scholarly journals Reformed Churches in South Africa’s strategies for poverty reduction in urban communities

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Motshine A. Sekhaulelo
Keyword(s):  
Urban Communities ◽  
South African ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Urban Community ◽  
Prosperity Gospel ◽  
The South ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
The Church

This article investigates and outlines the strategies, which the Reformed Churches in South Africa (RCSA) can employ for poverty alleviation in the South African urban communities. By RCSA, the author refers to the local churches that constitute a familyof churches or church organisation. It is important to note that, historically, the churches stood at the forefront of giving freely to the poor, caring for widows, taking in destitute orphans, visiting the sick, and caring for the dying. Despite this long and often appreciated legacy of support for the poor and the needy, the church ceased or slowed to provide such ministry. This was probably due to the emphasis on the ’social gospel’ in liberal theology,which many churches began to view with deep suspicion. In talking about the church’s stance towards poverty, it should also be noted that, historically, the poor have suffered due to those churches that, without warrant, preach the health, wealth and prosperity gospel, incorrectly stating that God wants everyone to be equally rich. By promoting false hope about the prospects for overnight success through prayer and tithing, some of these churches take advantage of a vulnerable congregation that is often desperate for an improvement in their economic circumstances. This article investigates not only the complex of poverty and inequality in the South African (SA) urban community, but also the prophetic calling of the RCSA with respect to poverty today. The conclusion arrived at is that poverty and inequality persist in the urban community whilst the church, both as institution and organism, should be able to study and respond positively to the dynamics involved in urban poverty.Die Gereformeerde Kerke in Suid Afrika (GKSA) se strategieë vir armoedeverligtingin stedelike gebiede. Hierdie artikel ondersoek en skets die strategieë wat die GKSA kan benut om armoede in stedelike gebiede te verlig. Die GKSA verwys na plaaslike kerke wat ’n familie van kerke of kerkorganisasies uitmaak. Dit is belangrik om kennis te neem van die feit dat die kerk, reg deur die geskiedenis, op die voorpunt was om vryelik aan armes te voorsien, vir die weduwees te sorg, weeskinders in te neem, siekes te besoek en sterwendeste versorg. Ten spyte van hierdie lang en meestal gewaardeerde nalatenskap aan armes en behoeftiges, het hierdie bediening deur die kerk afgeneem en is in baie gevalle gestaak. Dit is waarskynlik as gevolg van die klem wat in die bevrydingsteologie op die ‘sosialeevangelie’ geplaas is en tans deur baie kerke met agterdog bejeën word. Wanneer die kerk se houding teenoor armoede ter sprake kom, moet ’n mens in gedagte hou dat, histories gesproke, die armes as gevolg van die kerk ly – kerke wat sonder waarborg die gesondheidsen voorspoedteologie verkondig het en wat valslik voorgegee het dat dit God se wil is dat almal ewe ryk moet wees. Deur die vals vooruitsigte voor te hou om oornag deur gebed en uit offergawes ryk te word, is kwesbare gemeentelede wat desperaat was vir die verbetering van hulle ekonomiese omstandighede uitgebuit. Hierdie artikel ondersoek nie net die kompleksiteit van armoede en ongelykhede in die stedelike gemeenskappe van Suid-Afrika nie, maar ook die profetiese roeping van die GKSA met betrekking tot armoede vandag. Die gevolgtrekking is dus dat armoede en ongelykheid voortduur in stedelike gebiede terwyl die kerk as instituut sowel as organisme die bevoegdheid moes hê om die dinamiek wat deel van stedelike armoede uitmaak, te bestudeer en positief daarop te reageer.

scholarly journals The challenges facing the Dutch Reformed Churches in the South African liberal democracy

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Motshine A. Sekhaulelo
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Dutch Reformed ◽  
The South ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
The Church

This article investigates the challenges facing the Dutch Reformed Churches in the SouthAfrican liberal democracy. It is premised on the fact that the Dutch Reformed Churches areconfronted with a new context that places the church in a position to continue its work ofbearing witness in the new dispensation. Part of this reflection involved seeking out theBiblical principles and guidelines that Christians would have to take into account in associationwith the new political order.

scholarly journals An ethical analysis of the implementation of poverty reduction policies in South Africa and Chile and their implications for the Church

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Kretzschmar
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Ethical Analysis ◽  
The South ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Church ◽  
Practical Implications

The focus of this contribution is the issue of poverty reduction within the South African and Chilean contexts. It is rooted in the academic field of Christian Ethics and also draws on several texts from the human and economic sciences. Policies adopted and practical steps taken to overcome poverty by the respective governments between 1990 and 2012 are evaluated and the theological and practical implications of poverty for the church are briefly highlighted. Despite differences between these two countries, South Africans can learn much from the Chilean policy and its implementation.

scholarly journals Kerk en owerheid binne ’n regstaat. Die profetiese roeping van die kerk met betrekking tot die Suid-Afrikaanse owerheid

2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Vorster ◽  
J.H. Van Wyk
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
The South ◽  
African Government ◽  
Constitutional State ◽  
African Context ◽  
The Government ◽  
Just Society ◽  
The Church

Church and government within a constitutional state. The prophetic calling of the church towards the South-African government With the transition to a new political dispensation in South Africa, a constitutional state has been established. A typical characteristic of this new dispensation is that the government remains neutral while the executive powers are subject to the Bill of Human Rights. The question of how the church can realize its prophetic task towards the government within the context of a constitutional state is highlighted in this article. The central theoretical argument is that a constitutional state that acknowledges fundamental rights provides an excellent opportunity for the church to fulfil its prophetic calling within the South African context. The church can contribute to a just society by prophetic testimony within the perspective of the kingdom of God.

Tracing the Theological Development of the South African Baptismal Rites: The Journey to An Anglican Prayer Book 1989 and Beyond

2017 ◽  
Vol 99 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-64
Author(s):  
Andrew-John Bethke
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Church Membership ◽  
The South ◽  
Valuable Source ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Church Unity ◽  
Common Prayer ◽  
The Church

This essay analyzes the theological changes which are reflected in successive revisions of Southern Africa's Anglican liturgy from 1900 to 1989. The following liturgies are examined: A Book of Common Prayer—South Africa (1954); Proposals for the Revision of the Rites of Baptism and Confirmation (1967); the Church Unity Commission's ecumenical liturgies in the 1970s; Birth and Growth in Christ (1984); and An Anglican Prayer Book 1989. The article also includes valuable source material which influenced the revised liturgies, including two official reports on the theology of baptism and confirmation. The author finds that theological uncertainty surrounding the underpinning of current rites brings into question whether full church membership is actually granted during baptism.

“Vagrant Negroes”

2018 ◽  
pp. 32-46
Author(s):  
Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
The South ◽  
Antebellum Era ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Nineteenth Century United States ◽  
Upper South

Laws regulating the movement, residence, employment, and labor of the poor, and especially of poor African Americans in states with burgeoning free populations, demonstrate how mobility, when enacted by the poor and by non-whites, was classified as a criminal action in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century United States. In the Upper South especially, these laws had the express goal of attaching to all people of color the potential consequences of enslavement. This essay will link these ideas by tracing mobility and its construction as a classed and raced activity, as threats to existing labor regimes and social systems. This was most commonly and notoriously done through the policing of vagrancy, which allowed authorities to punish the poor, most punitively, in the South, African Americans, for unemployment or a reluctance to enter into a particular labor contract. This essay argues that the power dynamics of the South can be read clearly in the classed and raced regulation of vagrancy and geographical mobility in the antebellum era.

scholarly journals Kerk, volk en owerheid in die 1858-grondwet van die Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek

1995 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
South African ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
The South ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of The South ◽  
The Church

Church, people and government in the  1858 constitution of the South African Republic During the years 1855 to 1858 the South African Republic in the Transvaal created a new constitution. In this constitution a unique relation-ship between church, people and government was visible. This relationship was influenced by the Calvinist confessions of the sixteenth century, the theology of W ά Brakel and orthodox Calvinism, the federal concepts of the Old Testament and republican ideas of the Netherlands and Cape Patriots. It becomes clear that the history of the church in the Transvaal was directly influenced by the general history of the South African Republic.

scholarly journals The church as a transformation and change agent

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry Pillay
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Change Agent ◽  
South African Context ◽  
The South ◽  
Community Transformation ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
African Context ◽  
The Church ◽  
Changing Society

This article traces the historical impact of the church in transforming, developing and changing society. It looks at how the church in selected periods in history, mainly in the reformation era, worked towards the transformation of society and communities. Extracting from these the author attempts to show how this can be applied to the church in the South African context. Further, the author explores the changing dynamics and characteristics of being church today and establishes that it is not so much about what the church believes, but in what it does that matters most in this day and age. The author, with the latter thought in mind, expresses that community transformation has to be an integral part of the ministry of the church today.

scholarly journals Rural education: Reimagining the role of the church in transforming poverty in South Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christo Thesnaar
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Rural Education ◽  
South African ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Johann Baptist Metz ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Church

The desire to remember the plight of the poor in South Africa has reduced in the last 20 years after the transition from apartheid to freedom. To a large extent, Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) and the religious society at large have lost their ‘dangerous memory’ which keeps us mindful of those who suffered and whose plight is usually forgotten or suppressed. In this contribution the conditions of poor farm school children in multigrade rural education will be scrutinised by unpacking the contextual factors that cause us to forget their plight. This article will seek to reimagine the role of the church in poverty-stricken South Africa by engaging with the work of Talcott Parsons, the practical theologian Johannes A. Van der Ven, as well as the work of the political theologian Johann Baptist Metz in order to affirm the focus of Practical Theology to transform society and to contribute to the quest for justice and liberation for the poor in rural education. This reimagining discourse has a fundamental responsibility to challenge the social, political and economic realities that shape the lives of human beings within rural education, remembering the plight of the poor, and participating on their journey towards liberation and healing. It is proposed that if the church can activate its ‘dangerous memory’ it will be able to reimagine its role by transforming our poverty-stricken South African society, open new avenues for breaking the cycle of poverty and contribute to rural education.

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