The Catholic Church, the Nigerian Civil War, and the Beginning of Organized Lay Apostolate Groups among the Igbos of Southeastern Nigeria

Abstract

The socioeconomic crisis of the postwar period, the government takeover of mission schools, and the expulsion of expatriate missionaries opened the way for a larger role for the laity in Igboland South in eastern Nigeria, especially in evangelization and the organization of lay groups. Although these lay groups made some progress in addressing the problems of the period, taking the gospel message beyond conversion, adopting a more radical approach to evangelization, and building a healthier society remained substantial challenges.

The “Conversion” of Anthony Obinna to Mormonism: Elective Affinities, Socio-Economic Factors, and Religious Change in Postcolonial Southeastern Nigeria

“…Between the 1930s and 1960s, dozens of local prophets continued to establish churches, such as the Spiritual Church of the Lord (Amadi 1982), the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star (Amadi 1982;Mbon 1986a;Mbon 1986b;Mbon 1992) and the Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Serafim (Moller 1968) in the southeast, outside of the control of colonial mission churches. Dozens of Pentecostal prayer houses also blossomed throughout the region in the late 1960s, as the peoples of southeastern Nigeria struggled to cope with the devastating effects of the Nigerian Civil War on their daily lives (Burgess 2008;Daly 2017;Nwaka 2013). The appeal of these churches to Nigerians is obvious.…”