THE BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH IN MY COMMUNITY

INTRODUCTION

History helps us to recollect information from the past. One who loses touch with history loses touch with his roots. I am from Umuoji in Idemmili North Local Government, Anambra State. My village community falls among the people whose early history is affected by vague existence of written records. The history of the advent of the church in my place is seldom found in any formally written source, most of the information we get as regards the history of the church in my community is from oral sources. However the direct oral testimonies of the first hand witnesses are all resting in peace, what remains of the history of the advent of Christianity is what had been orally passed on from generations through oral traditions long before documentation came into mind. However, in the archives of the mother parish there are roughly written records of major events about the early days of the church in my community. Many of the information in this paper were related to me by my great-grandmother as my oral source.

THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN MY VILLAGE COMMUNITY

The advent of the earliest missionaries in Onitsha is the watershed for Catholicism in my place. In this paper I seek to cast my inquiry back into the advent of Christianity and specifically Catholicism in my place. As the history and oral traditions have it, the Anglican denomination missionaries were the first to come and evangelize the people living in my village community. Since nothing much is known about the Anglican missionaries and the success of their evangelization, I am basically concerned with the history of Catholicism in my village community. Catholicism in my community today is the product of the fruit of several young missionaries who left the comfort of their homelands and undertook the project of evangelism.

The introduction of Christianity in Umuoji came after the military conquest and subjugation of our traditional governmental structures by the British colonial army in 1904, which was part of the initial resistance to the efforts by European missionaries to Christianize West Africa in the early part of the 15^th century, on the trail of the slave trading activities. The evil of colonialism gave birth to the church in eastern Nigeria. God can make out good from bad situations. In the eastern Nigeria, missionary activities were given a boost following the introduction of the British colonial rule. To correctly situate the growth of the Catholic Church in my community (Umuoji), it may be appropriate that I give a brief overview of the key aspects of the existing traditional religion which Christianity sought to displace and replace in their evangelization efforts.

There was uniformity and diversity in the traditional religious beliefs and practices before the coming of the missionaries. There was uniformity in the sense that there is a belief in one Supreme Being; Chukwu or Chineke, whose figure and identity seemed dim and indefinable. There was diversity because the people worshipped several gods like Idemmili, Oji, Udumeh and Ajana among others, and all the gods have their respective shrines. All these grades of idols had their priests and were celebrated once a year by their respective adherents. This traditional knit of religious culture is what Christianity and by extension Catholicism came in 1905 to displace and replace.

CHURCH ESTABLISHMENTS IN UMUOJI

The Catholic Church was established in my community in November 1905, a defining moment in the history of my village. The then traditional ruler of my place, Chief Okafor Ugwumba through his friend Obi Okosi 1 of Onitsha, took the bold and foresighted step and extended an invitation to Rev. Father McDermoth to open a mission in Umuoji. Consequently, the economic and social fortunes of the village have been intrinsically tied to the coming of Catholicism in Umuoji, my town community.

Father McDermoth arrived in Umuoji in 1905 and was received by the then traditional ruler, Igwe Okafor Ugwumba who added Michael to his name after his adult baptism. This was partly the period of colonial inversion, and thus this phase of evangelization came in the company of colonial subjugation. According to my oral source, the catholic missionaries had a different attitude from the Anglican missionaries.

In the year 1908 the sacrament of baptism was first administered in Umuoji to a total number of 50 people, it was significant and celebrated. In 1909, preceded by a rigorous catechism classes and tests, the sacraments of Holy Communion and confirmation was administered for the first time by Rev. Fr. Joseph Shanahan, assisted by Fathers L.J. Ward, Terrell and McDermott. In this same year, the first infant baptism was administered by Rev. Fr. Eugene Groetz. In this same year, the first indigenous catechist was named in the person of Mr. George Chigbo. There was another mass baptism in 1912. However, from the beginning of their mission of evangelization, Fr. L.J Ward assisted by Fr. F.E. Groetz was administering Umuoji station from Onitsha, but in 1912, Fr. Groetz set up a residence in Umuoji, Becoming the first priest to live among the people of the community. In 1914, the first Christian marriage was celebrated (sacrament of matrimony). In 1922, the building of the first church in Umuoji was started and it was completed in 1927 and it became an independent parish in 1951. The first Nigerian Parish priest to serve in Umuoji was Fr. Matthew Osita Udegbunam (1970-1974). The early missionaries to my community, in the course of their evangelization started educational centers which developed into schools.

CHALLENGES OF THE EARLY DAYS OF EVANGELIZATION IN UMUOJI

The first phase (1905-1950) of the development of the church in Umuoji was beset by a number of challenges which slowed down the growth in the number of converts and school enrolments. Some of the challenges are:

·         The opposition of traditional region and cultural beliefs and practices which discouraged the people from accepting the new European religious and socio-cultural way of life.

·         Disunity within the traditional and educated elite. This social conflict did not augur well for progress in the church and mission schools.

·         Many of the converts later abandoned their faith and went back to the traditional way of life. Some others have one leg in the church and the other in the shrine. This habit tended to slow down the growth in membership of the church.

·         Women education was very much discouraged by parents who believed that the church and school would render their daughters unmarriageable. For this reason the enrolment of girls in school and church was minimal up to the 1950s.

SUCCESSES

From the coming of the missionaries till 2012 (the year of the last created parish) a total number of six parishes have been created. They are the following: Our lady of seven sorrows (mother parish) 1951, St. Francis Parish 1992, Holy Family Parish 2005, Church of Assumption 2009 Parish, Regina Caeli Parish 2009, and St. Theresa Parish 2012. The missionaries started educational centers and developed them into schools, and they are thriving today. Equally there has been a growth in indigenous vocations accordingly, starting from the first vocation to the priesthood in 21^st of April 1974 (the ordination of the first Umuoji indigenous priest, late Rev. Fr. Felix Anoliefo); Umuoji have a total number of 35 priests and 37 religious with many young vocations coming up. The Benedictine Monastery for nuns was also established at Umuoji in 1981.

CONCLUSION

If father McDermoth, the said first missionary priest to visit my place (Umuoji) had truncated his mission, the story of Catholicism would not be told in my place today. This indicates the overarching hand of providence in the life of my community, both individually and collectively and also the vital role of missionaries in the work of evangelization. Writing this paper is like a memorial that sends me back to the root and the history of my faith as a catholic, not from the perspective of the universal church, but from the standpoint of the advent of the catholic faith in my community.

In 1905 Christianity in Umuoji was at the crossroad of tradition and modernity, of paganism and Christianity, of imagery and realism. At the end of the 20^th century we can claim that Christianity has won the war against traditional religion. But our Christianity is at another crossroad at the beginning of this century, the crossroad of Christianity and the new paganism of western dissent, philosophical individualism and hedonism. Most of the western countries that Christianized us seem to have capitulated to this new paganism. I pray and hope Christianity wins again in this battle.