Today, All Saints’ Anglican Parish Church, Ikosi, Ketu is celebrating its 40th anniversary and the Vicar of the church, Venerable Ariire Ayo Kolawole spoke with SEYI JOHN SALAU on the significance of marking the event. Excerpts:
How does it feel like being here at a time when the church is celebrating its 40th anniversary?
It gladdens my heart; it is just like some people laboured, planted, watered, and it geminates and I have come now to reap the fruits of what others have done in the last 40 years. So, it gladdens my heart to be the one taking the glory of the labour and sweat that others have done. So, I quite appreciate God to have really given me this great opportunity because it is quite rare to enjoy such opportunity and I am very happy for it.
The last 40 years might have been challenging for the church; but here we are celebrating 40 years of its existence. So, what really are we celebrating and what would you want to be remembered for?
Somebody once asked on the radio – is it really good for the church to celebrate 40th anniversary in an elaborate way; are we not like emulating the world and being extravagant? And I said no, that is not the reason. We are celebrating for so many reasons: number one is that 40 as a number is quite significant and very symbolic biblically. Number two is that what the church is really celebrating is not the age but the goodness of God – it is what the Lord has done in this last 40 years; like you have said, there could have been challenges but what we have looked at is that in the last 40 years we have had what we called the wilderness experience. The children of Israel crossed the Red Sea, got to the wilderness but when they crossed the Red Sea it was like we have gotten it all just to enter into Canaan, and never knew it was not like that. At a time in the wilderness there was no water for them to drink; at a time for them in the wilderness there was no food to eat; at a time they had no clothes to wear; but at every stage in this wilderness experience God was proving himself – the same has happened to the church. When the church was founded, you can be sure 40 years ago, Ikosi was not what it is today; and you can be sure the church did not have this kind of edifice and it was not the same people. I remember from the history of the church that 12 people actually started the church. The first service was attended by 12 people and the whole income that day was about N1,200, so they have faced a lot of challenges. The church building you see today was not the first building – it is actually the third church building; it started from a very small and humble place within the street somewhere under a block-made shield; and it has gone from that very small church to this permanent site and later metamorphosed to be what it is today. At a time in the church history, the church faced some attacks and issues with the government. The first church to be built was almost at the completion stage and the military government in Lagos then came to demolish the building. At that time the church was totally frustrated and it was like let us close this church; after all many of us have our former churches, we can go back: but they have to encourage themselves again. Now, our case is like 40 years is over – like the children of Israel fought a lot of battles and after 40 years; what happened to the children of Israel was that they crossed into the Promised Land. We already have our promised land, and so this is the time that we are crossing into the promised land and the glory that has been hidden in the last 40 years; it is now time for it to begin to reveal and radiate all over the world.
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What message are you passing to the parishioners as they celebrate?
As we celebrate like I have said, we cannot thank the Lord enough for what he has done. And of course, these 40 years is just the beginning of whatever the Lord is still planning to do. My message to the church as we celebrate our 40th anniversary is never to look back and never to give ourselves to the challenges we might have had in the past but to move forward. Like I told you; we have just entered into the Promised Land – in the Promised Land the bible says the land was full of honey and milk. We have just entered; the labours in the 40 years are all past – it is another 40 years to reap, another 40 years to rejoice, another 40 years to celebrate, another 40 years to be alleviated, and another 40 years of breakthrough, promotions, and open heavens like it happened to the children of Israel; there was no food but God provided miraculously and we never had any challenge that the children of Israel faced in the Promised Land, that is one good thing about the Promised Land and of course, there were real land owners before they came to possess the land; who could have been enemy to them but God fought for them. They never fought any battle in the land – God fought for them; that is what we are looking at. All our members should just see themselves as entering into their harvest season; entering into their joy because we are already in our Promised Land.
