Nothing calls for celebration more than the annual commemoration of the ressurection of our personal Lord and Savior. The Catholic youth organization (CYON) of St.patrick Church held its 5th edition of the Easter praise concert tagged “He’s risen” on the 9th of April 2023 in its church premises at Ojo-Alaba.
Having been successful four years in a row, this year’s edition turned out better than its predecessors and with invited gospel ministers like Minister Yvonne, Minister Prudence, Nosa Sax, Sister Mimi, Paul Praise and Joe Gifted in attendance, also a new charity event was launched “Educate a Child”.
The concert commenced with the Cyon’s anthem, national anthem and the opening prayer after which Minister Yvonne took the audience to another level with her spirit-filled worship and praise session.
Minister Yvonne speaking with this Diadem reporter said she would rather God decrease her and increase himself
“I think I’m not going to be the one to minister tonight, I’m just an instrument. God is going to do the work, for me, I think the glory of the Lord is going to come down and the Holy Spirit is going to minister to people but for me I want God to decrease me and increase himself. I’m just the instrument God is going to use”
In addition, she addressed the youth “If you do not use your youth to praise God, there is no other time. Now is the time to praise God, now that you’re still agile, now that you can do a lot of things because soon it’ll get to a stage when you won’t be able to do most of these things. Now is the time to serve God and to praise God. Don’t be one leg in and one leg out, if you’re in be in and if you’re out be out.”
One of the priests of the Church, Reverend Father Franklin Nnamdi explained in an interview with DCM that his expectation of this year’s event was aimed to gather more audience than the previous years.
He added that they’re expecting God’s blessings as a result of the gathering and that the annual Easter praise concert is going to be a yearly event. When asked about the challenges faced during the preparation of the event, he complained that the church premises can only contain a limited number of people. He hinted that in future they might have to use another location that will contain the magnitude of guests expected.
Mr Princewill, Cyon Lagos Archdiocese Provost and publicity head of HE’S ALIVE SEASON 05 said that “This year’s edition Is filled with varieties of packages asides from the main praise concert. One of the packages is the “Educate A Child” charity event where guests will donate whatever amount they have to the cyon”. according to him, there are lots of children with no access to education And as we all know our children and youths are the leaders of tomorrow. So, asides from praising God at the concert people are going to contribute any amount they can to the education of these children.
In addition, The president of Cyon Lagos Archdiocese, Mr Chukwuemeka Nnamuchigwe said, this year’s edition is going to be well attended and some other Dioceses that are supposed to host an event but were postponed, therefore our guests won’t have to choose between two events”. A few of the challenges faced in organizing this year’s event are Raising funds for such a massive event, also having to maintain the momentum that had been achieved in previous editions. We don’t want to dwindle rather for it to keep getting better as each year goes by and to keep celebrating the resurrection of the living lord”, he said.
To the catholic youths of Nigeria the Cyon, Chukuemeka, said “We are the resurrection people, everyone around the world uses our calendar for Easter and this shows the heritage we have as Catholic Church and we should be proud of this heritage and should always celebrate this heritage which we are doing today in this concert”.
The praise concert recorded an attendance of over 1200 people. Minister Prudence rounded the event up with her praise session and a charged atmosphere in which everyone left the premises blessed.
