Nigerian Pentecostalism and Covid-19: Assessing the RCCG’s Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic

Webinar: 3 November 2021, 4-5.30 pm

Speaker: Dr Chris Wadibia, University of Oxford

Registration is free. To join, email the Centre Coordinator.

Founded in 1952, the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) is one of Nigeria’s largest, wealthiest, and most politically powerful indigenous Pentecostal churches. The first case of Covid-19 was reported in Nigeria on 28 February 2020. The advent of Covid-19 created spaces for the RCCG to leverage its influential religious platform and development activity infrastructures to, in its own eyes, assist the Nigerian state in combatting the spread of the virus. This lecture employs the RCCG as an organisational case study to offer a critical analysis of how Nigerian Pentecostals have responded to the crisis. The RCCG’s Covid-19 response can be grouped into the following three categories: investments in palliatives, virus-related biblical exegeses, and engagement with the Nigerian state. Ultimately, this lecture seeks to equip students with an understanding of how Africa’s indigenous Pentecostal churches have delivered creative solutions in response to the considerable social and public health challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Christopher Wadibia is a Junior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, Oxford. He is researching the nexus between political Pentecostalism and racism in the UK under the aegis of Pembroke’s Religion and the Frontier Challenges programme. Christopher’s doctoral research studied the politics of how the RCCG, one of Nigeria’s most popular and socio-politically influential indigenous Pentecostal churches, invests in Nigerian development causes. Before Oxford, Christopher completed a BA in Government at Georgetown University (2016), an MPhil in Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies at Trinity College, Dublin (2018), and a PhD in Theology and Religion at Cambridge (2021).

Our Silver Jubilee lecture no. 4 will be held in the Healey Room, Westminster College, 4pm to 6pm today, 14 October 2021.

Please contact Rachel Simonson, our new Coordinator, to book your place, or obtain the online link: centre [at] cccw.cam.ac.uk

Theme: Transfiguring World Christianity

Ecumenism:
Figuring out Interconnected Christianities

Chaired by
Dr Jenny Leith, Dean of Studies, CCCW

To register, email centre [at] cccw.cam.ac.uk

This fourth lecture in the five-part CCCW Silver Jubilee Lecture series explores the possibilities of an
ecumenism that can hold together body, mind and heart so that more creative and holistic ways forward
can be found than either only ‘working and acting together’, or concentrating on ‘finding doctrinal
agreement’. It will explore the necessity for and the hope of ‘decolonising’ the ecumenical movement,
recognising its origins in the global North and the dominance so far within it of particular discourses and
peoples, and opening up the possibility of a more truly ecumenical movement within world Christianity.
And it will reflect on the trajectory within the movement from ‘the unity of Christians’ towards ‘the unity of all humankind’ and even ‘the unity of all creation’, by asking what ecumenism is really for within the mission of God. The lecture will be honest about challenges, but always draw hope from the power of the Holy Spirit to celebrate movement and renewal and to work towards the fulfilment of all things in the Kingdom of God.

Susan Durber has served as minister with churches in the very different contexts of Manchester, Salford,
Oxford and Taunton, as Principal of Westminster College in Cambridge and as Theology Advisor to Christian Aid. At WCC she has been involved in The Church: Towards a Common Vision, and on moral discernment. She has also been involved in work on the theme of the upcoming WCC Assembly and in ‘pilgrim visits’ to church groups often at the margins of the ecumenical movement. She is committed to making way for new kinds of ecumenism as the churches continue to call one another to visible unity.

Conference Theme: Pentecostalism and Socio-Cultural Change

Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity is often seen as a catalyst for social and cultural change. This chimes with how Pentecostals and Charismatics tend to portray their own religion – as transformative, modern, and on the cutting edge of socio-cultural developments. This conference seeks to recover a more inter-connected perspective that not only asks how Pentecostal movements have effected socio-cultural changes, but also to what extent they have rather themselves been influenced and driven by larger transformations in World Christianity and society at large.

We invite contributions to our parallel panels, with a particular interest in papers that address the conference theme.

Please submit your abstracts by 30 November 2021 to Jörg Haustein (jh2227@cam.ac.uk)

CCCW is happy to publicise CWM’s virtual event eDare, where theologians, pastors, poets, artists, and activists come together to reflect and present their insights on the challenges and opportunities for life. eDARE 2021 aligns with CWM’s theme “Rise to Life: Confessing witness to life-flourishing communities”, as well as an opportunity to critically engage with current forms of Public Theology.

eDARE 2021

The fourth in our Silver Jubilee series will be a hybrid lecture. We welcome you to attend in person or online. Thirty spaces are available in the Healey Room, Westminster College, for in person attendance.

Please contact Rachel Simonson, our new Coordinator, to book your place or obtain the online link.

For more details, see flyer: CCCW Silver Jubilee Lecture 4 of 5

We are now open, and there is no need to book ahead to study in our library. Just walk in!

Mondays to Thursdays 9am-1pm; 1:30pm-4pm (closed for lunch)

Friday mornings 9am-1pm

We will observe a limit of four library users in the library. There are four carrel desks to study at and you are free to browse our shelves. We provide antibacterial wipes to clean your chair and carrel desk before and after use.

We encourage you to make use of the Covid-19 app for check in. Just scan the QR code into the app as you enter, for track and trace.

Ruth MacLean, Librarian

During the period of well over a year of pandemic-related restrictions in the UK, one of CCCW’s Research Associates, Ian Randall, has been using the time to do some new research and writing. He has been working on a range of topics, including: the history of the Henry Martyn Trust and CCCW; aspects of the influence of the East African Revival; the missionary and ecumenical work of Alan MacLeod (1911-1984); John Stott as a theologian; Orthodox and evangelical missional interaction; the history of St Andrew’s Street Baptist Church, Cambridge; and a chapter for a book on Simon-Barrington Ward.

Three studies are aimed especially at highlighting material held in CCCW. These are on the papers of Richard A. Minter (1905-1997); on Henry Martyn in Cambridge; and on Florence Allshorn (1887-1950; pictured on previous page) and the St Julian’s Community. These three are available from Ian. If you are interested in them or in any of the other topics, please contact him. ian.m.randall[at]gmail.com

Overseas Ministries Study Centre at Princeton Theological Seminary

The Lamin Sanneh Research Grants for 2021–2023

Application Deadline: July 30, 2021

Timeframe: September 1, 2021–August, 2023

Amount: Two grants of $10,000 each

The Overseas Ministries Study Center at Princeton Theological Seminary (OMSC@PTS), invites proposals for two two-year “Lamin Sanneh Research Grants” for the 2021–2023. These grants honour the late Yale Professor who pioneered the field of World Christianity and served as an OMSC Trustee and IBMR Contributing Editor. OMSC@PTS will award two prizes of $10,000 each in support of research proposals by Christian scholars from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Oceania.

Proposals are welcome from those working in Mission Studies, broadly conceived, World Christianity, Intercultural Theology or a cognate field. More information can be found here.

You may now book a seat to study in the CCCW on Tuesdays and Wednesdays! Entry by pre-booked appointment only. Email me to arrange a morning booking 10am-1pm or afternoon booking 1:30-4pm. Bookings for registered members of the UL and CTF only, to begin with. Email me to register with the CCCW library if you are not already a member.

Or email me to use our Click & Collect service to borrow up to five books and collect these from our front door. Returns can be handed back on Tuesdays and Wednesdays 10am-1pm or 1:30-4pm at our front door, or via Westminster College reception at other times.

Ruth MacLean, Librarian