Encomium
The divorce mess between Pastors Chris and Anita Oyakhilome of Christ Embassy Church has worsened.
Few days after it was reported that Anita Oyakhilome had filed for divorce, Christ Embassy deleted her pictures and personal information from its official website, www.christembassy.org.
Many describe the action as the beginning of a process to shut her out of the church, after she accused her husband of “adultery” and “unreasonable behaviours” in a divorce suit filed in London last April but only made public on Friday, August 29, 2014.
Christ Embassy’s new website now shows only Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, with a broad smile welcoming his followers to the month of August, and tagging it, ‘Month of Praise’.
In the message on the website, Oyakhilome also urges his followers to “rejoice for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Also, on the website of the Rhapsody of Realities, a daily devotional co-authored by the erstwhile couple, there’s nothing to show that Anita is still recognised as the only visible face on the website among the family members is that of her husband.
In the past, when the going was good, Anita and Chris Oyakhilome held hands on the church website and smiled broadly. They projected the image of a perfect couple.
In the past, Pastor Chris headed the Nigerian branch of the church, though he travelled to other branches occasionally, while Anita headed the branch in London and its environs.
Christ Embassy and its founder have been embroiled in a myriad of controversies in the past. In 2010, Oyakhilome was accused of engineering a money laundering scheme in Nigeria, and questions swirled around his finances because of his glamorous lifestyle.
Many pastors and theologians also excoriated Oyakhilome for his “New Creation” doctrine, a form of Gnosticism that says after a person becomes a Christian, any sin they commit is only in the body and will not affect the spirit.
In 2008, Oyakhilome’s reputation as a faith healer was tarnished badly in Johannesburg, South Africa, when a man told a Soweto newspaper that Christ Embassy offered him more than $1,200 to sit in a wheelchair and pretend to be crippled until Oyakhilome prayed for him.
“The man went to the media instead of taking the money, sparking concerns that healings were being faked to impress growing crowds,” said Lee Grady in an article in 2012 published by Charisma Magazine.
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome has also been a target of criticism by the Treatment Action Campaign for his support of faith healing to cure HIV. Allegations that Christ Embassy members are reportedly being forced to give huge sums of money in offerings with the biggest donors receiving the biggest awards have left many people concerned.
Many Nigerians have also alleged that the church operates like a cult and pressures members to marry only within Christ Embassy.
