Tag: AVMCC

A priest who had the distinction of serving as the pioneer Dean of the Cathedral Church of Saint Jude, Ebute Meta, will be the next speaker at the quarterly lecture series of Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral, Ikeja GRA in Lagos State
He is the Venerable Titus Oloniluyi Akinwande, a pharmacist by training, who even from adolescence, had evinced an enthusiasm and a zeal for a deep understanding of the word of God.
The Ven Akinwande will be delivering his lecture at the AVMCC auditorium next Sunday, February 12 at 4.00 pm as guest of the cathedral’s elite group, The Torchbearers, in the group’s signature talk series: “God in my life”.
Born on August 20, 1946 at Igbemo-Ekiti, Ven Akinwande had his primary and secondary education in what is today known as Ekiti State. The next phase of his life took him to Lagos in 1968 but this was briefly interrupted by the necessity to prepare himself for a profession, which took him to Ibadan. After brief stints with the Federal Department of Agriculture, Moore Plantation, Ibadan; Federal Plant Quarantine Service of the Lagos Airport, Ikeja, the Nigerian Cocoa Industries Limited, Ikeja, he gained admission, by direct entry, on the scholarship of the Western Nigeria Government to the Ibadan campus of the University of Ife to study pharmacy which had, since 1962, begun under the auspices of the Ibadan branch of the old Nigerian College of Arts, Science & Technology (now defunct).
Graduating with a degree in pharmacy, awarded by the University of Ife (Now Obafemi Awolowo University) in 1972, Ven Akinwande worked as a hospital pharmacist with the Lagos State Ministry of Health, Ikeja, Falemi Pharmacy (1974/75), J.H. Morrison Jones & Sons Limited (1975/80) and SmithKline Beecham Corporation (1980/1990), before quitting to set up (in partnership with his wife Mrs Rachel Akinwande Pharmaceuticals (Nigeria) Limited.
However, in years later, he resigned from the partnership to devote his time and life to full time ministry of the Church of God. During the previous four years, he had secured admission to the Lagos Diocesan Board of Continuing Education for the Clergy (BOCEC), for training to become a priest.
In consequence, he was ordained as a deacon in February, 1986 and 10 months later, he became a priest also by ordination. The Rev Titus Akinwande began his pastoral ministry as Vicar of Saint Pual’s Anglican Church, Kirikiri, Apapa, in February 1986. Thus, within one year of dedicated service, the new priest was able to touch and rescue rotten lives of those who landed themselves in “correctional institutions” which the nation’s security prisons truly were. In a swift recognition of his work, the young priest was appointed as a Diocesan Prisons Chaplain by the Bishop of Lagos.
From January 1991 to January 1996, the Rev Akinwande was moved to Vicar, All Saint’s Anglican Church, Ikosi-Ketu, where, now wholly and totally in the ministry of God, he deployed his talents and skills into nurturing the word of God in a burgeoning congregation.
His next posting was a Vicar, Bishop Adelakun Howells Memorial Church, Surulere, from January, 1996 to November 1999 after which he was appointed Archdeacon of Idioro and posted to Saint Paul’s Church, Idioro from November 1999 to October 2006.
Still in a quest for better outlook and richer performance, in his chosen vocation, the Ven Akinwande obtained admission to Emmanuel College of Theology and Christian Education, Samonda, Ibadan from 1997 to 2001 to formally obtain the prestigious Diploma in Theology, from a college university adjudged as one of Africa’s most respected theological training institutions.
And then, on the inauguration of the Diocese of Lagos Mainland with Saint Jude’s Church, Ebute Meta, becoming a cathedral Church of Saint Jude, Ebute Meta.
On faithfully completion his second three-year term as the Dean of the Cathedral Church of Saint Jude, the Ven Akinwande stepped out of the exalted office and gracefully accepted to serve the four remaining years of his ministry as Archdeacon & Vicar of All Saints’ Anglican Church, Yaba, from June 2013 to July 2016.