Philippine Daily Inquirer

News, regions, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, St. Anne parish church

PIDDIG, Ilocos NorteThe 204-year-old St. Anne parish church in Piddig town in Ilocos Norte province was decommissioned on Sunday after engineering experts from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) declared the church unfit for occupancy.

Laoag Bishop Renato Mayugba officiated the last Mass in the church and led the closure rites on Sunday.

Mayugba said there was no need to wait for another earthquake, like the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that toppled old churches in Bohol province last year, before closing the church that had been a witness to the growth of faith among Piddigueos and the towns neighboring communities.

But the bishop said he was hoping that the churchs closure would be temporary as he asked parishioners to pray and work together for its possible restoration.

On Sunday, hundreds of churchgoers from Piddig and its neighboring towns attended the last Mass at the church before its official decommissioning at 8:30 a.m.

Fr. Joey Ranjo, spokesperson of the Diocese of Laoag, said the church would remain closed even for other church rites, like baptism, weddings and burial.

Ranjo said the old building would be kept for its historical value but be declared off limits.

Piddig residents said the church would remain a part of their community because the structure was a witness to every Catholics ritefrom birth to deathin this town.

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After 204 yrs, Ilocos town church shuts doors for good

By Adegbenro Adebanjo

The founder of The Synagogue Church of all Nations, Temitope Joshua,popularly known as T.B. Joshua, has described the victims of last Friday's building collapse in the church as "martyrs of the Kingdom of God."

In an official statement issued by the church, Wednesday, Mr. Joshua also denied claims that the church had not cooperated with government agencies during search and rescue operations.

"Since the day of this incident, The Synagogue Church of All Nations, its members and partners, have worked in collaboration with the Nigerian, South African and other nations' authorities to ensure that survivors are rescued, attended to with the best medical treatment, cared for in the most humane and hospitable manner and reunited with their families, while those who passed on- martyrs of the Kingdom of God - are retrieved, identified and treated respectfully," Mr. Joshua said.

"Amongst those we are working hand-in-hand with are: The Federal Government of Nigeria, the Government of the Republic of South Africa, Lagos State Government, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), the Lagos State Ministry of Health - doctors and nurses, the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), the Red Cross, the Nigeria Police Force and various Non-governmental and humanitarian organizations and construction and engineering corporations."

A five-storey building inside the church's premises at Ikotun, Lagos, collapsed last Friday as three additional floors were being added to the original two-storey structure.

The Lagos State government has said that it is investigating whether the church obtained building approval before it began the construction.

As at Wednesday night, the death toll had risen to 80 dead and 131 rescued, according to the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA.

On Tuesday, President Jacob Zuma of South Africa announced that 67 South Africans perished in the building collapse. The South African authorities also cited the church's non-cooperation with its officials as one of their greatest challenges.

While Mr. Joshua did not address the claims on whether or not the church obtained government approval for the collapsed building, he emphasised that the church had "provided assistance" to rescue agencies.

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Nigeria: Church Collapse Dead Are 'Martyrs' - TB Joshua

Scene of the collapsed buiding | credits: File photo

THE collapse on Friday of a six-storey building at Synagogue Church of All Nations in Ikotun, Lagos, was a triple tragedy. Not only were lives and property destroyed, it also demonstrated the failure of state institutions to protect citizens by simple adherence to rules. Worse, it exposed the prevailing culture of impunity as demonstrated in the bizarre reaction of church officials.

The tragedy was only the latest in frequent building collapses in the country. According to press reports, the six-storey building suddenly caved in, burying hundreds of persons in the rubble. Conflicting accounts say the four upper floors were still under construction and that neighbours had noticed it sway in recent times, claims that can only be established by a thorough investigation.

But the human cost is undeniable and its true extent is still unfolding. Latest figures by the National Emergency Management Agency indicate that 70 corpses, many of them foreigners and mostly women, had been recovered by Wednesday, while 131 had been rescued alive, including a 45-year-old woman who survived after being trapped four days under the rubble.

The Lagos State government cannot escape censure for this tragedy. For a state that has suffered numerous building collapses in recent years, the Synagogue tragedy, except investigations uncover deliberate sabotage, is a ringing indictment of the inadequacy of its building control and monitoring enforcement. It calls into question its capacity to ensure strict compliance with its building codes and the efficiency of its agencies to monitor and prevent such disasters. The building was being built in full public view at the densely populated Ikotun area of the city and effective monitoring by physical planning and building control officials ought to have noticed and acted accordingly.

Unless they change their narratives, the General Manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency, Abimbola Animashaun, and the officials of Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, have told reporters that the church did not have approval to add three floors to the original two-storey building, a grave infraction. We have investigated and found that they (SCOAN) had no approval for the additional structures, Animashaun told reporters at the scene. The state Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Planning, Olutoyin Ayinde, added, We have no proof that the church had permit to add to the existing structure. LSBCA and the Council of Registered Engineers have commenced investigations but, already, preliminary findings show that the church may have tough questions to answer. Requests to SCOAN to show the approvals have not been met.

The behaviour of the church officials has been bizarre and sickening. Reports say that, rather than quickly mobilise help, church members were hostile to rescuers and indeed initially prevented neighbours and officials from fully securing the disaster site. Public Relations Officer of the National Emergency Management Agency, Ibrahim Farinloye, said, The church members have been very aggressive and hostile to us; they attacked us and we had to withdraw our services. I was attacked; officials of LSBCA and the general manager of LASEMA were also attacked There were also reports of attacks on journalists and smashing of cameras.

Confronted with such a tragedy, even the conduct of the head of the church, Temitope Joshua, was not initially helpful. First, he and his members sought to downplay the number of dead, giving the figures as only three, and later, as the bodies piled up, less than 10, as if the death of even one person is acceptable in the face of suspicions that the church might have been careless. South Africa alone has since lamented that it lost 67 of its nationals in the disaster.

Joshua added a fresh twist by showing a video clip of an aircraft purportedly hovering over the building shortly before its collapse and alleged sabotage and threats against the church and his person. Although this sounds rather diversionary, investigators should examine all angles to unravel the cause or causes of the collapse and with a firm resolve to punish all those found culpable, to prevent the frequent collapses.

Experts say buildings collapse due to use of low quality building materials, incompetent artisans, weak supervision, non-compliance with specifications/standards, poor design, poor maintenance and weak foundations. More crucially, corruption and laxity at state and local levels allow builders to erect structurally weak buildings that may eventually end up collapsing when subjected to natural or man-made stress.

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The Synagogue building collapse

Sixty-seven South Africans have been killed and scores injured in the collapse of a building in the compound of a Lagos Pentecostal church last week, South Africa's President Jacob Zuma said.

"This is a particularly difficult time for South Africa. Not in the recent history of our country have we had this large number of our people die in one incident outside the country," Zuma said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The whole nation shares the pain of the mothers, fathers, daughters and sons who have lost their loved ones."

The guest house, under construction in the compound belonging to the Synagogue Church of All Nations, headed by "Prophet" T B Joshua, collapsed on Friday while three extra stories were being added to its existing two floors.

Local emergency services put the total number killed in the collapse in the Ikotun neighbourhood of Lagos at 61 on Tuesday.

There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy in the numbers.

Meanwhile South Africans expressed their shock and outrage over social media, asking government officials why it had taken so long for the details to emerge.

Clayson Monyela, South Africa's head of Public Diplomacy, said over twitter that numbers took time to emerge because the team in Nigeria were not getting the cooperation they needed.

Monyela also said the death toll could rise.

South African Department of International Relations spokesman Nelson Kgwete said in a statement on Monday that "at least five South African church tour groups were at the Synagogue at the time of the collapse".

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S Africans killed in Nigeria church collapse

- Hillsview Community Church in Damascus celebrates 100 years

In the late 1800s, a group of families with Swedish ancestry arrived in a heavily wooded area known as the Damascus community.

Led by pioneer men named Tillstrom, Schedeen and Gran, they founded and erected a house of worship that became not only the cornerstone of their faith but a comforting and unifying presence in their adopted homeland.

Today, 100 years later, Hillsview Community Church stands as a legacy to its original founders. It has maintained a ministry that feeds the souls of not only its members, but the surrounding community as well.

It has been said that We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, said Pastor Michael Conrad. The privileges, structure and ministries that we enjoy today are because of those faithful church goers who listened to the call of the Lord. When you are a pastor of a 100-year-old church, you know that you have a responsibility to sustain as well as rejuvenate the ministry that was initiated by those who came before you.

Hillsview is a member of the Evangelical Mission Covenant Church of America, a Christian denomination born from a splinter within the Lutheran Church during the mid-1880s. Swedish immigrants felt the Lutherans were straying from basic teachings of the Bible and founded their own church, the Swedish Mission Friends, in the Midwest in 1885.

The group of Swedish immigrants who arrived in the Damascus area in the late 1880s came from communities where organized church work was common. The fertile lands here may have been favorable to farming, but not so much for travel to neighboring churches for worship services.

They found that the condition of the roads was such that in the winter, the mud sometimes reached the hubs of their buggies, church historical records say. And in the summer, they had to cope with dust. These conditions restricted their visiting other churches, hence they began meeting weekly in various homes in the community.

But the ever-present need for a sanctuary of their own led a group of 22 settlers to form the Mission Church of Damascus in 1914. Among those who penned their names in the churchs original ledger as charter members were pioneers Ernest Schedeen and Viola Tillstrom. Largely credited as the founding father of the church is Olaf Gran, whose descendants are still active participants of the church. Construction on the Mission Church of Damascus began in the summer of 1914. It was built entirely with volunteer labor and on land donated by church member Lewis Rodlun. Dedication services were held Aug. 8, 1915.

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A nod to the past

A celebration honoring Hillsview Community Churchs first 100 years will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20. The public is welcome to attend the celebration that will include music, memories, food and refreshments.

Hillsview Community Church was one of the first churches in the Boring/Damascus community. Originally started in 1914 by Swedish immigrants, many current Hillsview members are descendents of these founders.

Though services were originally held in Swedish, said current Pastor Michael Conrad, Hillsview has always spoken the language of Christs love to our community.

Hillsviews commitment to the youth of Damascus has been an important part of its legacy through special events such as Vacation Bible schools, community carnivals, Bairds Puppet Shows and chalk drawings. In 1966, a preschool and a kindergarten was opened to the public, one of the first in the area, and currently a Montessori Preschool operates on the church premises.

The church also partners with Snow Cap, an organization that provides food, clothing, advocacy and other services to the poor, and Angel Tree, a prison ministry that reaches out to the children of inmates and their families during the Christmas season.

In continuation of its tradition worldwide, Hillsview Community Church is currently supporting missionary work in Ecuador, China and other parts of Asia. It also has partnered with other churches in Damascus over the years, holding joint services on special occasions and co-sponsoring events such as The Sports Camp, a program that was held at Hillsview this summer and attracted more than 150 children.

The original church building was just west of the current church, built in the late 1970s, when much of the construction was donated by the volunteer labor of church members. Some of the stained-glass windows and the church bell from the original church were installed at the present church.

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Church celebrates century of ministry

LAGOS, Nigeria, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- A Christian church in Lagos, Nigeria, collapsed Friday, killing 44 people.

A two-story guesthouse at The Synagogue, Church of All Nations was undergoing a construction project to add three more levels to the building when it collapsed, Ibrahim Farinloye, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, told CNN.

About 130 people were pulled alive from the rubble of the fallen building.

The rescue of trapped people was hampered by church members who refused to allow emergency workers access to the site.

"The church members were very aggressive and tried attacking emergency responders," Farinloye said.

The church is run by televangelist T.B. Joshua, who is called The Prophet.

2014 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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Nigerian church collapses killing 44

Stacy Squires/FAIRFAX NZ

BEALEY AVE BEACON: The reflective copper cladding is expected to weather over the next few months.

The rebuilt Knox Church will be open in time for Christmas services this year.

The 110-year-old church on the corner of Bealey Ave and Victoria St was badly damaged in the September 2010 quake.

What little remained standing was hit hard again in February 2011, and the Gothic revival-style building was subsequently demolished.

Parish rebuild project manager Ron Keating said the structure would be complete by the end of October.

The internal fitout was expected to take about a month, so ''if everything goes well it will be occupied by the end of November''.

Keating said the rebuild had been ''quite a long process''.

Construction started in August last year.

''We've just marked the fourth anniversary of the September earthquake . . . so it's wonderful that we're now so well into the rebuild.

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Church set to reopen for Christmas

By Evelyn Usman, Olasunkanmi Akoni

At least 17 yet to be identified bodies were, yesterday, recovered from the rubbles of the collapsed six-storey building under construction in Synagogue of All Nations Church, Ikotun-Egbe, Lagos, while 123 victims were rescued.

Among the survivors was said to be a three-year-old girl who reportedly escaped without injury.

In the meantime, Lagos State government said it had commenced investigation into the immediate and remote cause(s) of the collapse with the aim of preventing future occurrence as well as identifying any violation of the state's building regulatory law.

The site of the collapsed building at the Synagogue Church, Ikotun-Egbe, Lagos.

Tragedy struck on Friday when the building, under construction at the Pastor T.B. Joshua-led Synagogue Church of All Nations, collapsed while labourers were working at the site.

Joshua, yesterday, attributed the cause of the building collapse to terror attack, citing a plane that allegedly hovered in the sky around the building before the incident.

The General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, who confirmed the number of the dead and the injured, added that survivors were receiving treatment in government hospitals.

According to the LASEMA boss, the rescued victims, comprising of men and women, including young ones, sustained severe injuries and many of them lying critically ill in hospital.

Late yesterday, Osanyintolu said rescue operation was almost completed as the rubbles had been brought to ground zero level, indicating there could be no more bodies trapped in the debris. "We are on top of the situation".

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Nigeria: Synagogue - 17 Confirmed Dead, 123 Critically Injured

By Chiemelie Ezeobi and Chinaze Megbolu

Disaster struck yesterday at the headquarters of the popular pastor TB Joshua's Synagogue of All Nation Church in Ikotun, a Lagos suburb when a six-storey building under re-construction in the premises collapsed at about 1pm, killing 15 members.

Located behind the main structure, the collapsed building was identified as the Guest House section of the sprawling compound housing the SCOAN headquarters.

According to reports, the structure was already in existence before the church decided to add two more floors to it, an action emergency responders blamed for the collapse of the entire building. According to an eyewitness, re-construction was on going in the building situated near the church's main auditorium when a thunderous explosion was heard, thus burying the construction workers, said to be about 65 underneath its rubbles.

According to the coordinator of Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG), Mrs. Adekemi Ogusaga the collapsed building was already in use with an eatery on the first floor while the remaining five floors served as guest house.

Ogusaga, who coordinates BCPG's activities in Igando/Ikotun areas said: "We suspect they want to cover up the whole thing, particularly when nobody could get pass the gate and high fence. A policeman came to where I was and asked for the owner of the vehicle and I said it was mine and he asked me to move."

As at press time, several other members and construction workers were still buried under the rubbles of the building while rescue workers were battling to save them.

Those rescued, with varying degrees of injuries are recuperating at Isolo and Gbagada General hospitals. 18 persons including three children have so far been rescued.

Sources said those still trapped under the debris included foreigners, the kitchen staff and some of the construction workers.

It was gathered that some of the victims who were rushed to nearby hospitals were rejected because of the fear of the Ebola Virus Disease. As a result, they were re-directed to both the Isolo and Gbagada General hospitals.

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Nigeria: Many Feared Dead After Church Collapses