
The congregation at the Winners' Chapel International, one of the fastest growing pentecostal churches in Britain, roared and sang as a warm-up act hollered "shout Allelujah!" through an echoing amplifier. Backstage Bishop David Oyedepo, a 58-year old man in a crisp light cream suit with a beaming smile and a personal fortune estimated by Forbes at over £90m, approached the main hall encircled by his entourage to give his first sermon of a marathon of services dubbed the 2013 European Winners' Convention, which ends on Saturday. More than 5,000 pentecostalists are expected to absorb Oyedepo's prosperity gospel and it is a congregation that is proving ever more generous towards the Lagos-based preacher. Oyedepo's UK branch has received more than £16m in tithes between 2008 and 2011. Over £1m of that money has been returned to his Nigerian operation. As the worshippers arrived – mostly Nigerians and west Africans living in Britain – they were given credit card forms to make donations, inscribed with a verse from Corinthians: "God loveth a cheerful giver." But the booming British operation of Oyedepo, who flies on private jets and runs a 50,000-seat mega church in Lagos, is being looked at by the Charity Commission.











