A Pentecostal event in Tallaght on Saturday promised to heal depression, marital problems and witchcraft attacks
JUST BEFORE five o'clock, the clamour rose to a higher pitch, and a fervent two-hour prelude gave way to the main event. The saxophonists fell silent and the keyboards halted their loops, but the crowd took up the beat and the hall continued to thump.
All eyes were on the man in the maroon suit. Women stood in the aisles, their arms aloft, children in scarves cleaving to their backs. Grown men clasped their eyes shut and clapped, swayed, sang.
And then he came on, a purposeful stride bringing him past the flowers and the purple balloons to the glass lectern that gave a view over up to 1,500 of his followers. The keyboards struck up again, and a big screen beamed his face to the stands running along three sides of the arena. The place had all the corralled chaos of a terrace cheering a late goal.
This was the biggest event on the calendar for members of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM) in Ireland. Their general overseer, Dr Daniel K Olukoya, had come from Nigeria for a two-day programme promising "ultimate deliverance" at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght. Even the impossible acoustics couldn't deter the faithful: they knew every word before he had spoken. "I want to pray for Ireland. . ." he began.
"It only happens once a year," explained Cynthia Iso, who had travelled from Dundalk with her children Koko (5) and Akamba (2). "Our general overseer lives in Nigeria and we see him only once in a while, so I wanted to come along. When he prays for you, maybe you get healed. If you have a problem, he can solve it. God is in him."
Among the features of a two-day schedule were "healing and deliverance" from "depression, marital frustration, witchcraft attacks, sickness and substance abuse", and according to Joshua Oluborode, a Dundalk-based pastor, many of those who came to the annual event sought solace from physical or spiritual pain.
"People have recorded tremendous breakthroughs - tremendous breakthroughs," he said gravely. "I have had cases where people have holes in their heart. They drink the oil, they go back to hospital for tests and the report is such that there is no hole."
Of the references to witchcraft, he says: "Witches are not out to do anyone any good. That is a basic understanding. Anyone who is possessed of demons coming here, being prayed for by the general overseer or any anointed man of God, is delivered of such possession." And how does witchcraft manifest itself? "There are some people who may have been having failures in everything they do. Nothing is moving in their life. After the programme, they go out to do what they have done before, and they begin to have success."
The weekend is about "singing praises, worshipping God, appreciating God", says Itohan Ogieriakhi. "If someone is going astray, through their prayer they help that person. If someone is sick, they pray and it helps."
Stories abounded of blind men who recovered their sight and of others who regained the capacity to walk. A magazine in reception related the testimony of MFM members in Ireland: stories of babies born to women whose doctors told them it could never happen, and, more mundanely, of residence permits approved.
Abiola Popoola travelled from London for the weekend event. "I don't go to hospital. I have received the gift of faith. Even if I take medicine, it doesn't work for me." But others would disagree. "I believe God has given doctors the wisdom and the grace to help speed up your healing," offered a Nigerian man.
Pastor Gabriel Eziashi from London pointed out that this year's crusade happened to mark MFM's 10th anniversary in Ireland, and he saw a certain historical circularity in the process it represents: "You Irish came to Africa to bring us the gospel. Here we are just bringing it back."
Pentecostals: rapid growth
Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries is a Pentecostal Christian church founded in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1989. The evangelical group describes itself as committed to "the revival of Apostolic signs, Holy Ghost fireworks and the unlimited demonstration of the power of God to deliver to the uttermost".
Its first Irish church opened in Dublin in 1998, and there are now 15 branches across the country, including Cork, Galway, Waterford, Enniscorthy and Longford. In 2003, the Irish Council of Churches estimated the number of African immigrants in what it called "Black Majority Churches" to be more than 10,000. A year later the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Dr Ivan McKay, put the number at 30,000.