Pastor David Ibiyeomie, founder and General Overseer of Salvation Ministries, will on Friday, November 6, formally dedicate the Hand of God Cathedral, the church’s new headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. 

The ministry says the auditorium can seat 120,000 worshippers.

The event will hold at Igwuruta, along the Airport Road corridor in the Rivers State capital. The ministry has described the building as the largest church auditorium in the world. The seating figure comes from the church and has not been independently verified.

If it holds, the cathedral will be bigger than The Ark, the auditorium that Living Faith Church Worldwide, popularly known as Winners Chapel, is building at Canaanland in Ota, Ogun State.

The Ark has a reported capacity of 109,345, and its own dedication, first planned for late November last year, was postponed. The Hand of God Cathedral would also exceed the 100,000 seat Glory Dome of Dunamis International Gospel Centre in Abuja, which was dedicated in November 2018.

Construction began in 2010, when the project was planned for about 40,000 worshippers before the capacity was raised to 120,000. The structure has a central dome with five wings shaped like fingers, and from above it looks like an open hand, hence the name. Salvation Ministries was founded in Port Harcourt in 1997, and Ibiyeomie moved the church’s Sunday service to the cathedral site in January 2022. Thousands of worshippers and visitors are expected in the city for Friday’s ceremony.