“Ikare-Born”, “Healthcare Administrator”… Meet CSMC Acting Baba Aladura, Elder Gabriel Kassim

At a time when the leadership of the Cherubim & Seraphim Movement Church requires a steady hand capable of navigating both its spiritual and administrative responsibilities, the emergence of Dr Gabriel Olayinka Kassim as the Acting Baba Aladura places the spotlight on a man whose life has straddled the worlds of faith, healthcare, administration and community service.

Born in Ikare-Akoko, Ondo State, Kassim began his educational and spiritual journey in Nigeria before relocating to the United States in 1972. Over the decades, he built a career in nursing and healthcare administration while simultaneously rising through the ranks of the Cherubim & Seraphim Movement Church.

Today, he is one of the 12 life members of the Board of Trustees of the Cherubim & Seraphim Movement Church worldwide, a position that places him among the church’s senior custodians of its affairs.

His decades of service in the United States have also seen him occupy several important positions within the church. He has served as Chairman of the C&S Movement Church USA Sub-Conference since 1985 and has been Chairman of the Cherubim & Seraphim Council of Churches in the USA since 2001.

He was also the Leader in Charge and Senior Pastor of the Cherubim & Seraphim Movement Church, New York No. 1, from 1982 to 1997, before relinquishing the position to devote greater attention to the wider affairs of the church in the United States.

From Ikare to the United States

Kassim’s journey began in Ikare, where he received his early education and obtained his Primary School Leaving Certificate in 1956. He proceeded to Victory College, Ikare, where he completed his West African School Certificate examination in 1961.

His interest in healthcare subsequently led him to nursing school in Ife, where he trained as a nurse and became a registered nurse in 1970.

But healthcare was not the only path he had begun to pursue.

His involvement in Christian ministry dates back to his formative years. In 1956, he became a member of the Young Men’s Christian Association, while in 1962, he served as a Bible knowledge teacher at a Secondary Modern School in Nigeria.

He later became an evangelical minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nigeria in 1967, five years before his relocation to the United States.

That early grounding in Christian ministry would later become the foundation for his decades-long service in the C&S Movement Church.

Building a career in healthcare

After arriving in the United States in 1972, Kassim combined professional advancement with his growing responsibilities in the church.

He joined the Jewish Home and Hospital in the Bronx in 1972, beginning as a nurse and eventually rising to the position of supervisor. He remained at the institution until 1990.

From 1990 to 1995, he worked at Bronx Lebanon Hospital as an Assistant Director of Nursing.

In 1995, he joined Brookdale University Hospital, where he worked as a Nurse Manager and subsequently rose to the position of Associate Director of Nursing before retiring in December 2010.

His professional development also extended beyond clinical nursing. He studied at St Francis College in Brooklyn, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Care Management. He later proceeded to Long Island University, where he obtained a Master of Public Administration in Health Care Management.

His career in healthcare, spanning several decades and involving supervisory and management responsibilities, became an important part of a life that increasingly demanded both administrative and spiritual leadership.

A parallel journey in the C&S church

While his professional career was developing, so was his ministry.

In 1978, six years after arriving in the United States, Kassim became Assistant Pastor of the Cherubim & Seraphim Movement Church in the Bronx.

Four years later, in 1982, he became the Leader in Charge and Senior Pastor of the C&S Movement Church, New York No. 1, a position he held until 1997.

His responsibilities, however, soon expanded beyond a single congregation.

He became Chairman of the C&S Movement Church USA Sub-Conference in 1985, a position he has continued to occupy, according to his profile.

His leadership within the C&S family was further strengthened in 2001 when he became Chairman of the Cherubim & Seraphim Council of Churches in the United States, a position he has also continued to hold.

He is also one of the 12 life members of the worldwide Board of Trustees of the Cherubim & Seraphim Movement Church.

From Apostle to senior church leader

Kassim’s formal progression in the ministry began with his ordination as an Apostle of God in 1986. He became a Senior Apostle in 1988.

In 1993, he obtained a Pastoral Ministry Certificate from the Cherubim & Seraphim Movement Church College of Divinity in Lagos.

His elevation continued in 1996 when he was ordained Most Senior Apostle, followed by his ordination as Special Apostle in 2001.

In 2010, he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy by the El-Beth-El Bible College and Theological Seminary in Lagos, according to his biography.

A further elevation came in 2020 when he was ordained Most Senior Special Apostle.

These appointments and ordinations have made him one of the long-serving figures in the C&S Movement, with nearly five decades of ministerial involvement in the United States.

A bridge between generations

Kassim’s story is, in many ways, also a story of the internationalisation of the Cherubim & Seraphim Movement.

From a young Christian teacher and church worker in Ikare to a healthcare professional in New York, and subsequently to a senior administrator and spiritual leader within the C&S worldwide family, his journey reflects the evolution of a church that has established a presence beyond Nigeria.

His long involvement in the United States has given him experience in managing congregational affairs across cultures and generations, while his continued connection with the church’s Nigerian structures has positioned him as a link between the church at home and its international branches.

As Acting Baba Aladura, Kassim now carries a responsibility that goes beyond the administration of a congregation or a regional structure. It places him at a significant point in the history of a movement whose leadership, doctrine, administration and global identity continue to evolve.

Family man

Away from his professional and ecclesiastical responsibilities, Kassim is a family man.

He has been married for several decades and is a father and grandfather. His family life, alongside his professional career and ministry, forms another dimension of a journey that has spanned more than seven decades.

From the streets of Ikare, where his educational and Christian journey began, to the hospitals and churches of New York, Kassim has spent much of his life serving people in two demanding fields — healthcare and ministry.

Now, as Acting Baba Aladura of the Cherubim & Seraphim Movement Church, the Ikare-born clergyman and former healthcare administrator steps into another chapter of a journey that has already taken him from the classroom to the hospital ward, from the pastoral office to the highest levels of church administration.