Our Church
Established in 1985, Celestial Church of Christ Newark NJ Parish is a non-profit charitable christian ministry, striving to answerthe call of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to proclaim his word to the people and offer solace to all those in need.
We focus on using faith and the gospel to strengthen, to treat and to empower members to find themselves and care for others in the community. We offer material assistance to the needy through weekly food donations to local seniors and clothing donations to the homeless.
Our Church
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We believe that the Church is the family of God, the body of Christ, and a fellowship in the spirit. A place where the distressed, the widowed, the orphaned and lonely can find refuge.
Celestial Church of Christ
The Celestial Church of Christ (CCC) is a church founded in Africa by Samuel Oshoffa on 29 September 1947 in Porto-Novo, Benin. It is located in most countries worldwide including the United States and various countries in Africa.
Oshoffa was a former carpenter born in Dahomey (now Benin) in 1909. Raised as a Methodist, he had a divine revelation while lost in a forest on 23 May 1947 during a solar eclipse. (The nearest recorded solar eclipse visible in Africa occurred on May 20, not May 23, of that year.) He felt called to pray, to heal the sick, and to raise the dead. He founded his church in September 1947. Having appointed himself Prophet, Reverend, Pastor, and Founder, he occupied the highest office of his movement. The hegemony he exercised on doctrine and discipline issues made succession difficult when he died in 1985 in Lagos, Nigeria.
The CCC was recognized and authorized by the Republic of Dahomey in 1965. From 1976, the church launched an evangelistic campaign in the that country, a former colony of French West Africa, which had become independent in 1960. From the late 1990s, the CCC church has utitlized Internet as a means of evangelization, thus allowing the many existing branches of the church within the African diaspora in such nations as the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, France and the United States, to maintain contact with each other and with Nigeria, the nation in which the CCC is currently most popular.
The movement has continued to grow since Oshoffa’s death, but has also suffered setbacks, the most immediate being severe difficulties related to the matter of succession. Oshoffa was succeeded by Alexander Abiodun Adebayo Bada, who was head of the church until his death on 8 September 2000. Bada was briefly followed as leader by Philip Hunsu Ajose, who died in March 2001. A dispute followed over the succession to Ajose. Some declared Gilbert Oluwatosin Jesse as the new leader, while the majority recognised the Reverend Emmanuel Oshoffa, son of Samuel Oshoffa. Following Jesse’s death, his faction declared that Superior Evangelist Paul Suru Maforikan was the new spiritual leader of the church.[9] Contrary to the procedure of succession in Nigeria, Porto-Novo, the supreme headquarters, successfully chose Benoit Agbaossi (1931–2010) to be the head of the church, who in his turn appointed Benoit Adeogun as the next Rev. Pastor shortly before his death in 2010.
Celestial Church of Christ
The CCC is a prophetic one with a Christian background. The faithful are called Celestians, and the church is sometimes informally called “Cele”. The formal name of the church is inspired by a vision by which Jesus would have said that Church members adore him as do the angels in heaven. The name of the church comes from Deuteronomy 26:15: “Look down from thy Holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel and the land which thou hast given us, as thou didst swear to our father, a land flowing with milk and honey”. The name signifies that they deem themselves as celestial or a representative of the heavenly on Earth. The church claims inspiration from God through the manifestation of the Holy Spirit among the faithful. Its doctrinal teachings are based on the Bible, and any superstition or animist belief from traditional African religions is excluded, as in other churches in the Aladura movement.
The church is governed by twelve major recommendations, consisting of several probitions, including food, common to a number of other monotheistic religions. Tobacco, alcohol and the eating of pork are forbidden. The faithful must not wear their shoes whilst wearing their garments and within the main church. Men and women are separated at the church. Menstruating women and those who have recently given birth are unclean and cannot enter the church building or wear the garment for seven days in the first case after which they would be “sanctified”. Members of CCC are forbidden to engage or participate in any form of idolatory, fetish ceremony or cults, black magic and charms. Only men who are “anointed” are allowed access to the altar.
The church uses English language Bibles and the Yoruba translated versions. The church takes elements from Gungbe and Yoruba thought. It also has strong similarities to the “purification movements” against paganism that are relatively common in African Christianity. Oshoffa believed he had a mission to combat “[Satan], ‘fetish priests’ and other ‘powers of darkness’.
About Celestial Church of Christ Newark NJ Parish
Established in 1985, Celestial Church of Christ Newark NJ Parish is a non-profit charitable christian ministry, striving to answerthe call of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to proclaim his word to the people and offer solace to all those in need
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