WHY COMPROMISE 86YRS CHERUBIM & SERAPHIM DOCTRINES By: Pastor Mike A. AJAYI

(Please don’t comment until you read thoroughly!)
History was made on Tuesday, 12th March, 2019 at C&SMC Surulere District Headquarters as 86yrs old Doctrines on Lenten Season in the C&SMC AYO NI O worldwide was violated. There is a long tradition of the church that shouting of Halleluyah, singing of Songs of Praise, shouting 14 Hallelujahs, Drumming etc is banned during the Lenten season to reflect the mood and soberness of the Lenten season which ushers in the Easter period of Christ death and ascension. This was broken at Surulere District Headquarters on Tuesday 12th March, 2019 as there were Heavy Drumming.
CANON ON LENTEN SEASON SERVICES
As mentioned earlier, there is an 86yrs canon on Lenten season in the C&SMC Worldwide. This canon is meant to regulate and unify church services and members’ penitence during the sober period of the Lenten services.
Biblically, there are no such instructions, command or advice proffered in the Holy writ. Yet, it doesn’t nullify its existence.
Historically, however, this canon was not meant to be a law but an advice meant to consider the physical weakness of members who were fasting then. It was noticed then that Members who had were undertaking the Lent Fast were physically weak during church service so much so that some fainted due to physical expertness of the church services. Those that fainted were revived later after they were given water to re-lubricate their thirsty souls. In the wisdom of the church leadership therefore, it advised that normal church service activities should be stepped down in consideration of those that were physically weak.  
CHURCH DOCTRINES: GOD’S OR MAN?
The advent of Protestantism was premised on the 95 Theses of Martin Luther written in 1517 which propounded that the Bible is the central religious authority and that humans may reach salvation only by faith and not by their deeds. This was encapsulated in Bible “The just shall live by Faith” (Rom. 1:17).  Now, the church canons are laws made by lawful ecclesiastical authority for the whole church and parts thereof to regulate spiritual and secular practices in the church. These canons are not spiritual laws by God or Christ but by man.
For instance Paul the Apostles in his epistles clearly made demarcations between spiritual injunctions by God/Christ and his own. We know this where he said, “This is I, Paul, talking and not the Spirit… (II Cor. 11:17):” This foregrounds the importance of these church laws and their earthliness. And since it is a human contraption, it is subject to change as the human dynamics changes too.
However, the crux of the argument is not the violation of the 86yrs doctrines but on the hypocrisy of the church Elders who have been dogmatic on the supremacy of these liturgical canons.
CHURCH ELDERS’ HYPOCRISY
It could be recalled that certain members of the C&SMC Worldwide have been insistent on the temporality of certain church regulations especially those that are deemed outdated in this modern times/21st century. Even the constitutions of countries were reviewed to reflect the current realities in their countries. These members were insistent in their call that certain doctrines of the church were becoming a burden and deadweight on the church in this 21st century.
Unfortunately, the church Elders were non responsive to their calls. In fact, they see those members as rebels in the church. They affirmed that the church doctrines are a recondite, dogmatic set of doctrines that are unbreakable. They even went as far to affirm the spirituality of these doctrines. It was based on these their apocryphal worldview that some members of the church were reprimanded or outrightly dismissed from the fold. Pastor Gideon Oyedepo of C&S Bible Ministry Lagos, Pastor Raphael Ogunkunle, Shepherd, Seal of Life Model Parish CSMC, Kaduna, Pastor Demola M. Popoola, C&S English Chapel Ilorin, Pastor Festus Babatunde Taiwo, former lecturer at C&S College of Divinity, Surulere, Lagos etc were examples of C&SMC Worldwide members who have been punished and made to suffered for insisting on the temporality of the same doctrines broken on the 12th of March, 2019 during a remembrance service on Late Sp. Ap. Pro. G. O. Fakeye.
THEIR CRIMES
In 2008, Pastor Raphael Ogunkunle, Shepherd, Seal of Life Model Parish CSMC, Kaduna, delivered a lecture on the issues of Practices during Lent. The Church Elders banned him because he spoke against the temporality of the same doctrines that was banned by same Elders at Surulere District.
Furthermore, in the late 1990s, coincidentally the same church Elders of C&SMC Surulere District waged serious war against Pastor Gideon Oyedepo for preaching on same issue (Practices during Lent). The Church Elders turned against him for it. They went as far as to write to all Campus fellowships not to invite or allow Pastor Gideon Oyedepo to minister in their schools because his stance against those man-made doctrines of C&S of which broken on Tuesday. The Letters dated 20th October, 2003 signed by Elder Muyiwa Moses, under the leadership of Apostle Kehinde Showemimo, Deputy Shepherd, Youth Fellowship Surulere District were sent to all Unification Campus Fellowships. (Show letter)
All these mentioned spoke against the supposed supremacy of these C&S doctrines. The church Elders were hypocritical in their judgments and dealings with these aforementioned. The same Elders stood to compromise same standard Suggested then by Pastor Gideon O. Oyedepo, Pastor Demola M. Popoola, Pastor Festus Babatunde Taiwo and Pastor Raphael Ogunkunle and  were been punished and made to suffer for preaching the truth.
It tasks the imagination therefore to assume what is going to happen on Sunday (Lenten Service) at same Surulere District after the drumming and Hallelujahs on Tuesday? As usual, it is know that the church Elders will prevaricate and they will quickly come up with something else to “deceive” the congregation.
CONCLUSION
The unnecessary burdening of the church of God with ossified doctrines and deadweight practices cannot edify the church. Some of these doctrines cannot stand the realities of the 21st century. This is not a swipe at the church of God but at the hypocrisy of the church Elders who are duplicitous in their enforcement of the church doctrines.
We can argue that the church would have adhered to the way we observed Lenten period if the doctrines on the Lenten period is supreme. We can recall that the Pope recently observed the Mideast laws when he visited the Middle East recently. We want a church that God can be proud of; we don’t want a church where there are different rules or doctrines for different people. 
Also, we want the church Elders to allow the people to worship God. They should not burden the people with human advises masqueraded as God’s laws. All those doctrines that are hindrances to the people of God should be abolished. Majority of these doctrines were made due to the peculiarities of those times. The realities nowadays are quite different.
May God uphold His Church. (Amen)
Selah.