scholarly journals A socio-historical analysis of the sections in the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa from 1908 to the present

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mookgo S. Kgatle
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Mixed Race ◽  
Church History ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
History Of ◽  
Apostolic Faith Mission ◽  
Scholarly Contribution ◽  
The Church

The article presents a socio-historical analysis of the sections in the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) of South Africa from 1908 to the present. In order to achieve this, the article studies the relationship between the South African social politics and the ecclesiastical politics. It demonstrates how the AFM got divided into sections. The sections are the white, mixed race, Indian and black sections. The four sections in the AFM were not equal in power and responsibilities. The white section of the church was the major and domineering section of the AFM. Although other sections like mixed race and Indian were also inferior to the white section, the black section was the most inferior and marginalised section. The article also studies how the divisions in the AFM were addressed and solved. The purpose is to demonstrate how the church that was once divided into sections according to racial groups was able to move into unity.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article makes a valuable scholarly contribution to the ongoing research on the history of the AFM in the field of church history. It juxtaposes church history with the problems facing society today like racial segregation and how such problems can be addressed and solved.

scholarly journals Migration history in South Africa as a lens for interpreting God’s mission: Towards a challenge for churches to embrace migrants

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Magezi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Church History ◽  
Early Church ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Migration History ◽  
God's Mission ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

This article challenges the church to embrace migrants by presenting migration history in South Africa during the era of European explorers as a lens for interpreting God’s mission. In avowing the aforementioned, it argues for migration history of the European explorers to South Africa as the way God has used in establishing the church in South Africa. However, in view of the subsequent colonialism and slave trade in South Africa that emerged from the period of European explorers, this article recognises the conception of slave trade and colonialism during the era of European explorers as an evil act. Notably, in bringing Joseph’s forced migration to Egypt as a theological lens to interpret some sinful acts that were embedded in the migration of European explorers to South Africa that also resulted in the establishment of the early church in South Africa, it contends that God’s purpose and plans are not frustrated or thwarted by human sin. God, in his grace and love to reach his remnant people with the gospel, utilises various migrations of European explorers to South Africa (regardless of how sinful they are) to advance his kingdom to South Africa. The notion of migration history in South Africa as a lens for interpreting God’s mission is utilised to challenge the churches to embrace migrants because God uses migration or migrants to advance his kingdom to all the earth. The article concludes by calling the church to embrace all migrants because humankind are usually unacquainted with the particular migrants that God is utilising to advance his kingdom.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article outlines theological research agenda for migration history in South Africa as a lens to interpret God’s mission. It considers migration history in South Africa during the era of European explorers as a tool that God used to advance his kingdom. As such, it is a theological interdisciplinary article integrating church history and mission. The contribution of this article lies in establishing the emergence of the early church in South Africa as a result of migration, which it utilises as a challenge for churches to embrace migrants.

scholarly journals A Quarter Century of Structural Unity in the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa: A Socio Historical Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mookgo Solomon Kgatle
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Assemblies Of God ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
White People ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Full Gospel ◽  
Pentecostal Churches ◽  
Apostolic Faith Mission ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

The Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) of South Africa is one of the largest Pentecostal churches in Africa, with other denominational Pentecostal churches like the Full Gospel and the Assemblies of God. Since its inception in 1908, the AFM of South Africa has been divided into four main sections, namely: black, white, mixed race and Indian, for about 88 years. The church followed the divisions under apartheid in South Africa that divided people according to race, colour and ethnicity, with white people at the forefront of that division. It was only in 1996 that the AFM of South Africa decided to unite under one umbrella, with one constitution governing the structures and the members of the church. The 25 years of unity within the AFM of South Africa call for an evaluation of both the successes and the failures of this unity. Through a socio-historical analysis, it will be possible to identify the achievements of this unity on the one hand, and the loopholes on the other. The paper will show that the identified loopholes are detrimental to the unity of the church and its future. Therefore, in order to experience true unity, the church should address the challenges that compromise this unity by returning to the biblical basis of unity, dealing with structural impediments and encouraging multicultural fellowships. When the above is done, not only will the church experience true unity, but also maintain its growth that the church has experienced over the years of its existence.

scholarly journals Integrated Pentecostal Ministry of Richard Ngidi in the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa, 1921–1985

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mookgo Solomon Kgatle
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Racial Segregation ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
History Of ◽  
Unity In Diversity ◽  
Apostolic Faith Mission ◽  
South African Politics

Previous studies on the life and ministry of Richard Ngidi only present historical data on his achievements and to some extent his failures. This paper is a socio-historical analysis that not only reveals historical data but also aims to problematise the data in relation to social problems like racial segregation. A socio-historical analysis is a method that finds synergy between historical and social factors. The socio-historical analysis in this paper juxtaposes the history of Ngidi with racial segregation. The analysis of the ministry of Ngidi in the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) of South Africa demonstrates that his ministry was an integrated one amid a segregated society. Integrated ministry refers to a ministry that is able to bring unity in the midst of various divisions in society. The AFM of South Africa, like many other denominations, was a segregated society because of the influence of South African politics on ecclesiastical politics during apartheid. Similarly, many pastors adhered to the racial policies of that time or broke away to start their own ministries. Ngidi was an exception because his ministry was multi-racial, non-political, gender-inclusive, interdenominational and international. Therefore, this paper contends that Ngidi serves as a model for social cohesion and unity in diversity.

scholarly journals Die belydenis van Belhar in dogma-historiese perspektief

1998 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Vorster
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Church History ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Reformed Tradition ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

The discussions about the unity of the Church within the churches in the Reformed tradition in South Africa are presently highly influenced by the Belhar Confession. Should the acceptance of this Confession be seen as a prerequisite for the eventual unification of these churches? This article deals with this question against the background of the guidelines given by the formation of confessions in the disciplines of Church History and especially in History of Dogma. The central theoretical argument of this article is that history reveals a certain pattern which can be applied in the evaluation of confessions in general and thus today also of the Belhar Confession. First of all, a confession must deal with a problem concerning churches worldwide; secondly a confession in the Reformed tradition should be based on Scripture; and thirdly, a confession should be accepted after it has been preceded by an ecumenical debate about the necessity, contents and formulation of the particular confession. The Belhar Confession is eventually evaluated on the basis of these premises.

scholarly journals Traversing a Tightrope between Ecumenism and Exclusivism: The Intertwined History of South Africa’s Dutch Reformed Church and the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian in Nyasaland (Malawi)

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 176
Author(s):  
Retief Müller
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Church History ◽  
Dutch Reformed ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Christian Nationalism ◽  
The Church ◽  
Dutch Reformed Church

During the first few decades of the 20th century, the Nkhoma mission of the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa became involved in an ecumenical venture that was initiated by the Church of Scotland’s Blantyre mission, and the Free Church of Scotland’s Livingstonia mission in central Africa. Geographically sandwiched between these two Scots missions in Nyasaland (presently Malawi) was Nkhoma in the central region of the country. During a period of history when the DRC in South Africa had begun to regressively disengage from ecumenical entanglements in order to focus on its developing discourse of Afrikaner Christian nationalism, this venture in ecumenism by one of its foreign missions was a remarkable anomaly. Yet, as this article illustrates, the ecumenical project as finalized at a conference in 1924 was characterized by controversy and nearly became derailed as a result of the intransigence of white DRC missionaries on the subject of eating together with black colleagues at a communal table. Negotiations proceeded and somehow ended in church unity despite the DRC’s missionaries’ objection to communal eating. After the merger of the synods of Blantyre, Nkhoma and Livingstonia into the unified CCAP, distinct regional differences remained, long after the colonial missionaries departed. In terms of its theological predisposition, especially on the hierarchy of social relations, the Nkhoma synod remains much more conservative than both of its neighboring synods in the CCAP to the south and north. Race is no longer a matter of division. More recently, it has been gender, and especially the issue of women’s ordination to ministry, which has been affirmed by both Blantyre and Livingstonia, but resisted by the Nkhoma synod. Back in South Africa, these events similarly had an impact on church history and theological debate, but in a completely different direction. As the theology of Afrikaner Christian nationalism and eventually apartheid came into positions of power in the 1940s, the DRC’s Nkhoma mission in Malawi found itself in a position of vulnerability and suspicion. The very fact of its participation in an ecumenical project involving ‘liberal’ Scots in the formation of an indigenous black church was an intolerable digression from the normative separatism that was the hallmark of the DRC under apartheid. Hence, this article focuses on the variegated entanglements of Reformed Church history, mission history, theology and politics in two different 20th-century African contexts, Malawi and South Africa.

scholarly journals Historiese teologie in ʼn veranderende konteks

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wim A. Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Church History ◽  
Church Polity ◽  
History Of ◽  
Missions History ◽  
History Of Theology ◽  
Historical Theology ◽  
History Of Biblical Interpretation ◽  
The Church ◽  
Precarious Situation

In this contribution, the author reflects on historical theology as theological discipline. After a short introduction to the precarious situation of church history as a theological discipline in South Africa and the question of faith and history, the contribution presents an analysis of Gerhard Ebeling’s 1947 publication on church history in which he proposed that church history should be understood as a history of Biblical interpretation. Based on some of the principles Ebeling delineated, the author proposes that historical theology could be applied to five areas of research: prolegomena, history of the church, history of missions, history of theology and church polity. The point is made that historical theology, when properly structured and presented, could play a major role in enriching the theological and ecclesial conversation and in assisting the church in the process of reformation and transformation.Keywords: Gerhard Ebeling; Hermeneutics; Church History

scholarly journals A Quarter Century of Democracy and the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leepo Johannes Modise
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
History Of ◽  
Measuring Tool ◽  
The Church

This paper focuses on the role of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA) in the South African society during the past 25 years of its services to God, one another and the world. Firstly, the paper provides a brief history of URCSA within 25 years of its existence. Secondly, the societal situation in democratic South Africa is highlighted in light of Article 4 of the Belhar Confession and the Church Order as a measuring tool for the role of the church. Thirdly, the thermometer-thermostat metaphor is applied in evaluating the role of URCSA in democratic South Africa. Furthermore, the 20 years of URCSA and democracy in South Africa are assessed in terms of Gutierrez’s threefold analysis of liberation. In conclusion, the paper proposes how URCSA can rise above the thermometer approach to the thermostat approach within the next 25 years of four general synods.

scholarly journals Social Exclusion and Inclusion in the Czech Republic and in South Africa: Comparison and Facts

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 37-46
Author(s):  
Klára Brožovičová
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Totalitarian Regimes ◽  
The Given

Abstract The article’s aim is to compare the opposite processes of social exclusion and inclusion in South Africa and in the Czech Republic, in the past and at the present time. Even though these societies differ culturally and geographically, the comparison of some important factors, which are causing the exclusion of some people groups, might be interesting. In both cases we will closely follow the social, ethnic and racial groups, which are mostly excluded in the given environment. In South Africa it concerns Black and Coloured Africans, and in the Czech Republic the Roma ethnic minority group, the only ethnic group which is to a high extent excluded. In the history of these two countries we can find a similar historic aspect, both of them had experienced totalitarian regimes. Today, with the benefit of more twenty years, we can see the changes, which both these countries have undergone, and observe as well how these changes influenced the processes of inclusion and exclusion of the given social, racial and ethnic groups.

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