New Methodist Church prelate emerges today

INTENSE intercessory prayers, horse trading and highwire politicking which began some weeks ago will today dovetail into the election of a new prelate who will pilot the affairs of the  Methodist Church Nigeria for the next five years.
The polls will take place at the Williams Memorial Methodist Cathedral, Ebute-Metta, Lagos Central Diocese of the church with the outgoing prelate, Most Rev. Sunday Ola-tunji Amos Makinde who was inaugurated on November 12, 2006 at Trinity Methodist Church, Tinubu, Lagos, presiding.
Sources close to the church told our reporter yesterday that there will be two services today; the first one starting at about 8.00 a.m. and the second which is the main event of the day, when the election is expected to hold, will be an exclusive affair with only invited guests in attendance.
The morning service which may drag till around midday will be headlined by the ordination of some persons as priests. Our source said 145 persons would be elected priests while eight members of the church will be elevated to the rank of deaconnesses. That service will be followed by a series of very crucial meetings before the conclave, otherwise known as the Electoral College, when all non-members are expected to vacate the auditorium.
Unlike the Catholic Church Conclave, there will not be smokes—black or white—to indicate successful election but none of the members of the Electoral College would leave the venue until a new prelate who will take the church to a new height emerges.
Feelers reaching our desk during the week suggest that a number of persons are gunning for the coveted post of prelate but the three front-liners who are above the age of 60 with intimidating credentials remain the candidates to beat.
They include the Archbishop of Umuahia, Most Rev. Sunday Ikechukwu Agwu. Born on December 1, 1952, he joined the church in 1974 and was commissioned in 1982.
The second is the Archbishop of Ibadan, Most Rev. Michael Kehinde Stephen who was born on April 8, 1949. He joined the church in 1971 and was commissioned in 1974. Our source says that Stephen served as Conference Secretary for about 10 years under the Prelate Emeritus Sunday Mbang.
The third front runner is the Archbishop of Enugu, Most Rev. Samuel C.K. Uche. Born on January 29, 1953, he joined the mission in 1976 and was commissioned in 1979.
Whoever emerges prelate at the 44th special conference of the church later this evening shall be installed on October 10 as the ecclesiastical, priestly, pastoral head of the church. He shall exercise pastoral and spiritual oversight over the whole church and to this end, he is expected to visit archdioceses and dioceses and such circuit in each diocese as time and opportunity allow.
Whoever emerges today will determine the choice of the next Secretary to the Conference in accordance with an unwritten zoning formula which says that the two most coveted positions in the church should be rotated between the South West and the South East where the church has firm root.