HIV/AIDS.
Before Joshua built his 10,000-seat headquarters at Ikotun-
Egbe in outer Lagos, the area was part swamp, part
abandoned industrial estate.
Now, it is a boom town with shops, hotels, eateries and
bars catering largely to the travellers who come not only
from West Africa but also from all corners of the globe to
hear his sermons. Joshua also runs a TV station.
"BLESSED BY THE LORD"
Guests entering Oyedepo's birthday marquee in
Canaanland would have seen a picture of the poor
household in southwest Nigeria where he grew up,
testament to a rags-to-riches story that many Nigerians
would love to emulate.
Like U.S. televangelists, Winners Chapel preaches the
"prosperity gospel" that faith in Jesus Christ lifts people out
of poverty, and that message partly explains the explosion
of the Pentecostal movement in sub-Saharan Africa, where
misfortune and poverty are often seen as having
supernatural causes.
"We see giving as the only way to be blessed. Blessing other
people is a way of keeping the blessings flowing," said
Oyedepo, whose blessings include a Gulfstream V jet and
several BMWs.
Giving to support the church and its work is something the
faithful are encouraged to do, a Christian tradition that
was a pillar of the Roman Catholic church in medieval
Europe, just as it has been a major money-spinner for U.S.
televangelists.
Aneke Chika, a business analyst in an oil services
company, told Reuters on the steps of Oyedepo's church that
she set aside 20,000 naira of her 200,000 naira ($1,218)
salary every month.
Asked about Forbes' estimate of his fortune, Oyedepo told
Reuters: "For me, to have fortune means someone who has
what he needs at any point in time. I don't see myself as
having $150 million stacked up somewhere. Whatever way
they found their figures, I am only able to say I am blessed
by the Lord."
He said he could not estimate the church's total revenues or
expenditure on items such as salaries because the various
departments, including education, were too diverse.
The enterprises on the Canaanland campus, from the shops
selling cold sodas and bread, to a woman boiling instant
noodles and eggs for breakfast in a lodge, to pop-up book
stalls hawking Oyedepo's prolific literary output, are
owned by the church's estate, which employs their staff on
its payroll, workers at all the outlets told Reuters.
Winners Chapel's Corporate Affairs department said the
church employed more than 18,000 people in Nigeria alone.
Oyedepo says the wealth the church gathers is invested in
expanding it, and that if he did not use a private jet, he
would be unable to oversee its many foreign operations and
still return to Ota every week in time for Sunday's worship.
Britain's Charity Commission says it is reviewing potential
conflicts of interest in his finances, and last month the
Home Office (interior ministry) barred him from Britain,
though it declined to say why.
Oyedepo said he knew nothing of the commission's review,
nor had the Home Office explained to him why he was
barred.
A national conference to debate Nigeria's constitution this
year proposed that the megachurches should be taxed.
But with an election coming up in February, it is debatable
whether President Goodluck Jonathan, who is close to
several megapastors, would risk upsetting these influential
men and their hefty congregations with a fat tax bill.
"There is no single government input on this premises,"
Oyedepo told Reuters in the interview. "We supply our water,
we make our roads, then you ... say: 'Let's tax them'. For
what?"
(1 US dollar = 164.2 naira)
CREDIT:REUTERS
