The evangelical movements of the 18th Century gave rise to many missionary societies such as that of the Baptist (1792), "the joint efforts" (1795) and
Church Missionary Society — CMS (1799). Closely related to them was the birth of the
British and Foreign Bible Society (1804) and the CMS-inspired founding of the West African Mission in the same year. There was also the
Niger Expedition of 1841 which was a response by both the Church Missionary Society and
Wesleyan Missionary Society to evangelise newly freed slaves in
Freetown,
Sierra Leone.
Henry Townsend of the CMS and Birch Freeman of the Wesleyan Missionary Society made exploratory visits to
Badagry in 1842, giving a joint service of Eucharist and thanksgiving on Christmas Day 1842. Early missionaries such as Henry Townsend, Charles Andrew Gollmer and
Samuel Ajayi Crowther gave rise to the Yoruba Mission. Gollmer was made Deacon in 1841, and priest the same year. Samuel Ajayi Crowther was consecrated a bishop in
London on 29 June 1864 and served as
Bishop of Western Equatorial Africa. Crowther had founded the All-African Mission in 1847, and headed it until his death in 1891. Following Crowther's death, the CMS home office (secretariat) in London chose
Joseph Sidney Hill as successor instead of any of the more suitable Africans, nearly all of whom were already serving as Assistant Bishops. Among them were Archdeacons
James Johnson,
Henry Johnson,
Dandeson Crowther (son of the late bishop), James Quaker,
Isaac Oluwole and
Charles Phillips. Hill assumed leadership and invited Oluwole,
Adolphus Howells and Phillips to be his Assistant Bishops. In 1894,
Herbert Tugwell was consecrated Bishop of West Equatorial Africa, and James Johnson became a "half-bishop". There was a sub-division into two of what was the still the Diocese of Western Equatorial Africa. On 10 October 1919, the Nigerian country, West and North of the Niger were cut off from the Diocese to form the new Diocese of Lagos. F. Melville Jones, a European Missionary educationist and Principal of St Andrew's College, was consecrated as the first Bishop of Lagos. The remaining part — east of the country, was renamed
Diocese on the Niger. Its formal inauguration took place on 5 March 1920 with Tugwell remaining as first bishop.
F. Melville Jones served as
Bishop of Lagos from 1919 to 1940, and was succeeded by Assistant Bishop of the Diocese on the Niger
Leslie Gordon Vining. On 17 April 1951 at the inauguration of the
Province of West Africa, Vining was elected and presented as the first Archbishop of the new Province (i.e. of all West Africa). Under him, Lagos and Niger dioceses were divided to create four more dioceses (
Niger Delta,
Ibadan,
Kaduna and
Ondo inaugurated in 1952). Vining died at sea in March 1955 and was succeeded by
Adelakun Howells. Then following in succession, the episcopacy of
Seth Irunsewe Kale from 1963 to 1974;
Festus Oluwole Segun from January 1975 to 1985 and
Joseph Abiodun Adetiloye from 1985 to 1999. From 2000 to 2018, the Diocese of Lagos has led by
Ephraim Ademowo as both Bishop and Archbishop of Province 1 (comprising all the dioceses geographically located in the Southwest and Midwest areas of the country). In 2008, he was re-elected for another 5-year term as Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Lagos. == Bishops of Lagos ==