The girl in the trance: how Cherubim and Seraphim began in Lagos in 1925

A teenage girl had been in a trance for days. In June 1925, the family of Christiana Abiodun Akinsowon in Lagos called for a travelling preacher known for prayer and healing, Moses Orimolade Tunolase. When she recovered, the two began holding prayer meetings together. Those meetings grew into the Cherubim and Seraphim, one of the best-known African independent churches.

Orimolade and Abiodun

Orimolade came from Ikare in what is now Ondo State. Accounts describe him as disabled from birth and as an itinerant preacher who travelled widely, praying for the sick. He was known for his asceticism and for his deep reliance on prayer. Christiana Abiodun Akinsowon was a teenager when the events of 1925 happened. After her recovery, she became the band’s first visioner, a person believed to receive visions from God. She led evangelistic tours from Lagos westward and became one of the most prominent women in Nigerian Christianity.

From band to church

The group began as a prayer band. In September 1925 it took the name Seraph Band, and “Cherubim” was added in 1926. Members wore white garments, prayed with great intensity and believed in visions, healing and the ministry of angels.

The Cherubim and Seraphim belongs to the Aladura movement, from a Yoruba word meaning “people of prayer”. Aladura churches emerged in western Nigeria in the early twentieth century as Africans sought forms of Christianity that took prayer, healing and spiritual experience seriously.

The schism

In 1929, the movement split. Abiodun formed the Cherubim and Seraphim Society, and Orimolade led the Eternal Sacred Order. The dispute centred partly on whether Abiodun should be recognised as a co-founder. Further divisions followed, and today there are many Cherubim and Seraphim groups. Orimolade died in 1933. Abiodun, later known as Captain Abiodun Emanuel, lived until 1994 and remained a leading figure.

Worship and legacy

Cherubim and Seraphim worship is known for white robes, bare feet in church, drumming, singing and long prayer sessions. Members often go to hills or beaches to pray. The church has spread across Nigeria and to Ghana, Benin and the diaspora. The Cherubim and Seraphim is a reminder that African Christianity has never been a story of missionaries alone. A disabled preacher and a teenage girl started a movement in Lagos that is now a century old. In 2025, members marked a hundred years since the prayer meetings began.