Central Nigeria - Slideshow
A short slideshow of worship in Nigeria.
|
| Click to View the Slideshow on Central Nigeria |
Nigeria is the country with the largest population on the African continent (137 million; July 2004 est.). The official administrative language is English, but more than 500 Nigerian languages are spoken by the various tribes. Historically, Christianity is mainly represented in the South, though it is also spreading among the adherents of African religions in the North, where a large percentage of the population is Muslim. Though Portuguese missionaries had reached the country already in the 15th century, the expansion of Christianity began only with the colonial period in the 19th century.
Reformed Christianity came to Nigeria at different times and from various countries. There are today eleven Reformed Churches with a total membership of over 5 million. These churches have never deliberately separated from one another; they are rather the fruit of separate missionary enterprises.
Five groups are active in the central provinces of Nigeria . All of them have come into being in the 20th century, mostly through efforts of various branches of the Sudan United Mission (SUM). The churches involved are all - directly or indirectly - Dutch in background. The Christian Reformed Church of Nigeria - CRCN (1904), the Church of the Christ in the Sudan among the Tiv - NKST (1911), the Evangelical Reformed Church of Christ - ERCC (1916), the Reformed Church of Christ in Nigeria - RCCN (1920), and the most recent among the Reformed churches: the Nigeria Reformed Church - NRC (1970). Recognizing the need for better coordination of their witness, several of these churches decided in 1991 to form an association of Reformed Churches in Nigeria: The Reformed Ecumenical Council of Nigeria - RECON.