Most Rev. Prof. Godfrey Igwebuike Onah just spoke up against Zion ministry. The current and gallant Catholic Bishop of the Nsukka Diocese, appointed on July 4, 2013, has always been anti-charismatic, bluntly deriding miracle workers in Christianity.
In his recent sermon, he noted with tears in his voice, that if you remove money from Adoration Centres they would all collapse. One of the angry audience replied him: "remove money from your cathedral, your church will collapse as well." Imagine the shocking happenstance; that Catholics now talk back at a whole Bishop.
What is going on in Evangelist Ebuka-Obi's Zion ministry is making many clerics as unsettled as ever — just as they were during Fathers Emmanuel Edeh and Ejike Mbaka's reign. What are they sad about? Other ethnic groups are not fighting their clerics as we are seeing within the Igbo Christian communities.
Evangelist Ebuka-Obi's adoration centres have reached 170 branches globally.
Evangelist Ebuka-Obi's Adoration centre attracts over 10,000 supplicants on Sunday by 10 pm.
That a mere Evangelist, not even 'ordained' is pulling so much population that he has built a hospital, an orphanage home, a flourishing water bottling company and has built a massive worship centre in Ngor Okpala, a Local Government Area in IMO State, Nigeria, West Africa, should be studied and replicated. He should have been used as a tool by the church to train seminarians, evangelists and reverend brothers.
That recently a Canadian Christian came to give Evangelist Ebuka Obi a Tesla vehicle worth over N100 million is another exemplary testament of the ministry’s outstanding leadership and impact.
Recently, Ebuka Obi prayed for a lady who was sick and also gave her N500, 000. That, again, made many critics quite inflamed. They even blamed him for the demise of a child in his hospital.
His competitors are wondering how this man is outshining all Catholic parishes and Adoration centres, including those led by priests and Penticostal clerics.
They're now trying hard to attack his personality, his virginity, his testimonies and even his members called Zionists after he was found to be sleeping on a rock.
This is in a society where we have over 200 million souls, yet to be won. None of his opposers have ever pulled a crowd in a stadium or even conducted crusades in remote villages to win souls, yet they call his addent followers unchristian names. Even Sowore of Sahara Reporters have joined the wobbly crowd.
Those who call Zionists 'zombie' and 'fake Catholic' do not deserve to be abused, but to be tutored on God's radical love, the pneuma and the urgency of revival within the Igbo Catholico-pentecostal syncretism.
Recently, a Catholic Lady wrote a public letter to a Rev. Father that was dragging and calling on Evangelist Ebuka Obi to come out and swear that he is a virgin:
"Dear Cor Maria fr Nwebe joy tv,
With all due respect Sir, I think I have to correct you on some of these things you are doing in social media.
We Catholics are known for love and unity, and I know you love God, but you see this SAGA and DRAGGING of yours is getting of hand and it can’t be overlooked.
I was one of your followers and I vividly remember that time you do come to Lagos (Diamond Estate) and we are always happy whenever we hear that you would be visiting. I can still remember how you always take us to camp (Sango-Ota) and I remember how much you loved our Mother Mary and how we always pray the Holy Rosary all through the camping.
But Sir, I can also remember how you always tell us not to go to Zion ministry at that time coz one of my friends was an active member of Zion Ministry then, I can also remember how you used to call her some Sundays to ask her hope she didn’t go to Zion ministry. Sir, do you know the reason why I stopped attending your ministry? I stopped because of the way you talk bad about Zion ministry and the reason why I decided to go to Zion ministry for the first time was because of you.
Sir Nwebe Joy, I started Zion ministry and I loved everything Evang. Ebuka Obi preaches, I stopped attending mass for 2 years because of my encounter with a priest but because of Evang. Ebuka obi preaching and encouragement I went back to Catholic church.
Ebuka Obi is a gift to mankind and the way he markets Catholic church should be appreciated seriously. Let’s love one another. EBUKA OBI is a big name already and nothing can bring him down."
Another priest, Kelvin Ugwu, sat down and made a video about Ebuka-Obi's plate number prophecies. As they drag him on Facebook, the young cleric continues to wax greater, brighter and bigger.
A blogger, called Lord Zeus, recently made a video, where he argued that no one can bring Evangelist Ebuka-Obi down. That since he is healing the sick, helping the needy, and preaching the gospel to many who don't go to church again, that God is with him.
Jesus Christ, in his radical love, called Peter an uneducated Fisherman, and also called Paul, a vibrant lawyer and Tentmaker. Both led the revival in from Jerusalem to Patmos, from Iraq to Turkey, from Rome to the West. God used the duo in different ways. The job of the church is to reach out in love.
Truth is, the Catholic Church in Nigeria today has been serially influenced by inculturation modes, Pentecostal forms; but that the Latin traditions are vanishing is an understatement.
The force of revival in Nigeria has gradually united the Catholic Church with the radical faith movement. It's just that the Catholic clergy in Nigeria are yet to wake up.
People will come to the point that if a priest or bishop can’t heal the sick as Paul and Peter did, no one would believe them or take them seriously.
It is hard to differentiate between many new adoration centres and the Evangelical faith movement. The modes of liturgy has been penticostalised. The Americanization of the worship has left the Catholic traditionalists wondering.
Now we have the use of testimonies as signal of the move of the Holy Spirit, and now the attendant use of men who are not professionals, or professors to shame those who want to determine how God should or should not move is rattling the pool.
Today, Evangelist Chukwuebuka Anozie Obi, the pioneer and spiritual director of Zion Prayer Movement Outreach (ZPMO), founded in 2009, with over 170 branches worldwide, has become the spiritual agent God is using to steer that pool. No adoration center or diocese in Nigeria has become this popular and influential. Would this movement stand the test of time? I think he should be supported and encourage by all well-meaning believers.
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