Citadel of Celestines Cathedral, Walkden

Walkden’s former Primitive Methodist Chapel was taken over by a rather peculiar denomination a few years ago. If Primitive Methodism was known for its zeal and simplicity and contemporary Methodism for its blandness and vapidity, the West African Celestial Church of Christ’s purchase and transformation of their former premises into the Citadel of Celestines Cathedral (Salford Parish) could not offer greater contrast. Its worshippers must wear only one single garment made of white material and they forbid menstruating women from entering the building. Although several other peculiar practices exist, I could not detect anything that was strictly heterodox, though it is somewhere I am unlikely to attend. Their sign describes it as:

"a place where God reigns supreme and a family with an avalanche of love”.

Perhaps ‘avalanche’ appeared to be a more suitable word when translating from Hausa or Yoruba, but I otherwise thought it a curious choice. Such powerful events have a habit of sweeping us away and leaving a trail of destruction. Yet there is a sense in which I find God’s love so overwhelming: that He should choose to love such a one, so powerfully and demonstrably, is, quite frankly, staggering. So perhaps avalanche was not so inappropriate a word, after all.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

A. D.