By Millicent Ifeanyichukwu
The Assemblies of God Church (AGC), “House of Transformation”, Surulere, Lagos had, on Sunday during a road walk, expressed concern over the increasing rate of sexual immorality in the society.
AGC organised the road walk tagged, “Hot Chastity Parade”, to correct the narrative that Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day is a day for unholy and immoral acts.
The chastity walk, which had the theme: “Above Reproach: Blameless, Faithful, Righteous”, involved a trek from the Church on Clegg Street in Surulere through Shitta and back to the church.
No fewer than 500 teenagers and young people from across branches of the church in Lagos participated in the parade.
Rev Bright Unuane, the Convener of the annual event, stressed that there was a need to counter the unpleasant notion and unholy acts as perceived by young people in the celebration of St. Valentine’s Day.
Unuane said that the campaign would go a long way to create awareness as well as prevent young people from getting lost in the world by engaging in various forms of immorality.
“We are using this campaign to sensitise our young ones, preaching against engaging in pre-marital sex and to say no to fornication.
“We want them to choose purity, chastity, abstinence as the way. This is not old school as the world is pushing it to be.
“You can remain a virgin till you get married: virgin girl, virgin boy; even after marriage, as a man or a woman, there is need to remain committed to just one person, the person you’ve taken vows with at God’s altar.
“We see a lot of unwanted pregnancies, a lot of things happening to the kids – diseases, and all that. So we embarked on this campaign as a measure to curb such acts, and to promote holiness in totality,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Chidi Udo, the AGC’s Teens Pastor, urged young people not to soil their bodies through immorality, stressing that their bodies are the temples of God.
He noted further that sexually transmitted diseases are everywhere and on the increase.
“My message to the young people is to stay off all forms of immorality. Chastity is the empowerment and energy you need and purity is our strength not to sin against God and our special life partner,” he added.
In her remark, Miss Chidinma Isiguzo, the church’s Youth President, said that the programme was not focused only on teenagers and young people, but also as a medium to remind married people to abstain from adultery.
Isiguzo said the annual programme had helped and given direction to many young people on the way they lived their lives, celebrate Valentine’s day and approach sexual relations in a decent manner.
According to her, the sensitisation is for everyone because chastity did not only focus on singles and pushing the agenda of staying pure and keeping self before marriage.
Isiguzo added that the parade was also to focus on faithfulness after marriage or faithfulness in marriage.
Also, Miss Joy Ochi, a Teenager, said that the Chastity Parade had impacted her life morally, spiritually and instructed her on the company to keep and way of dressing.
“I have embraced chastity in totality,” Ochi said.
After the chastity parade, the young people made vows before God to maintain their chastity.