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The African Church was established in Nigeria in 1901. It was established after strong disagreements arose between the European leadership of the Anglican Church and the native African leadership. Following the installation of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (one of the foremost black African Leaders of the Anglican Church and translator of the Bible into the Yoruba language) as the head of Church of Nigeria, a number of African clergies obtained progressive education that did not however translate to advancement in the leadership of the Church. This led to schisms that finally led to the formation of the indigenous African Church. ==Early history== The African Church is always remembered for leading a revolution. In 1901, one elder Jacob Kehinde Coker who was then called the People's Warden, led some people out of the Anglican Church in protest over the ill treatment meted on Africans in the white dominated church. These revolutionaries protested the mode of worship, which had no regard for African musical instruments and the fact that people had to wear European clothes and sing only Western hymns. The Church held its first service on October 17, 1901 by J.K Coker and a group of ministers that disagreed with the Anglican Church European leadership led by Bishop Turgwell then of St. Paul's Church. The church met at the Rose Cottage, Marina for its first service (this is the present site of Leventis Stores, Marina) Relating the first worship experience at this young church in 1901, the Pa Coker in his unpublished biography wrote:
The Church in its early history faced persecution in the hands of the colonial led government in Lagos under the influence of the CMS Church (Anglican) from which it had broken away. Due to its inability to obtain land, it resorted to leasing land from influential members for five years and through this method built its first church in Lagos, the Bethel Church leased by B. A. Roberts, A. E. Coates and D. A. J. Oguntolu on Balogun street. The church was initially built in twenty eight days with three hundred and fifty pounds to accommodate 600 members. It was dedicated on December 22, 1901 by Rev. J. S. Williams, vicar of St. Jude's Church, Ebute-Metta (who later became Primate). A second church known as African Church, Salem was later separately incorporated and led expansion efforts separately. The merger of the Salem and Bethel parts of the Church was later made possible under the name, African Church Incorporated. Moves however to incorporate similar African Churches (specifically,United Native African Church (U.N.A.) and the United African Methodist Church (U.A.M.) ) nearly engulfed the African Churches in an internal crisis between 1927 and 1937. This effort was led by J.K Coker, a wealthy lay man often regarded as the father of African Independent Churches. The major source of disagreement was polygamy, which was forbidden by the African Church but was allowed by these other churches. The merger was scuttled and these churches survived distinctly from the African Church. The African Church however unlike the Anglican Church (of those days) did baptize offspring of polygamists and allowed its members to take traditional titles.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The African Church」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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