The former Beninese president, who is working to ease tensions within this Protestant church, has announced that a law on the organisation of religious worship will soon be put to a vote. A way to continuing wielding influence on the country’s political stage?

Several hundred people crowded into an ‘information meeting’ organised by the French diocese of the Celestial Church of Christ (CCC) in a hall in Saint-Ouen, near Paris, on Saturday 29 August. On the platform was a rather unexpected guest for this religious gathering: Patrice Talon. The former Beninese head of state, now president of the Senate, was there that day acting as ‘facilitator’ in the leadership crisis that has rocked the CCC for several years. Among other things, he announced that a law on the organisation of religious worship in Benin would be put to a vote in the near future.