Christiana Abiodun Emanuel

Christiana Abiodun Emanuel, born Abiodun Akinsowon (1907–1994), was a co-founder, along with Moses Orimolade Tunolase, of the Cherubim and Seraphim, an Aladura Christian denomination in Nigeria.

Founding the Cherubim and Seraphim In 1925, while watching a Catholic Corpus Christi procession, Emanuel reportedly fell into a lengthy trance. She awoke from her coma after the healer Moses Orimolade arrived to pray for her. Waking, Emanuel claimed she had been visited by angels who had taken her to heaven.

Schism and reconciliation In 1929, the Cherubim and Seraphim underwent its first schism, with Emanuel founding the Cherubim and Seraphim Society and Orimolade founding the Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim. The split arose from disputes within the group over the role of female leadership. Emanuel demanded to be recognised as co-founder of the church. This was viewed by Orimolade, who denied she was co-founder, as insubordination, and led to their eventual split. In 1986, in an attempt to reunite the disparate groupings, she was reinstalled as leader of a united Cherubim and Seraphim Church.