Published this morning by Dailymail UK.
A church run by a
controversial multi-
millionaire African
preacher has been
accused of ‘cynical
exploitation’ after its British
branch received £16.7
million in donations from
followers who were told
that God would give them
riches in return.
Followers are ferried in
double-decker shuttle
buses to the church,
handed slips inviting them
to make debit card
payments, and are even
told obeying the ministry’s
teachings will make them
immune from illness.
Today’s Mail on Sunday
revelations about the
Winners’ Chapel
movement have prompted
the Charity Commission to
review the charitable
status of the church – one
of the fastest-growing in
the UK.
Winners’ Chapel is part of a
worldwide empire of evangelical
ministries run by Nigeria’s
wealthiest preacher David
Oyedepo, who has an estimated
£93 million fortune, a fleet of
private jets and a Rolls-Royce
Phantom.
Dubbed ‘The Pastorpreneur’, he
was accused earlier this year of
slapping the face of a young
woman he said was a witch. The
assault case was struck out but
is being appealed.
Branches of the church have
sprung up in major UK cities in a
huge recruitment drive centred
on Mr Oyedepo’s ‘prosperity
gospel’. This claims that
congregants who make regular
donations and pay tithes – a ten
per cent levy on their income –
will be rewarded financially by
God.
Followers are urged to target
vulnerable people such as the
lonely, the sick, the homeless
and the suicidal as potential
candidates for conversion.
Last night, Labour MP Paul Flynn
said Winners’ Chapel was
cynically exploiting supporters.
‘They [Winners’ Chapel] are
making clearly spurious claims
and it seems to be a cynical
exploitation of the gullible,’ he
said.
Referring to the slapping
incident, Mr Flynn added: ‘What
is also alarming is the reported
violence and the lack of respect
for the status of women. It’s
taking us back to a previous age
of ignorance and prejudice that
we all thought the church had
escaped.’
This newspaper’s investigation
can further disclose:
Congregants are
handed a payment slip
requesting payments
using cheque, cash or
debit card when they
enter London’s
Winners’ Chapel.
Donations to the
ministry in England
almost doubled from
£2.21 million to £4.37
million between 2006
and 2010.
Mr Oyedepo’s
superchurch in Nigeria
received £794,000 or
73 per cent of the
charitable donations
paid out by the British
Winners’ Chapel
between 2007 and
2010. This was despite
claims in Africa that he
is enriching himself at
the expense of his
devotees.
The registered charity
has spent £6.81 million
on evangelism and
‘praise, worship and
fellowship’.
The church’s ‘Joseph
Squad’ preaches in
British prisons and has
a weekly broadcast
named ‘Liberation
Hour’ on satellite and
cable TV here.
In the past three years, Winners’
Chapel churches have been
established in Liverpool,
Birmingham, Leeds and
Bradford, adding to those in
London, Manchester, Dublin and
Glasgow.
An undercover Mail on Sunday
reporter attended Sunday
services at Winners’ Chapel’s
‘London HQ’ in Dartford, Kent,
which attracts 1,000
congregants – chiefly African
and Caribbean immigrants. It is
run like ‘a business conference’
by Mr Oyedepo’s son, David
Oyedepo Jnr. Packed buses
deliver singing worshippers
from South-East London, Essex
and Kent to the huge
auditorium.
The reporter saw a payment slip
being given to every person
entering the church
encouraging them to donate
money by cheque or cash or to
fill in a form with their debit card
details. The slip said tithes
should be paid separately using
a ‘Kingdom Investment Booklet’
and the reporter was informed
that payments could also be
made by phone. A pastor told
the worshippers: ‘You shall be
financially promoted after this
service in Jesus’s name if you
are ready to honour the Lord
therefore with all your givings,
your tithes, your offerings, your
Kingdom investment, your
sacrifices.’
Congregants were told to fill in
their slips and hold them above
their heads while the donations
were blessed
The service was interspersed
with testimonies. ‘I received a bill
from the bank that I didn’t
understand, so I prayed,’ said
one congregant. ‘A few days
later, the bank wrote to
apologise for their mistake –
Hallelujah!’ ‘Hallelujah,’ the
audience shouted back.
Congregants were told they
could gain favour by persuading
others to follow Mr Oyedepo’s
teachings. His son said: ‘Look
around you. Someone is sick
and already wishing he or she
were dead, that is a fruit ripe to
harvest. Someone is
confounded and considering
suicide as an option, that is
another fruit that is ripe to
harvest.
‘Someone else is lonely and
wondering if there is any future
for him, that is another fruit ripe
to harvest.
‘Also there are many men and
women, young and old that are
homeless, these are fruits ripe
to harvest.’
The reporter was taken, with 20
other new recruits, to a room
where preachers gave sermons
claiming acceptance of the Lord
would prevent them ever being
ill or suffering misfortune.
The Mail on Sunday has seen
video footage of Mr Oyedepo
striking a woman across the face
and condemning her to hell
after she said she was a ‘witch
for Jesus’. He attacked her in a
Winners’ Chapel superchurch,
believed to be in Nigeria, in front
of worshippers. A separate
video shows him saying: ‘I
slapped a witch here last year!’
In May, he was sued for
£800,000 over the alleged
assault. The case was struck out
– a decision which is now
reported to have been
appealed.
The Winners’ Chapel movement,
also known as the Living Faith
Church, has hundreds of
churches in Nigeria and across
Africa, the Middle East, the UK
and the US.
Mr Oyedepo has received fierce
criticism in Africa. One Nigerian
journalist accused him of
‘leading a growing list of
pastorpreneurs – church
founders exploiting the passion
and emotion that Christianity
commands to feather their
nests’.
Catholic Cardinal Anthony
Okogie criticised such preachers
for placing materialism above
Jesus’s message. He reportedly
said: ‘They have been skinning
the flock, taking out of the milk
of the flock.’
Among Mr Oyedepo’s fleet of
aircraft are said to be a
Gulfstream 1 and Gulfstream 4
private jets. It is also claimed he
and his wife, Faith, travel in
expensive Jeeps flanked by
convoys of siren-blaring
vehicles. He is the senior pastor
of Faith Tabernacle, a 50,000-
seat auditorium in Lagos
reputed to be the largest church
in the world, and runs a
publishing company that
distributes books carrying his
message across the world.
His other business interests
span manufacturing, petrol
stations, bakeries, water
purification factories,
recruitment, a university,
restaurants, supermarkets and
real estate. The latest addition is
a commercial airline named
Dominion Airlines.
A Charity Commission
spokesman said: ‘The Charity
Commission is currently
assessing what, if any,
regulatory role there is to play
with regard to the complaints
made against the World Mission
Agency. It is important to clarify
that this does not constitute an
investigation at this stage.’
Winners’ Chapel administrator
Tunde Disu declined to
comment.
Dailymail
No comments:
Post a Comment