Pastor Kumuyi remarries in UK

Eighteen months after he lost his wife, the superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Pastor William Kumuyi, has found love again.

The wedding, which happened outside the spotlight, was reported to have taken place in the UK, last Wednesday. However, the bride, who sources identified as Esther, is said to be a member of his church. But not much else is known about her, or about their courtship. Details of the wedding ceremony, including venue and attendance, officiating priests, protocols, were closely guarded.

Responding to a question whether he would remarry after his late wife, Biodun, passed away, the man of God told reporters that it was too early to think of a replacement. It was a highly emotional moment for him, as the bad news came to him while he was delivering a sermon during the church’s Easter retreat last year.

Mrs. Kumuyi who died at 57 in the early hours of Saturday, April 11, 2009 at her residence in the International Bible Training Centre, Ayobo, Ipaja, Lagos, following a brief illness, was the National Woman Co-ordinator of the church. She was also International Co-ordinator of the women ministry in Africa and other continents where the church has branches, and was Editor-in-Chief of the well-circulated Women Mirror magazine published by the church.

Pastor Kumuyi, 71, was introduced to the Apostolic Faith Church, and became born again on Sunday, April 5, 1964. He started the Deeper Life Bible Church, which now has over one million members in more than sixty countries around the world, as a 15-member Bible Study group in Kumuyi’s official quarters (Flat 2) at the University of Lagos in August, 1973. Kumuyi was at the time a Mathematics lecturer in the university.

Kumuyi is the latest entrant to the fold of pastors who have new wives: Pastor Taiwo Odukoya of the Fountain of Life Church, Pastor Chris Okotie of the Household of God, and Pastor Ituah Ighodalo of the Trinity House. Only Odukoya, like Kumuyi, remarried after losing his wife, Bimbo.