Parish Vision
To foster spiritual growth through prayer, sacraments, devotions and communal understanding.
Parish Mission Statement
We the members of Our Lady Mother & Queen Catholic Church and Outstations will endeavour:
- To know our faith,
- To live by truth and love
- To serve the needs of others
- To teach by example and thereby strengthen and inspire the Parish family.
- Build our lives in the image of Christ through worship and prayer.
- Contribute to the growth of our parish by spreading the Gospel by word, witness, action and evangelization.
Objectives
- Strengthen the bonds of communion of parishioners with Jesus Christ through the reception of the Sacraments prayer, novenas, and attendance at Holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration.
- Encourage more Parish-led Marian devotions in the Grotto.
- Encourage full, conscious and active participation of all parishioners in Church activities.
- To educate parishioners in the truth of Sacred Scripture and knowledge of the Catholic Faith.
- Ensure that the Ministries, Faith Societies and Organizations in the parish are visible and function more effectively.
- Ensure the completion and dedication of the main church building and commence work on the Admin Block.
- Develop and implement schemes to support indigent, and unemployed parishioners.
Parish History
Our Lady Mother & Queen Catholic Church, Badore, started around August in 1995 as a Prayer Group established by Brother Emmanuel Njoku with the permission of Rev. Fr. Joseph Akinlotan, who was then the Priest in charge of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Ikota.
The major objective of forming the Prayer Group was to bring Catholics within Badore and environs together for the purpose of building a Catholic Church. The prayer group started in a restaurant owned by Mrs. Victoria Njoku and was meeting every Wednesday for prayers and on Sundays for services at what is today known as St. Peter’s Catholic Church. Both the Wednesday and Sunday services were led by Bro. Emmanuel Njoku. The pioneer members of the Prayer Group include Mr. Theophilus Ihe, Mr. & Mrs. Jude Obi, Mr Anyanwu, Bro Mitchel, Bro Etien, the late Mr. & Mrs. Innocent Onwuasoanya, etc.
In 1998, when Rev. Father Patrick Adegbite was posted to Lekki to spread and expand the Catholic faith in the Pininsula, Bro Emmanuel met him and discussed the future of the Catholic community in both Langbasa and Badore (St. Peter’s Catholic Church, and Our Lady Mother and Queen Catholic Church, respectively) against the background of differences in perception between the lay members and the Priest in-charge of the area. It was Fr. Adegbite who gave the churches in Langbasa and Badore their names. Fr. Adegbite was impressed at the zeal, devotion and commitment of the people he met and resolved to help work very hard to grow the community and deepen its spirituality.
He quickly visited Fr. Adeyemi, accompanied by Bro Emmanuel. Fr. Adeyemi was then in-charge of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Ikota, but was living at St Gregory College, Obalande. The purpose of the visit was to persuade Father Peter Adeyemi to resume the Sunday mass at St. Peter’s Catholic Church.
God used His Grace, Anthony Okogie, to resolve the matter to the satisfaction of every party. His Grace, as he was addressed then, asked Rev. Father Patrick Adegbite to take over the running of the two small churches. Sunday masses have since then been regular at Langbasa. Fr. Adegbite then began to celebrate the Sunday mass at Badore using our usual venue, a restaurant; and anytime the Priest was for any reason unavailable the Lay Leader was asked to conduct service.
As a young church, one of our greatest challenges was finance. The modest Sunday offerings from Sunday mass/service were usually sent to the parish headquarters. So the only available source of financing the young church was through offerings from the prayer meeting.
As the Church continued to grow under the leadership of Rev. Father Adegbite, seminarians, Rev. Sisters and Priests were sent to minister to us on Sundays from time to time.
One of the greatest acts of encouragement we ever received was the visit of His Grace, Most Rev. Anthony Okogie, in 2001 during his first pastoral visit to SS Philip & James, Lekki. For us at Badore, it was a spiritual booster as we seldom envisaged that His Grace would visit us in a restaurant of all places! Badore was the first outstation of SS Philip & James that His Grace visited during the historic visit. He encouraged us to be steadfast. He made a declaration about the Badore Church “This Church will one day become one of the biggest churches in Lagos” How prescient and prophetic!
Still, it was difficult to have Sunday masses regularly due to the expansion of the Lekki mission. In spite of this setback, the membership was growing rapidly. The members heroically remained committed and worked admiringly to accelerate the growth of the young church.
In April, 2004, the church was relocated from its restaurant accommodation to a more spacious accommodation in Alasia, Badore, provided by a selfless member Mr. Jacob N. Dibia. Many people thus joined us for the Sunday service and for the mass any time we had the privilege to have one. The population of members continued to rise faster than expected.
About 12 persons/families from the Cooperative Villas Estate met in the building below and made a commitment to join the church, Each person (the twelve men) donated the sum on NGN250, 000.00 as the initial funds to buy land and donate to the church. The land owner was gracious enough to accept payment by instalment; and we thank our land agent, Mr. Taiwo Shokunbi, for the link and for the skillful negotiations. The church acquired 4 plots land and erected a temporary structure in 2004 which serves as a place of worship. More plots were later acquired. The church has at present a total of about 9 plots of land.
In September 2004, the Church moved to a temporary structure.
The first station council was inaugurated in 2004 to foster the development of the Church.
The Committee has since inauguration in 2004 completed the construction of a Reverend Father’s House which His Eminence laid the foundation in August 18th 2007.
On October 31st, 2007, Rev. Father Patrick Adegbite, our parish priest, was killed in Lagos (http://patrick-adegbite.memory-of.com). Consequently, a new Parish was carved out of SS Philip & James and was named St. Peter’s Catholic Church, Langbasa, and our Church; Our Lady Mother & Queen Catholic Church became an outstation of the new Parish. Rev. Father Steve Enearu became the Parish Priest. Our Parish Priest residence (OLMQ) was consecrated and dedicated on the 28th of March 2009
In March 28th, 2009, His Eminence Cardinal Olubumi Anthony Okogie laid the foundation stone of our main Church building. With him is the then Parish Priest Rev. Father Stephen Enearu of St. Peter Catholic Church, Langbasa.
0n April 22nd 2010, the Mary’s Garden (our Grotto) was completed by a group of friends and donated to the Church. His Eminence Cardinal Okojie once again visited OLMQ Badore and (with five other priest) dedicated the Grotto and celebrated the first Holy mass on the ground of the grotto
Same year, October 2010, His Eminence Cardinal Olubumi Okogie declared Our Lady Mother and Queen, Badore, as a Parish with Rev. Father Noel O’leary (SMA) as the first Parish Priest.
