The Cathedral Church of Christ Marina, is the oldest Anglican Cathedral in the Church Of Nigeria Anglican Communion and also one of the finest of Cathedrals in Africa. It is the seat of the Bishop of Lagos. Established in 1869, Christ church stands on a prominent position on the CMS suburb of the Marina, of the Lagos Island, overlooking the Lagos lagoon. Its current structure, which was completed in 1946, is the third church built to house its congregation and was designed by Architect Benjamin Bagandogi in a Norman Gothic style.
The founding of Christ Church, Lagos, dates far back to 1853 when Christianity was brought to West Africa. Starting out at a plot of land at Oko-faji, where it co-existed with the present St Peter’s Church Ajele. History has it that – initially, worship services, as at then, were conducted in the indigenous Yoruba language for the sake of the native people who didn’t understand English language, but as more and more of the liberated slaves who came from Sierra Leone at that period, -the Creoles, settled in Lagos, they, with time, also preferred to have their own worship services in English.
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Eventually an English service was introduced in 1853 by the Bishop Ajayi Crowther for the convenience of the natives from Sierra Leone who did not understand Yoruba. In effect, two separate church services were being conducted at Oko-faji. One in English and the other in Yoruba. In 1860, the Yoruba congregation secured a plot of land at Ajele and moved there to establish the St Peters Church. Meanwhile, the English speaking congregation remained at Oko- faji and established Christ Church with its services fully conducted in English.
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This eventually attracted not only the British colonial leaders but also freed slaves and a host of other Western educated African elites and professionals who lived in Lagos at that time. A huge increase in the size of its congregation created the need for a more suitable building for worship and also a school and this eventually led to the movement of Christ Church from Oko-faji to its present site on the Marina under the supervision of the Revd James Abner Lamb. On the 29th day of March 1867 the foundations of a new Christ’s Parish Church which was designed by Revd. James Abner Lamb were laid by His Excellency Sir John Hawley Glover, – Administrator of the Colony of Lagos and its Dependencies” as at then. In 1921, Christ Church Lagos was raised to the status of a Pro-Cathedral and eventually to a fully fledged Cathedral in 1926, 59 years after it moved to the Marina.
Source: City People Magazine
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