Dutch Reformed Church | |
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29°39′59.90″S17°53′5.83″E / 29.6666389°S 17.8849528°E | |
Location | Springbok |
Country | South Africa |
Denomination | Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk |
History | |
Founded | 1850 |
Architecture | |
Functional status | Church |
The Dutch Reformed Church in Springbok, also known as the Klipkerk, was founded in 1850 as the 42nd congregation in the Dutch Reformed Church in the settlement of Bowesdorp, south of Springbok, which was abandoned with the relocation of Kamieskroon in 1923 and where only a few ruins remained for decades. Although the core of the congregation is in the Northern Cape town of Springbok, the congregation falls under the Synod of the Western and Southern Cape and lends its name to the most northwestern ring of this Synod which also included the diamond mining town of Oranjemund in Namibia until it was transferred to the NG Church in Namibia in 2013. [1]
The congregation is the mother congregation of the NG churches in Namaqualand. After the membership in the mining towns of Nababeep and Aggeneys declined sharply, so that these congregations could no longer support their own pastor, their church council entered into an agreement with the mother congregation, in terms of which the minister(s) of Namaqualand remained responsible for Simon van der Stel (Nababeep) and Aggeneys. [2]
The first cattle farmers began to settle around 1750 on the edge of Little Namaqualand (to distinguish it from Great Namaqualand across the Orange River in what later became South West Africa) in the so-called Hardeveld. [3] In this arid region, the water-rich Kamiesberge mountains attracted the most attention. [4] From around 1760, one farm after another was given out and the settlers gradually tamed the area. [5]