Pastor Chris Oyakhilome: Female pastors protest new Christ Embassy rules, pastor sacked

Things seem to be getting messier in Christ Embassy. There are reports making the rounds that embattled founder of Believers’ LoveWorld, (a.k.a Christ Embassy), Chris Oyakhilome has sacked one of his top pastors, Reverend Grace for allegedly setting up a prayer session with respect to the divorce crisis Pastor Chris was enmeshed in with his wife, Pastor Anita.

The sacked Reverend Grace who is based in London, the church’s branch headed by Pastor Anita, allegedly raised a prayer team to pray for the restoration of peace in the between Pastor Chris and his wife. This, she was reportedly prompted to do when the church’s first lady stopped attending church services.

According to DailyPost, one of the ministers, who spoke to SUN said:“We suspected this issue is going to go public some day since the day Pastor Chris sacked Rev Grace for meddling in his family affairs by openly calling for prayers among some members in London when Rev Anita stopped coming to the church she was shepherding while all efforts to get her failed.

“Some of us believe our colleague in London did the right thing by seeking spiritual help for the family, but I think Pastor Chris misread her intention and had to travel to London”.

DailyPost also reports that “Apart from the sack of the London pastor, another issue connected to the divorce, which has also been generating tension in the church, is the cry of female ministers who are accusing Pastor Chris of introducing ‘controversial rules that are now threatening the foundation of many marriages in the church’”.

The medium quotes a female church member of one of the Christ Embassy branches in Abuja as telling The SUN that:“This is a strange directive that husbands and their wives must not worship or attend the same parish.

“Now, if a couple is a member of a parish, one of them has to be posted to another parish and this is fueling adultery in the church in no small measure. Some of us who are female ministers that have been separated from our husbands, we are already talking. Some have started revolting against the order in their parishes, while some have refused to obey such transfer orders”.

Another top female official of the church in one of the parishes located in Ikeja, whose husband, in lieu of the policy, has been transferred out of the parish they have been attending together for years said: “It’s a heartbreaking development because now we know that that directive was introduced to justify why Pastor Chris has to be in Lagos and his wife in London but beyond that, it is encouraging immorality while the church believes that we have an unusual grace that covers our human failings, including adultery”.