Anita Oyakhilome of Christ Embassy Church has
worsened, P.M.NEWS can reveal.
On Sunday, two 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.
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
esrtwhile 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.
It was too early to know if the September
edition of the Rhapsody of Realities still has the
photographs of both the pastor and his wife as
it used to be.
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.
But P.M.NEWS checks at the weekend revealed
that there is confusion in the church following
the divorce suit filed by Anita to end her over
two decades marriage to the founder of Christ
Embassy Church.
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.
is 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.
Many people also remember the scandal
involving Christ Embassy and Sheraton Hotel
some years ago when a member of the church,
who worked at the Sheraton Hotel, stole money
from his employers and gave it to Christ
Embassy. But when Sheraton approached the
church for reimbursement, the church allegedly
claimed that the money had been given to God
and could not be refunded.
Many also excoriated Pastor Chris some years
ago when the church began collecting gate fees
from members for their New Year Eve's Service.
More recently, Oyakhilome came under attack
after he claimed that Christians were free to
masturbate because it was not a sin.
But the latest scandal involving Anita and Chris,
who have two daughters, seems to threaten the
very existence of one of the biggest churches in
Nigeria.
Christ Embassy runs several arms including the
Healing School, Rhapsody of Realities, and an
N.G.O called the Innercity Missions as well as
three Christian television channels: LoveWorld
TV, LoveWorld SAT and LoveWorld Plus.
The church is scattered all over the world,
including in the United Kingdom, the United
States, South America and the whole of Europe.
Stories about women bringing men of God
down are not new. In 1988, Jimmy Swaggart, a
famous American preacher was implicated in a
sex scandal involving a prostitute that resulted
initially in his suspension, and ultimately
defrocking, by the Assemblies of God.
Three years later, Swaggart was implicated in
another scandal involving a prostitute. As a
result, Swaggart's ministry became non-
affiliated, non-denominational and significantly
smaller than it was before the scandals.
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