Brotherhood of the Cross and Star

Brotherhood of the Cross and Star (BCS) is a religious organisation founded in 1956 by Olumba Olumba in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. It differs from mainstream Christianity in that it maintains that BCS is not a church but the new Kingdom of God on Earth and that its founder, Olumba Olumba Obu, is the Holy Spirit personified, the God of all creation; while his eldest son, Olumba Olumba Jr., is the returned Jesus Christ. BCS incorporates into Christian teaching ideas of Incarnation, Decarnation, reincarnation and the alleged connection of BCS and African Traditional Religion is erroneous since BCS practices, such as wearing white garments, targets a global monoculture of good over evil and the brotherhood of man. BCS highlights that humanity as finite entities emerge from one infinite being (Rowe, 1998), hence the term "Brotherhood" -- depicting "the Unity of God and His creation." Furthermore Leader Olumba Olumba Obu in one of his Gospels asserts "we are all one in spirit"(Everlasting Gospel Vol 2, pp. 252-256). Another reason BCS should not be associated with African traditional religion is because vegetarianism is a divine culture in BCS. In contrast, African conventional religion strives for the killing of animals. Some world religions, such as Buddhism, practice vegetarianism as a way of life, which befits correlation with BCS doctrines. Also, BCS indulges in fasting as a way of life: there are 72 hours of dry fasting thrice a year, and there is also 6 am to 6 pm fasting every Thursday. African traditional religions have no such doctrine but rather glorify epicureanism.

Bethel in Elephant and Castle, London

BCS extols the mortification of the flesh for the upliftment of the spirit. Those are timeless doctrines signaling the presence of an infinite entity that leads the path of truth (Ugochukwu, 2016; Uzoma, 2021; Ayinde et al., 2018). The term "Cross" in the acronym BCS depicts that the organization's foundation is our Lord Jesus Christ. The term star depicts the salvation offered free by the sacrifice Christ enacted to liberate humankind from the bondage of sin and suffering (represented by the cross). In that view, BCS is a global phenomenon with a worldview that goes beyond the myopic perspective of local, indigenous religion..[1] In the 1990s it was a millenarian religion. BCS promotes the presence of God in all creation the consciousness of which would disband segregation and hatred. BCS delineates that it is lack of such awareness that causes strife, war and hardship globally. Leader Olumba Olumba Obu in his gospel emphasises that Evil on earth is caused by segregation and discrimination; lack of divine love, of creation towards fellow creation, all of which signals a deficiency of the accurate knowledge of truth. Nonetheless, reiterated Leader Olumba, no man can heal this global injury, but the landlord of the Universe who is here to provide a panacea to the global quagmire (Everlasting Gospel Vol 11).