The Cherubim and Seraphim Church (C&S) is a Pente-Charismatic church. It is probably the oldest of the African Instituted Churches in Nigeria. This movement within Christianity places special emphasis on the direct personal experience of God through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as shown in the Biblical account of the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2). The Holy Spirit, through a man called Moses Orimolade (who began preaching after he had been dramatically healed from illness), instituted it.
The ministry of Orimolade witnessed miracles, signs and wonders at a time of great hardship and insecurity for the people (beginning of 20th century). The Church was first named the Seraphim Society on the 9th of September, 1925 and later in May 1927, the Cherubim was added, thereby called the Cherubim and Seraphim.
Moses Orimolade would later travel the length of Nigeria, where in spite of segregation, rejection and ridicule preached the Word with power, healed the sick and wrought miracles, which sparked major Revivals. These revivals were prime newsworthy outpourings of the Holy Ghost in that part of the world. These attracted people from all around the world. Consequently, the coverage these revivals and miracles received gave close attention to the movement and helped fuel its growth.
God wrought special miracles by the hands of Orimolade. However, there was early divergence as regards his ministry. This stems from the fact that the Church institute by God through Orimolade believed in the power of divine healing, prophecy and visions that were consistent with the early church (but was not common with the missionary churches that came to Africa then). Later on, Christians from mainline churches in Nigeria, and other parts of the world began to accept the teaching that the baptism of the Holy Spirit (which is manifested through prophecy, visions, and divine healing to mention but a few) is available for Christians today. One feature of the movement is a total reliance on God, a trust in Jesus and the Holy Spirit and not in an organization or church.
More recently much effort is deployed to systematize the theology of the Church and its understanding of the faith. The Church has seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation, penitence, Eucharist, marriage, ordination and anointing or unction. The Cherubim and Seraphim operate the “Fivefold ministries”: Apostleship, Evangelism, Pastoral, Prophetic, and Teaching ministries.
