Paschal Nwaezeapu: Gospel Message Remains Constant, How You Propagate It Can Change

Monsignor Paschal Nwaezeapu, the Parish Priest of the Catholic Church of Divine Mercy, Lekki, and the Episcopal Vicar, Lekki Region of Lagos Archdiocese, is the founder and convener of Unusual Praise, one of Africa’s largest Catholic praise and worship concerts. Nwaezeapu, alongside the Vice Chairman of Unusual Praise 2026, Tina Oruche, spoke on the upcoming edition, the essence of the programme, and thoughts on expanding the annual event beyond two cities. Ferdinand Ekechukwu brings the excerpts

What is the essence of this religious gathering and what are the defining points of Unusual Praise?

When you talk about Unusual Praise there are many things you can talk about. But there are three that will stand out; one is thanksgiving. We are saying that maybe in the course of the year God has blessed us; it’s not as if we did not face challenges or anything like that. Problems came but that you are still standing means that God is still with us. So, looking at everything he has done for us we are not taking anything for granted. Going to bed, waking up, is a blessing. Sunlight is a blessing; air is a blessing. During Covid-19 you saw how people were paying millions to have oxygen. So, we are not taking those things for granted. What we just decided at the end of every year we gather together to give thanks to God through praise for all the things he has done for us. The second one is evangelisation. The church was established for mission and that mission is called evangelisation. Even as we gather people to give thanks, we also kind of maybe try to proclaim Jesus to them anew for them to renew their commitment to Him and for those who have not been evangelise for them to come to faith in him. There’s this angle of evangelisation, fulfilling the mission of the church. But we understand evangelisation has two dimensions. There’s what we call the transcendental dimension whereby you try to connect people to God. But we are also not oblivious that even here on earth there’s what you call the horizontal dimension whereby you need to speak to the situation of people here on earth and that’s where ‘’Unusual Entrepreneur’ comes in. We cannot do everything. The government may not be able to do everything even when the government has the intention to. So, in our own little way we are trying to do what we can do by empowering people because you can’t tell a hungry man love Jesus and the man is hungry. A hungry man is an angry man. We want to see how we can empower people to let them know that also faith, Christianity is not just about come to God. It is also about living well. Because God gave the human being dignity; it is inherent in him. And anything that attacks that dignity does not glorify God. Extreme poverty attacks that dignity. Anything you do to liberate you from poverty becomes something that respects human dignity and then glorifies God. These three things are key. But there could be other things as I said.

Can you speak to us about this year’s theme?

Talking about the theme ‘Declaring His Glory Among the Nations’ I think from what I have said so far, he has done so much for us. We are not blind people; we are thoughtful people, people who can reflect. And as I said, we don’t take anything for granted. Like people say ‘oh my alarm woke me up’. But we know that it’s not the alarm that wakes you up. Alarm can ring and still you don’t wake up. God wakes us up every day. The fact that we wake up every day we can see, we recognise it as a blessing. We see all the blessing we can’t even name all of them. When you talk about ‘declaring the Glory of God’ is to proclaim Him. It’s a mission that has been entrusted to us. We want to proclaim to the whole world that God is alive and God is still working no matter the challenges we face He’s alive. And we have a mission by virtue of our baptism to make it work. That’s why we want to declare His glory to the nations and we are not just talking about Nigeria because Unusual Praise goes beyond Nigeria to whatever extent we can go.

How does the 2026 footprint fulfill your original vision of this programme considering Unusual Praise has evolved from a parish initiative to one of Africa’s largest Catholic praise and worship events?

We are still building up to it. But everything we have been doing before we are still doing. And we are trying to see if we can even surpass what we have been doing before. So, talking about the original vision of maybe giving thanks, of course I know that day people are coming to give thanks. And there will be thanksgiving. I know that people will be reached for Christ so that way it’s to fulfill my vision. And then I know for sure that people will be empowered. And that God will be glorified.

What’s the thought behind the venues, especially Onitsha? Any plans to expand?

The venue for the Lagos one is Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), on THE second Friday in December, which is 11th. Then the venue for the Onitsha one is the Catholic Basilica in Onitsha, on Friday, November 6th. The truth is that we are in Lagos and the thing has to be held in Lagos. And we cannot but start from where we are. But then talking about Onitsha, at a point we actually thought about moving the programme outside Lagos. Onitsha was the first thing put on the table and that was also because the Chairman as at the time is from Anambra. And Onitsha being the Archdiocese in Anambra because that means it’s the center of the Catholic Church there. So that was why we opted for it. But that does not mean we can’t go to other places. As God provides, we might be able to expand to other places and of course when people come on their own and say we want it and they can help plan it, thinking about the different things involved, then of course we go. Its evangelisation wherever there’s need and wherever we have the opportunity. In addition, we’ve had Onitsha. We just thought Unusual Praise shouldn’t just be only in Lagos. I mean the plan for Unusual Praise is that in years to come, we would have Unusual Praise not just in Onitsha. It will be in other parts of Nigeria and also even international. People from outside of the country have been calling us, we want to host Unusual Praise in London; we want to host Unusual Praise in Canada. But by the Grace of God, we are working towards that. Onitsha came because that’s the second place we could host Unusual Praise and the Archbishop there and all of the parishioners there have been coming, saying you can’t stop, keep coming back. We are hoping to go to other states in Nigerian in a short time. And then we are expecting that this year would be much bigger, than the previous years’ editions.

How are the local communities and the Catholic Archdiocese in both locations collaborating to maximize the outreach?

It’s been a lot of work. We have committee members in different parts of Lagos in the archdiocese. As I speak to you now, we have committee members in Ikeja Deanery, Ipaja Deanery, Surulere Deanery, Yaba and as far as Ijaniki and Badagry. So Unusual Praise is for everybody; not just even in the Lagos Archdiocese. We have people outside of Lagos, in Abeokuta planning Unusual Praise as well to make it bigger. There’s really a lot of collaboration amongst parishes and also not just even Catholics. Even those that are not Catholics, schools have reached out to us that they want to be a part of this year’s Unusual Praise. We are really looking forward to a bigger programme this year.

Speak to us on the planning and expectation of Unusual Praise 2026?

We’ve been planning since the last edition. Once 2025 ended we started planning for 2026. Planning has been ongoing. There’s been so much going behind the scene. There have been a lot of activities, media, going to different parishes in archdiocese, so much on the social media platform at Unusual Praise both on Facebook, Instagram, and there’s been so much with trying to organise our gospel ministers both the once that are local and the international ones. We have a whole lot of ongoing activities behind the scene towards 2026 Unusual Praise.

You talked about the gospel artistes performing, how do you curate a balance between these artistes while maintaining a deeply spiritual environment at the event?

You know I keep saying ministers when you say artistes because we look at them as not just artistes but ministers. We are not just working with these men and women of God as people that sing. We are working with them as people that are coming to minster to the attendees on that day. We’ve been speaking to them. They know Unusual Praise some of them have been in the past years’ editions. Some are just coming for the first time and we do believe God that God will work wonders through these minsters on that day. They are really aligned with what the vision for Unusual Praise is which is very deeply spiritual first of all to win more souls for Christ. And then of course the other part of Unusual Praise which is the “Unusual Entrepreneur” to empower people. I mean it’s collaboration between parishioners, between people that want to attend and also between the gospel ministers.

How do you address new traditional voices within the Church who see differently this modern style of evangelisation – blending traditional Catholic worship with contemporary gospel music?

You see it’s easy. I think Pope John Paul II already addressed that in the ‘Mission of the Redeemer’. What remains constant is the gospel. How you propagate the Gospel can change as long as it doesn’t take away the substance of the gospel. If you look at Jesus Himself Jesus did not play the organ. But organ came from Europe. But the gospel has remained the same so that’s important. It’s the gospel we are propagating and even Pope John Paul II said people should come up with initiatives with which they can make the gospel reach the heart of the people of today. And in our church, we have the youths that are going this other way. The truth is a blend of the two will always show that you are meeting these ones’ desires and meeting these other ones their desires as well. I just believe that and apart from that, from experience, we have also discovered that some of the people we see or call as so traditional some of them are keying into the whole thing.

Given the current economic headwinds, how crucial is the church’s role in providing physical empowerment to match spiritual revival?

I think I have touched on that already through Unusual Entrepreneur we are able to do that. And is a key aspect of whatever we are doing because evangelisation has two legs. We have the transcendental, and we have the vertical and horizontal dimensions. We do not just tell people to just come to God. But what we can do to help them live well now we also do. I invite all to be part of Unusual Praise 2026.

The turnout of worshippers at Unusual Praise sometimes becomes overflow. What plans have been made to accommodate the crowd for security reasons and all that?

Last year we saw a higher number different from the previous year and we know that this year will be much bigger again. We are planning for that. Last year the overflow was we had people at TBS and we know that this year we would also have people on the overflow. We are really planning towards that and of course if you’ve been to Unusual Praise before you will know if there’s one thing that stands out for Unusual Praise is security. You wouldn’t see even with the surge, the crowd you will not see any kind of stampede. There’s always coordination from entry to exit to movement, everything is always so seamless and so beautifully arranged. We are really making much more plan even with the Lagos State security personnel; LASTMA, police people and we are very sure no one will have any issues coming to Unusual Praise 2026 at TBS and even in Onitsha.

What message do you hope resonates with the audience this year and beyond?

When you talk about the audience, I know that may be when you go to different countries there are things that are particular to them.

Like Nigeria now, what is, maybe, at the (center) CENTRE of discussion is 2027.

But one thing I mean remains clear to everybody that God created the world; He is the owner of the world and we must recognize God in everything we do. God must be at the center of everything we do. I believe personally that once you remove God, mankind dies.

Once you remove God, society collapses. And go to any country where things are not right, you will see that somehow there’s an effort to push God to the side and bring man to the (center) CENTRE.