The two Vice Presidents of Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church (Winners Chapel) will retire next after serving for over four and three decades.
Multiple sources in the church, including a pastor in the church, who requested anonymity due to a lack of authorisation to speak to the press, confirmed the planned retirement of Bishops David Abioye and Thomas Aremu to The PUNCH on Thursday.
According to the sources, the retirement aligned with Winners Chapel’s operational manual, The Mandate, which recently revised the retirement age from 60 to 55.
A member who attends the headquarters church in Ota, Ogun State, said, “We have heard that Bishop Abioye and the other Bishop Aremu in Ibadan will leave during the Bishop Oyedepo birthday celebration. That is the new law in the church; only Bishop Oyedepo can remain in his position for life. One of the two bishops has even been considering leaving for a while, so this is not news to some of us in the church.”
Efforts by our correspondent to verify the development with the church’s media officials were unsuccessful, as they did not answer calls or respond to messages sent via WhatsApp.
Bishop Abioye is currently 63, while Bishop Aremu is 67.
Only the church’s founder will be allowed to serve beyond this new age limit, with future leaders permitted to serve one or two terms of seven years each, subject to the Board of Trustees’ approval.
According to Church Times, valedictory services will be held for the two Bishops at their respective churches.
Bishop Abioye’s farewell service is set for Friday, October 18, 2024, in Durumi, Abuja, while Bishop Aremu’s service will take place at LFC Basorun in Ibadan, Oyo State, on Tuesday, October 15, 2024.
Bishop Abioye, currently the Senior Pastor of Living Faith Church, Goshen City, Abuja, first met Bishop David Oyedepo in 1979.
He led one of the church’s five pioneer branches in 1987 and was consecrated in 1993 at the age of 32.
Bishop Aremu, who transitioned to full-time ministry after a successful accounting career, was one of the seven bishops consecrated in November 1999 at Garden of Faith, Kaduna.