18/08/2025
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY AYOKUNLE ADEDEJI, TC, DP, PRESIDENT OF ANGLICAN YOUTH FELLOWSHIP NIGERIA, OWO DIOCESAN COUNCIL & THE ONDO PROVINCIAL COUNCIL AT THE 41ST ANNUAL DIOCESAN BIBLE STUDY CONFERENCE OF OWO DIOCESE.
PROTOCOL:
My Lord, Your Lordship, Rt Revd Dr Stephen AYODEJI FAGBEMI FICT, FAT (the Diocesan Bishop), and Mama Owo, Mrs. EBUNOLUWA FAGBEMI (President of the women's organization)
Royal Fathers,
The Dean of Our Cathedral, The Ven. Dr. Bunmi Aladegbami,
The Director, Youth Directorate, Ven Seth Akinro
The Youth Chaplain, The Revd Canon Wale Olakunori
The Archdeaconry, Chaplain's,
All Presidents & Secretaries Present,
Special Guest of Honor,
Invited Guest,
Ladies and gentlemen.
ADORATION:
We return all glory back to God for his banner of love.
All adoration and thanksgiving to our almighty God for granting us yet another privilege to witness this year conference which is the 41st Annual Diocesan Bible study conference of Anglican Youth Fellowship Nigeria, Owo Diocesan Council.
Our God's love has never changed; he has continued to show his power in our midst, and from year to year, his blessings are unquantified.
Lyrics: We give you all the glory, we give you honor, we give you all the glory, we give you honor.
Gbogbo Aye waa riri, waaa riri, niwaju oruko eee, bee se tobi tooo, Jesu.
May his grace continually be sufficient for us.
At this juncture, we are again privileged by his mercy to joyfully welcome all of you to the 41st Annual Bible Study Conference of our dynamic Diocese, and we hereby declare the conference open in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
OUR STEWARDSHIP:
3 years ago, we took the baton to steer the affairs of our Diocesan council. Having been elected by all council members, we were inaugurated by His Lordship Rt Revd Stephen Ayodeji Fagbemi FICT, FAT, at a solemn service at this Cathedral church of St. Andrew Imola Owo held January 15, 2023, an unforgettable day in history, and we were empowered to kick Start from where our predecessor stopped.
The journey is though and rough, but God in his infinite mercy has been sustaining us.
In the interest of reshaping our Diocesan Council, our first assignment was to write off debts of the Owo Diocesan Council at the National Council, Jepc 1 Council, and Ondo Provincial Council.
We can't but appreciate different people who have come to our aid at different times in piloting the affairs of the fellowship; we say thank you.
Our Bishop and his wife have continually given us time-to-time support financially and morally, and we are grateful.
Owo Diocesan Council is now a star diocese in AYF Nigeria, and we are proud of this feat.
We pray we will never go backward.
LEADERSHIP:
We are glad to inform you that in the leadership position in AYF Nigeria, Owo Diocese is well represented.
You will recall, we announced to you at last year's conference that your president was elected as the vice president of Joint Ecclesiastical Provincial Council 1, comprising the good people of Edo, Delta, and the whole of southwestern Nigeria, at the National Executive Council Meeting/Election into National Office and JEPC1 held at St. Andrew Church DCC Nkwo, Nnewi Diocese, Anambra State, between May 24 and 26, 2024. That position(Vice President JEPC1) your President Ayokunle Adedeji has relinquished it willingly on the premises of our election as the President of Ondo Provincial Council, comprising Ondo State and Ekiti State, affirming that we are the OSHOKO EKITI and SHOKO AKOKO, including Ondo, Akure, and so on.
We are glad for this new assignment committed to us to champion the course of our fellowship in our provincial council, and we are striving.
We love to say a big thank you to the Lord Bishop Rt. Revd Dr Stephen Fagbemi FICT, FAT, for always sending us to attend all youth programs and ensuring we are sponsored. This synergy of progress between us and our Bishop was noticed by all other diocesan councils in the Ondo Provincial Council and that was seen to have trusted us with the responsibility to pilot the Ondo Provincial Council. My Lord, we are hopeful, and it is our daily prayer that almighty God will take you higher and that he continue to bless your episcopacy in the Diocese of Owo. Agbara ajinde a ma je fun yin.
40TH ANNUAL BIBLE STUDY CONFERENCE:
We bless the name of our God who never fails for his mercy over us, and we must appreciate the good people of Iyere Archdeaconry for hosting our conference last year, which comes with our 40th anniversary in August 2024.
Iyere archdeaconry hosted our conference for the first time after being carved out from Ipele, and it was a great and successful conference.
There was yet a numerical increase against 2023, which was 441 delegates against Iyere's 511 delegates. Youths across the diocese gathered at St. John Anglican Church Iyere for a 3-day conference with the theme STAND FIRM AND TAKE CHARGE. We sincerely want to thank our fathers and mothers in God The Ven E.A.O. Omotade & Mama Omotade, for their outstanding leadership. Baba and Mama were up and doing for the success of the conference; we say thank you and pray almighty God bless them more for us in Jesus' name. The then Archdeaconry Chaplain and his wife, Revd Clement Orideboye, and the President, Bro. Sogo Gabriel, all amazed us, as they ran around not minding their positions to give us the best. May heaven uplift you all. Other churches in the Iyere archdeaconry and priests, we say thank you, and God will bless you more and more. Ese pupo
May God bless and keep you in his ministry, and you all will not fail God.
The 40th Anniversary was remarkable as we kicked it off with a powerful Praise Night, and we were all thrilled by the trio of Our Own Mr. Olakunle Oladimeji (the Beat Deal Saxifire), our guest artist Ambassador Bolanle Alaba Lebson, and my darling sister Mrs. Oluwatoyin Ojagbemi (the Mabaja Crooner). We say a big thanks to them once again. Their coming was exceptional, and the experience will remain indelible. May God shower his blessing upon them and take them around the world for his glory.
We will continue to have this kind of caliber of gospel musician in our midst yearly by God's grace and by ensuring out of our artists is a member of our Diocesan youth.
This year we have our own who thrilled us yesterday mightily at our praise concert: Mr. Femi Bayode, a.k.a. FM Bay from Uso/Emure Ile, and our brother Riches Band. They both raised our hope that our help is directly from God without no equivocation.
By the grace of God, by next year, we will have our own Ajise wonder from Ipele Archdeaconry with other guest artists.
Iyere hosting brings to an end the rotation hosting of our conference, and we are restarting with our great Cathedral this year.
41ST ANNUAL BIBLE STUDY CONFERENCE:
We want to commend the faith of our cathedral in taking the baton of this year's conference, and we are hopeful it is already successful.
We commend the leadership of our Father The Ven Dr Bunmi Aladegbami, the Dean of our Cathedral. On behalf of the youth of our Diocese, once again we want to welcome you to our cathedral and congratulate you on your appointment and successful induction. Our prayers are with you and Mama Dean that God will see you through in Jesus' name. We appreciate all the priests at the CATHEDRAL for standing and supporting this hosting of the 2025 Conference. We pray for fresh anointing, and may the good Lord bless and keep you in his ministry.
The theme we are considering this year is MY HELP COMES FROM THE LORD. The theme is significant at this moment with the present state of our nation. The insecurity,unemployment, unpaid salaries, thuggery ,communal fights,menaces across the country but our consolation is to always know that our help in any situation comes from the Lord.
We are called to look up to Jesus,the perfecter of our faith. We are charge to entrust all our daily activities into his care. We are as well reminded that for those who called upon they lord ,he shall hear their voice.
As we journey in life, let us he hopeful that God Almighty is the solution to every condition we found ourselves.
We are hopeful our diligent expositors will dig more and insight the knowledge in us ,let us ensure we participate in all lectures and our God will bless us all.
YOUTH WORK DIRECTORATE: TE:We love to welcome joyfully and gladly into our midst The Ven And Mrs Seth Akinro, who has been appointed as our new Director, Youth Work Directorate. We have known them for years; they are great children of God who are dedicated to service at all times. They are trustworthy and have the tenacity to drive the course of our youth work directorate; we welcome them gladly and wish them a successful tenure. Ekabo si arin waaa
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE: We were glad to give our award of excellence last year to our revered father, Baba John Adeniyi.
Baba Adeniyi was the 2nd president of our DIOCESAN councils and the longest-serving president. We pray for good health, more grace, and blessings for Baba.
This year we have two categories of awards.
1. The The Award of Meritorious and Selfless Service will be given to our ever-excellent, diligent, and amiable former Director of the Youth Work Directorate, The Ven. Dr. Olatunde Olaniran Abiodun. Our former director served us between the years 2014 and 2025. We recalled that Baba Abiodun's service was top-notch; he was a father to us, a careful guide, a teacher of note, and a charismatic man of God. We are proud to associate with him and his service among us. The Ven Dr. Abiodun, as earlier mentioned, served us as our Diocesan Chaplain for years before his emergence as Director, and it was remarkable.
By the special grace of God, the award ceremony will take place during the thanksgiving service on Sunday.
2. Presidential Award: This year we are initiating a presidential award, and two of our members will be recipients. The first person is a parishioner at St Patricks Anglican Church , we want to recognise her service ,her dedication and her commitment to the fellowship for the past 3 years, she has consistently attended all our programs and always there to guide the younger ones, most significantly is her personal achievement during the course of the year as she was call to bar as a solicitor of the supreme courts of Nigeria. This is a great feat we are proud to associate with and to also ensure we are encouraging our youth who are doing well in their various fields of life. The recipient of this award is Miss Adesola Ikeoluwa Asiwaju, Esq., LL.B (Hons). We say congratulations to her and will be pleased to give such an award to identify youth,who are pride of our Diocese.
3. We are also glad to reward a diligent brother whose service is uncommon and yet unmatched for the past 3 years of our leadership.
A president of one of our viable branches and also president of a staunch archdeaconry, in whom we are well pleased and we are proud of.
This initiative will continue by God's grace, and we are glad and proud to announce to us the Best Archdeaconry President 2023-2025, Mr. Adebanji Sunday (Uso/Emure Ile Archdeaconry).
Mr. Sunday Adebanji's dedication, activeness, and punctuality can't be overemphasized; he has demonstrated that he is a trustworthy and competent president, and that is why the Uso/Emure Ile archdeaconry remains the viable archdeaconry we have in this Diocesan Council, and it is a challenge to other presidents and archdeaconry. They hold meetings from time to time,plan and executive programs. The archdeaconry has not stop the yearly archdeaconry conference, and we love to encourage others to kindly emulate Uso/Emure archdeaconry. We once again say congratulations to Mr. Sunday Adebanji and the good people of Uso & Emure. God's blessing always.
APPRECIATION:
On behalf of the Diocesan council of the Fellowship, may we all appreciate all those who have continued to support us financially, most significantly at the last year conference. We say a big thank you to Kabiyesi Alayeluwa Imperial Majesty Oba Dr Ajibade Gbadegesin Ogunoye III.
Kabiyesi gave us a bag of rice last year, long live the king.
Thanks for the huge financial support from our Royal Patron, Oba Ebenezer Adesanmi Adewunmi, and our Dear Mama Owo, Mrs. Florence Ebunoluwa Fagbemi; we say thank you and more of God's blessing. Mama Owo has also given us a bag of rice this year for the smooth running of the conference. E pe fun waa, Mama waaa.
Dr. Abiola Oshodi, Mr. Akinlotan, Prof. Taiwo Adenegan, Revd Canon Abegubde Rtd, Dr. Bolu Ogubdowole, Mama Biodun Lawal, Mrs. Taiwo Ojikutu, all gave us wonderful substance last year and that we used judiciously. We have equipped the office alloted to us by his Lordship at the Bishop court with a 3 in 1 Printer, A computer system.
We want to specially thank the families of the late Mrs. Christianah Ebunoluwa Fabuluje for donating a set of trophies to us last year. We pray God continues to bless the home and all her generation in view of that donation, Mrs. Biodun Lawal informed us that Mama C.E. Fabuluje was her great teacher who enlisted her in the choir, and she supported her memory with another set of trophies. We are appreciative and pray God continue to use her for us in the Diocese at large.
Bro Bosun Felix-Surulere's individual award: Mr. Bosun Felix, our predecessor in office, surprised us by awarding cash prizes to individuals who performed well in last year's Bible Quiz Competition.
We are praying for him, that God will continue to bless him.
He has also pledged his support for this year, which will be announced on Sunday by God's grace. We pray for God's sustainability.
Immediately after our conference last year, Our Diocesan Secretary Mr. Bolarinwa Ayodeji was able to facilitate a laptop computer for us which was donated by Susannah Kolade Foundation. We want to say thank you to this great foundation for their act of benevolence and pray God sustain them. We will also be glad seeing them supporting us in other areas.
NEXT HOST:
Our next year's host, by the special grace of God, is IFON ARCHDEACONRY. We want to call on the leadership of the IFON to start work earnestly, as the Diocesan council will visit the archdeaconry before the end of this year.
FIRE INCIDENT: You will all recalled that we reported the damage of an inferno that affected the rented apartment of two of our Youths during last year,which brought the entire house down. We can't but again appreciate the effort of the Bishop for salvaging the situation through the support of members of the Diocese who did contributed to support the two members.
This two families belongs to us and they are the President of AYF Uso Emure Ile President Mr. Femi Bayode & The president of The Cathedral Mr. Kola Tapere.
For we as the youths body we also rally round the Diocese raising a dependent sum of #200,000 to support the two families with #100,000 naira each for the families.
We pray against such incident again and we are grateful to God for blessing the two families thereafter.
ELECTION:
By the grace of God, we are glad and proud to announce to you all that this present administration will come to an end by this year, December, and the inauguration for a new set of executives will come up next year, January 2026.
Election of the diocesan council will be held in the month of September at a venue that will be communicated later.
We want to urge all interested members to show interest. The Diocesan council needs viable, competent members who can be saddled with responsibility.
For us, we will not alter any election year by the grace of almighty God.We reiterate our commitment to the effective smooth running of our fellowship in guidance to the National Council Constitution, which stipulates 3 years as a tenure.
In view of the aforementioned, as has been said earlier, the Diocesan Election holds in September, and all archdeaconry elections will hold this same year, and our secretariat will roll out schedule dates for election.
For those who just had their election,The Diocesan council will do affirmation for them this year and their tenure will officially start next year.
We are doing this to ensure revitalization in our archdeaconries and parishes and revamp them with new executives who should be tested to be competent and are reliable. The age of having long-term executives in power for more than 3 years is over, and we are enacting it strongly starting with the Diocesan officers. Note that any executive who has spent only 3 years in a particular office is privileged to serve another maximum of 3 years and should not be more than 40 years of age.
For those who are currently serving us in different capacities and our 40 years, we will love that they relinquish their offices and give room for us to celebrate them specially. May the good Lord bless us all.
For you all to know, we will not spare the rod in ensuring we achieve this. We are starting from our home, the Cathedral Church of St. Andrew Imola Owo, to revamp our Youth Fellowship and strengthen it administration. Till a set date is fixed for the ANGLICAN Youth Fellowship Cathedral branch election before this year's December, we hereby appoint Master Oluwatunmise Adebose as Cathedral AYF coordinator. Interested members are enjoined to pick up forms at the right time for various offices to be occupied.
This will lead us to all other archdeaconries. Our mandate is to hand over a better AYF in our various archdeaconries and parishes. May God help us all.
OUR JOY: We are grateful to God for his banner of his love, our president of Owo north archdeaconry Bro. Segun Olagunjoye got married during the course of this year , we pray God bless their new home joyful.
Because we love to finish our tenure happily, we hearkened to the call of our chaplain, at the thanksgiving service at Iyere last year. He said, and we quote, "The last prize will be given out by the president. I feel somebody needed to be standing beside the president, and if our president still wants to be our president, he needs to get married before next year's conferenceis, am I saying your mind and the delegates chorus yes.
Our God his merciful unto us because the voice of men are voice of God. We are glad to announce to you all that your president is now happily married. By divine mercy the marriage is 2 months and a day old.
Your president didn't just marry; he married within the ANGLICAN communion, and notably, he married one of our vice presidents, formerly Miss Oluwabusayomi Elera, now Chief Mrs. Oluwabusayomi Ayokunle-Adedeji. We pray for more of this blessing in our fellowship, and we encourage more.
NATIONAL CONFERENCE:
The National Conference was held between Wednesday, 6th, and Sunday, 10th, 2025, at Oleh Diocese. No delegate from Owo Diocese attended because of logistics and planning for the year's Diocesan council. We are hopeful of next year's journey by the special grace of God.
Result of National Conference Bible Quiz
*YOUTH STAR QUIZ*
DNDN - 5th position
Warri - 4th Position
Aba - 3rd Position
Orlu - 2nd Position
Evo - 1st Position 🥇
*ADULT QUIZ*
Abuja - 5th Position
Aguata - 4th Position
Evo - 3rd Position
On the Niger—2nd Position
Ikwerre - 1st Position 🥇
*Next year's theme is* "If God be for us. Romans 8:31
*BOOKS OF STUDY*
OT- 1st and 2nd Chronicles, NT- Romans, Anglicanism- Book by Fape, Archbishop of Lagos
2026 Host: Diocese of Nsukka
Enugu Province
Finally, as we return all glory to God for his sustainability, we seek more of his guidance and blessing.
May the good Lord see all through our tenure. Special appreciation to all our co-worker in the ministry committed into our hand, Ese pupo.
By the special grace of God, we shall gather again next year by his mercy at IFON.
Till another time.
Ayokunle Adedeji,TC, DP
DIOCESAN PRESIDENT AND ONDO PROVINCIAL COUNCIL PRESIDENT
Adunbaren of Ipele Kingdom, Amuwagboye of Iyere Kingdlm & The Obadamola of Upenmen Kingdom.
15th August,2025
