According to the 2020 Report on International Religious Freedom, 95.4% of the country has a Christian affiliation; of these, an estimated 48.1% are Protestant, including evangelical Christians and the Church of Jesus Christ on Earth.[3]
The Union has its origins in a grouping of different Protestant and Evangelical churches by missionaries that took place in 1902.[4] It was officially founded in 1924 as the Protestant Council of Congo (CPC).[5] In 1934, it took the name of Church of Christ in Congo.
The CCC functions as a religious institution, and provides a central administration and a spiritual forum for the numerous Protestant denominations. It functions under a national synod and an executive committee. Both of these entities are assisted in their tasks by a national secretariat.
The Church of Christ in Congo is led by a President that holds the rank of Bishop, and two Vice-Presidents.
The president is the presiding minister of the Cathedral of the Protestant Centennial in Congo (French: Cathédrale du Centenaire Protestant au Congo), also known as the International Protestant Church of Kinshasa (French: Paroisse Internationale Protestante de Kinshasa) - the de facto head church of the CCC.[citation needed]
One of the previous Presidents of the CCC was Monsignor Pierre Marini Bodho. Following the end of the Second Congo War, transitional institutions were established, consisting of the former warring parties, as well as representatives of the non-belligerent opposition, and representatives of the civil society. Consequently, during the 2003 to 2006 transition period, following the end of the Second Congo War, as a reasonably neutral and consensual figure, and as a representative of the organized religion section of the civil society, Mgr. Marini Bodho served as the President of the Senate, the upper house of the Congolese Parliament.
In the 2006 elections, Mgr. Marini Bodho won a senate seat and went on to serve as a government senator.[6]
^Erwin Fahlbusch, Geoffrey William Bromiley, Jan Milic Lochman, John Mbiti, Jaroslav Pelikan, The Encyclodedia of Christianity, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, USA, 2008, p. 843
^Emizet Francois Kisangani, Historical Dictionary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rowman & Littlefield, USA, 2016, p. 209