IWHNURỌHNA CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION(ICA)
Website: www.iwhnurohna.blogspot.com
Mobile: 0803 763 8353; 0708 894 5884
Email: risreprojj@yahoo.com
Our Ref.: ICA/ICTD/11
All replies to be addressed to the General Secretary
|
c/o Amazing Grace Chambers
Izzi Corporate Suites
320 Aba-PH Expressway
Port
Harcourt,
Rivers
State, Nigeria.
Date: 1 October 2011
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WELCOME REMARKS BY DR TONY ENYIA,
CHAIRMAN (BOT), IWHNURỌHNA CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION AT THE 1ST IWHNURỌHNA ANNUAL CHRISTIAN THANKSGIVING DAY (IACTD),
1 OCTOBER 2011 AT OJIM’S COLLEGE,
RUMUJI, EMOHUA LGA, RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA
Protocols
We welcome everyone here to this great and historic occasion
in the powerful name of Jesus Christ. Today’s event is unique in many ways
because it is the climax of all the programmes we have successfully executed
this year by the special grace of God. We began with our revived Iwhnurọhna Christian
Musical Festival held at the Isaac Boro Park, Port Harcourt (in PHALGA) on
Saturday 25 June 2011. This was closely followed by our maiden Iwhnurọhna Christian
Youth Leadership Training Programme and Quiz Competition held at Emmanuel
Anglican Church Deanery, Rumuokoro (in OBALGA) on Saturday 6 August 2011. And
today we are here for our flagship event of the maiden Iwhnurọhna Annual
Christian Thanksgiving Day, (in EMOLGA) the first to be organized by our new
organization – the Iwhnurọhna
Christian Association (ICA). We give all the glory to Jehovah El-Shaddai, our
Almighty God; the All-Sufficient, Strong-Nourisher, Strength-Giver, Satisfier
and All-Bountiful Supplier of the needs of His people (Genesis 17:1). We thank our faithful Father God for this
fresh new start in the ministry of annual "Thanksgiving" against all
odds. We have come to stay and to leave an indelible mark on Ẹli-Iwhnurọhna nụ Ele-Iwhnurọhna (the land and people of Ikwerre)!
To put our activities in biblical context, you may please
turn to the Holy Scriptures where the foundation of our great legacy events
were laid in Deuteronomy 16:16, which says:
Three times in
a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place
which he shall
choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks,
and in the
feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the Lord empty.
Here we have three detailed mandates from the Almighty God
specifying three annual holy convocations by the congregation of males, and of
course females, to celebrate before the Lord God in the following ways, viz:
1. All males (and females) shall appear before the Lord and hold
feasts in the place where He shall choose to put His name (i.e. pointing to our
rotational venues for hosting the events, in our case, as approved by the Board
of Trustees for each of the events yearly).
2. They shall not appear empty, but shall bring freewill offerings for
the feasts yearly (meaning that it is a time of worshipping the Lord with our
life, heart, talents, skills, money and material substance – Deuteronomy
16:15-16).
3. Every man shall give
his freewill offering as he is able, and as the Lord has prospered him (meaning
there is no fixed limit or amount which anyone must give. It has to be
voluntary and to the glory of the Almighty God - Deuteronomy 16:17).
However, contrary to the allegations of our detractors, ICA
has never solicited for or received financial help from anyone, home or abroad,
to fund the hosting of these annual holy convocations which we in the Iwhnurọhna Christians Association see as a very solemn
sacrifice to the Almighty God and therefore must remain
unpolluted. Thanks to the fervent and financial commitment of ICA members. The
three annual feasts for all God's people and, by application for all Iwhnurọhna Christians, are as
follows:
1. The Feast of
Unleavened Bread, Passover and Firstfruits for all God’s people annually
(Deuteronomy 16:16; Leviticus 23:6-14). This
aptly fits into our IWHNURỌHNA
ANNUAL CHRISTIAN THANKSGIVING DAY, now fixed yearly
for October 1 (which is Nigeria's Independence Day).
2. The Feast of Pentecost or Weeks, which holds fifty days
after the Passover Feast (Deuteronomy 16:16; Leviticus 23:15-22). This also nicely
fits into our IWHNURỌHNA CHRISTIAN YOUTH LEADERSHIP TRAINING
PROGRAMME, which will henceforth be holding by July 14 (or around the second
week of July). Our youths are our firstfruits unto the Lord, the lambs without
blemish of the first year, and young bullocks, and rams to be raised up in the
fear and nurture of the Lord unto a great destiny and leadership positions to
God’s glory! This is a major strand of our corporate strategy, going forward.
3. The Feast Tabernacles, Trumpets and Atonement that all could
attend also annually (Deuteronomy 16:16; Leviticus 23:23-44). This third holy
convocation for the blasting of the trumpets neatly fits into our IWHNURỌHNA CHRISTIAN MUSICAL FESTIVAL which is
billed to hold on April 14 (or the Saturday around the Easter period).
It is noteworthy that these feasts were observed with some
adaptations in the New Testament. The Lord Jesus changed the Feast of Passover to the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion. The Feast of Pentecost turned out to be the
day the Mighty Holy Spirit power descended in baptismal measure upon the early
church and brought about the birth of the Church or the beginning of the Church
Age. The offering of firstfruits unto the Lord typified the resurrection of
Christ which roughly approximates to the Easter celebrations of modern day
Christianity. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the
firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Firstfruits mean the beginning of a
thing i.e. that Christ is the first to be resurrected from the dead to enter
into immortality of body. Israel observed the first day of the seventh month
(October) as a special sabbath and a day of blowing of trumpets for the Feast of Trumpets and Day of Atonement
which closely resembles the Good Friday.
Firstfruits here also
refer to the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, not the barley which was
earlier. In warmer parts of Palestine
barley ripened about the middle of April, whereas the wheat crop did so the
last week of May or first part of June, being reaped by the time of the Feast
of Pentecost (Leviticus 23:17). So our choice of months also roughly
corresponds as follows – October, June/July and April each year for the three
events. Thus, in summary, the biblical feasts which we have adapted are:
- Feast of Tabernacles, Trumpets and Atonement (April) – for our Musical Festival
- Feast of Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks (July) – for Youth Leadership Programme
- Feast of Unleavened Bread, Passover and Firstfruits (October) – for Thanksgiving Day
As foreshadowed by the feasts above, in the “Church Age” four
(4) ceremonies stand out in Christian observances throughout the Christendom
which we have also mirrored closely in Iwhnurọhna Christian
Association as our annual events. They are:
Church
Age Event
|
Date
in ICA 2012 Calendar
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1. Atonement by Christ (vice Good Friday?)
2. Easter (Resurrection of Jesus Christ)
3. Pentecost (Holy Ghost Power Baptism)
4. Incarnation/Christmas (Birth of Christ)
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14 January 2012 (Ministers Conference)
14 April 2012 (Christian Musical Festival)
14 July 2012 (Leadership Programme)
1 October 2012 (Annual Thanksgiving Day)
|
We did a trial or test-run of the (Iwhnurọhna Annual
Christian)
Ministers’ Conference for enhancing church growth by the use of
Ikwerre language with a special language-based church revival, expansion and
maturation event organized by the Deeper Christian Life Ministry Ikwerre Group.
This would be replicated in other churches that would invite us but in addition
to such outreaches, we hope to host our own maiden Minister Conference on Saturday
14 January 2012. Our pre-event field survey shows that many ministers, pastors
and church founders in Ikwerreland would be very pleased to participate in the
Conference which aims at energizing rapid growth of their churches by the use
of Ikwerre language.
Our dear people of Iwhnurọhna, we cannot
end this brief remark without placing on record your very highly supportive and
passionate response to our invitation to this maiden (1st) Annual Thanksgiving
Day event. We are well aware that some of you may have heard of the attempts by
some elements in Ikwerreland who have arrogated to themselves the
unconstitutional and illegal power to regulate our Christian beliefs, practices
and freedom of conscience. In their parochial intoxication with fleeting power
they boasted that only they can give Ikwerre people the mandate to worship God
the way and manner they should. We are, however, so gladdened to see that
Ikwerre people are much wiser than this pretentious clique that has severally
attempted to mortgage our freedom of conscience and breach the universal
declaration of our human rights to association, religion and speech. Hopefully,
they would learn from today's event that we have firmly resolved to fully
assert our inalienable right to freedom which they can never
"checkmate" any longer, no matter how diabolical they are wont to be!
For as the Scriptures have said: "Nay, in all these things we are more
than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37). And
please remember that our theme for this maiden (1st) event is from Genesis 22:17 where the Almighty God
promises:
That in
blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the
stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed
shall possess the gate of his enemies.
Finally, in pursuance of our onward march to total dependence
on God Almighty, it is our plan to buy some 100 plots of land in the near
future to build the Iwhnurọhna Christian Association FREEDOM ARENA for hosting all our events, God helping us. We
solicit your prayers for this as we passionately remain committed to laying a
new foundation of Ikwerre Christians free from all the evil trappings of demonic
cultism, devilish heritage, cultural chauvinism, idolatrous traditions and satanic falsehood being unleashed in Eli-Iwhnurọhna.
Long live Iwhnurọhna Christian
Association
Long live the Good People of Ikwerreland
Long live the Good People of Rivers State
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria
TONY
ENYIA; PhD, MNIM
CHAIRMAN,
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
IWHNURỌHNA CHRISTIAN
ASSOCIATION
Dated: Saturday, 1 October 2011
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