Pastor Chris breaks silence on marriage
After many months of hush, the Founder of Christ Embassy, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, has broken his long silence over the divorce story making the rounds, confirming deep-rooted suspicions that his marriage to Rev Mrs Anita Oyakhilome may have bitten the dust.
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Various checks on the church’s official website indicate that everything relating to Rev Mrs Oyakhilome has been pulled down.
Even the church’s most popular monthly publication — the Rhapsody of Realities —which used to be co-authored by the evangelical couple now bears the name of only Pastor Chris, the founder of the church officially known as Believers’ Loveworld Inc.
In a six-minute Youtube video, the Nigerian minister of the gospel with a thriving international church, across the world made statements pointing to the fact that all was not well with the 20-year marriage which has produced two children.
However, Pastor Chris urged the members of the church to pray for his estranged wife last Sunday evening during the Church’s global communion service streamed from Canada.
Turf war
In what appears to be showing his control over the dramatic turf war between him and his wife, he said “If you are married to a man of God, it doesn’t make you automatically mature. You can make mistakes; you can do something that is wrong. But some people expect the wife of a minister to definitely be at the level of that minister and so they may be looked upon and the expectation may be like that, but it’s a positional thing.
“If a man of God is married, it doesn’t automatically mean that the wife of a man of God is therefore a woman of God. That’s not the way it is in the Bible,” he said in the video.
“That’s why you don’t really find the wives of men of God mentioned in the Bible. How many of them? Who was Peter’s wife, did you ever know her name? You never find that out. Who was John’s wife? Did you ever read the name? What about all the other Apostles? How many of their names are written in the Bible. You never find their names.”
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The position of Rev Mrs Oyakhilome in the church currently is not clear. Before the crisis, she was the church’s Director of International Office and also pastored the branch in the United Kingdom.
Allegations of adultery on the side of Pastor Chris traversed the Nigerian media landscape and social media.
Rumours of the collapse of the marriage started making rounds in April with some church members creating Facebook pages in support of Rev Mrs Oyakhilome.
In several of the posts, Pastor Chris was accused of adultery, an allegation he denied saying “I heard that some media houses, especially in Nigeria are writing some things against me. All sorts of frivolous charges, that’s crazy.”
“You have to understand something about a man of God. A man of God is not just someone who worships God or preaches God. A man of God is handpicked by God, set on course by God. If you study the scriptures, you will not find one man of God go against God, sinning against God.”
While he had been silent on the reported turbulence in his matrimonial home, there were reports in the media that Rev Mrs Oyakhilome had filed for divorce on grounds of “adultery and unreasonable behaviour.
The divorce suit
According to the reports, the divorce case with suit number FD14D01650 was filed on April 9, 2014 at the Divorce Section A, Central Family Court, First Avenue House, High Holborn, London in the United Kingdom.
However, in the video, he did not have kind words for people accusing him of adultery.
“You don’t know who a man of God is. I don’t go in that direction. I wasn’t accused of the things you said, nor did I commit those silly things that you said and I don’t need to go into that level in such discussions.”
“Jesus Christ was accused by many – a lot of frivolous charges. There will always be those who would like for it to be true. But you know, in spite of the accusations against Jesus, It didn’t change who he was. It didn’t change him.
Marriage under scrutiny
This is not the first time the couple’s marriage have come under scrutiny, there have been suggestions as back as 2009 that they have separated.
In Christ Embassy, the Oyakhilome’s marital problem is a closely guarded secret with explanation that the work of the ministry is the reason why the two live apart.
Writer’s email: seth.bokpe@graphic.com.gh
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