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Cathedral torchbearers celebrates anniversary, launches book

By Eniola Daniel
22 April 2018   |   3:00 am
  ..We are not happy with the way Nigeria has gone down the drain, says Adegbite Foremost male society in the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos, Cathedral Torch Bearers (CTB) recently marked its 75th anniversary, with a book launch and fund raising programme held at the Church of Nativity in Lagos. Enumerating the society’s…

Members of the Cathedral Torch Bearer, Cathedral Church of Christ, at the unveiling of the book Let Your Light Shine to mark the 75th anniversary of the society in Lagos

  ..We are not happy with the way Nigeria has gone down the drain, says Adegbite

Foremost male society in the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, Lagos, Cathedral Torch Bearers (CTB) recently marked its 75th anniversary, with a book launch and fund raising programme held at the Church of Nativity in Lagos.

Enumerating the society’s achievements over the years, its chairman, Dr. Opeyemi Adegbite, said: “We have done so many human development and physical projects, both within and outside Nigeria.

For instance, we’ve supported the training of many people over the years, both in Nigeria and abroad. We’ve also contributed to welfare of the clergy, among others.

“The first physical project was executed in 1943, when we donated to the construction of the third and final section of the Cathedral Church building in Marina.

Since then, we’ve handled several projects, such as the church in Idimu, which is now the headquarters of an Archdeaconry. We supported the building of another church in Ibadan and Lagos, just like we did to a church in Idi-Oro and Sanya in Surulere.

“There is an ongoing project at the Immanuel Anglican Church, Igboologun, Snake Island, Lagos.

Phase one of the project involved rehabilitation and construction of abandoned church premises, followed by refurbishment of the church to make it a conducive environment for worship, with provision of furniture and fittings, including pews, lectern, altar table and pulpit, among others. The second phase will cost N70m.”

On the journey so far, Adegbite said, “We thank God that for the founding fathers of the society who in 1942 laid a solid foundation on which succeeding generations have been able to build upon. 75 years is a long time in the life of any organization, some who started the same time, fell by the way side but we give glory and to God that we’ve survived over the years, of-course, any organization will face challenges but we are able to overcome all and we are trying to be an organisation that can hand over to succeeding generations.

One of the things we observed is that many of the members in the society are over 70 years in fact, over 25 members are over 80-year and another over 25 are over 70 year so more than half of the membership are over 70 years but we are trying to change that by recruiting young members so, we have people in their 40s being recruited so the organization can continue to grow even when the older people have gone.

On the book entitled: Let Your Light Shine, Adegbite said: “This is the first time a cathedral is publishing a book and we thank God for that. The book has the contribution of men and women from within and other denominations.

We selected some of the very good papers from 1987 to 2017 and compiled them into a book. Some eminent personalities like former Head of State, Ernest Shonekan; Archbishop Emeritus of Lagos, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie; Bishop of Lagos, Most Revd. Ephraim Adebola Ademowo; Bashorun J.K Randle, the Laity and clergy, also contributed to the book.

Let Your Light Shine is an interesting book because it does not talk only about biblical issues, the church or religion but touched other areas such as the contemporary issues; we have chapter on ICT, Sports development in Nigeria so, it’s a book for everybody. It’s to inform people, educate, entertain and it’s a book you can always go back to at your old age. This book is for all denominations.

Speaking on Nigeria, he said, “We’ll continue to pray to God. For those of us who are in our 70s, we are not happy the way Nigeria has gone down the drain, I remember Nigeria was a more pleasant country 30 years ago but now the country is facing challenges and because of that, a lot of people are unemployed, then price of things have gone way above what is expected. I bought my first car for 400 pounds but today you need millions to buy a car, which was not, so in those days and this is taking it from the reach of average Nigerians.

In the past, you can travel to any part of the country without fear but now we have almost everything to fear, from Boko Haram, Herdsmen and kidnapping. We pray fro the redemption of Nigeria so we can see better days.

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