User:1pluszone

The African Church College of Theology, Ifako-Agege, Lagos State

The African Church College of Theology is sponsored by The African Church Headquarters at 12/14 Odunlami Street Lagos, Nigeria. The College has its antecedent in The African Church Institute established in the early twenties, which later developed into an Elementary Teacher Training College in the early thirties and produced teachers for schools and Priest for Churches.

The Institute existed till 1940 when it was phased out because of the constraint of World War II. Since then the training of Priests for the Ministry has been carried out on irregular basis. Crash programmes of two or four weeks’ duration were run from time to time to train Ministers for ordination. With the passage of time the Lay congregation observed the poor quality of the training and the performance of the products of this programme. The congregation also admired the quality, of the training of the Seminaries of other Churches, which do longer periods and preferred the products of such longer periods to the products of three months’ Institution or two weeks informal school. In answer to the demand of the Lay congregation for a longer period of training for the Ministers, a decision was taken in 1971 to start a nine months’ course at Ifako, Agege.

The members of staff for this nine months course were all part time and they included the Primate – Most Rev Ogunmodede from Lagos, Headquarters, Rt Rev M. O. Awosanya from Sagamu, Rt Rev Abon from Ibadan, Rt Rev Ejiwunmi from Ijebu-Ode, Most Rev S. O. B. Oyawoye who was then a Rev and Grammar School teacher. Also Rev (Dr) S. A. Adewale (rtd) who later became Bishop was doing vacation job in the Grammar School. However, owing to lack of full time staff, the experiment failed and crash programmes was resuscitated and became the only course open to the Church.

The demand for higher education in the society led to the demand for change in the educational attainments of the Church Ministers too. The standard of education of the Lay members of the Church had changed considerably and the Church Ministers have to adjust themselves to the changes for they have to perform to their members’ social and political functions in the society. Hence, a much longer training than before was needed to enable the Ministers to cope with the demands of the congregation.

So, in reaction to the memorandum submitted by Lagos Divisional Council to The African Church Conference in 1980 on the establishment of a Theological College, the General Committee set up a Planning Committee to explore the ways and means of establishing one without delay. This committee met to inaugurate Provisional Governing Council on July 7th 1982 and formally opened The African Church College of Theology on January 10th 1983, with Ven Dr S. A. Adewale as the Rector. He was then a full priest of The African Church and a Senior lecturer at the University of Ibadan.

On the resignation of Dr S. A. Adewale in September 1983, His Grace The Most Rev (Dr) S. O. B. Oyawoye (the Bishop of Lagos Division of The African Church) was appointed Rector of the College on part time basis. At the end of that Instrument, Ven E. O. O. Akiode, later Bishop of Abeokuta Division of The African Church was appointed Rector of the College from October 1986 to April 14th 1988, when Dr Abel Ichofe, later an Archdeacon of The African Church, was appointed Acting Rector of the College.

In 1992 Archdeacon Abel Ichofe was appointed Bishop and The Rt Rev Assoc Professor S. A. Adewale was appointed Acting Rector of the College. After the retirement of the Rt Rev (Assoc Prof) S. A. Adewale in 1997, The Rt Rev Olu Orungbemi became the College Rector and was succeeded by The Ven A. A. Odufuwa on 1st January 2001. He served between 2000 and 2002, he vacated the seat on April 30th 2002 when he was consecrated Bishop to give room for The Ven S. O. B. Ojumu as the new Rector of the College.

The Ven S. O. B. Ojumu (now Archbishop) served for the period of two years before he relinquished his position to The Ven. E. Olu Oguntayo (now Bishop) as the Rector of the College on 1st August 2004 till August 20th 2009. The Rt Rev P. A. Oyero was appointed the Acting Rector from 1st September 2009 to 30th April 2010. Ven Dr A. A. Adetubo (now Bishop) became the Rector on 1st May 2010 till 30th April 2018 with Ven Akin Ajayi (now Bishop) as the Registrar. The Ven Bayo Akinwande took over from The Ven Akin Ajayi as the Registrar from 1st August 2012. The Rev C. S. Omogoye took over from The Ven Bayo Akinwande as the Registrar from 1st February 2015 to 30th April 2018. The current Rector and Registrar, Ven Dr Oluwasegun Oladosu and Rev Canon S. I. A. Ohenmwem took over on 7th May 2018 till date.

The College was intended to prepare the young students for admission into the University for a Degree in Religious Studies to bring the Church to the same level with some Main Line Churches. It was the hope of the Church to affiliate the Institution with a local University, which has a department of religious studies and awards Diploma in Religious studies.

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE COLLEGE The basic purpose of The African Church College of Theology is to meet the following objectives: 1. To train men for spiritual leadership in the Church and community.

2. To urge a commitment to the Word of God.

3. To offer resources to Ministers for their calling and personal enrichment.

4. To make students aware of the relationship between the Church and the society.

5. To train effective Christian religious teachers.

6 To train Pastors and Evangelists to serve effectively in their Pastoral and Prophetic Ministries.

The College is operated under the auspices of The African Church and therefore it is committed to the Theological position of the sponsoring denomination. This position is expressed in the Declaration of Faith, as embodied in the Apostles and Nicea Creeds. The College is residential and open to students of other denominations.

AFFILIATION

The application for affiliation to the University of Ibadan was approved by the Senate of Ibadan University in 1991 after the inspections of the College by the panel of the University.