Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa

Last updated

Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa
REACH-SA logo.jpg
Classification Protestant
Orientation Anglican and Reformed
Polity Episcopal
Presiding bishop Siegfried Ngubane
Associations World Reformed Fellowship, GAFCON
RegionSouth Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi [1] [2] [3]
Origin1938
Separated from Anglican Church of Southern Africa (then the Church of the Province of Southern Africa)
Congregations150 [4]
Members100,000 [5]
Official website reachsa.org.za

The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa (REACH-SA), known until 2013 as the Church of England in South Africa (CESA), is a Christian denomination in South Africa. It was constituted in 1938 as a federation of churches. It appointed its first bishop in 1955. [4] It is an Anglican church (though not a member of the Anglican Communion) and it relates closely to the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, to which it is similar in that it sees itself as a bastion of the Reformation and particularly of reformed doctrine. [6] [ page needed ]

Contents

History

Before 1938

The first Church of England service on record in South Africa was conducted by a naval chaplain in 1749. After the British occupation of the Cape in 1806, congregations were formed and churches were built. [4]

In 1847 an Anglo-Catholic bishop was appointed to lead the church. He was determined to enforce Tractarianism on the Church. There were those who preferred to follow the Reformation principles and teachings of the Church of England. Thus, when in 1870 Bishop Gray formed the Church of the Province of SA (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa), these evangelical Anglican clergy remained outside the new body.[ citation needed ]

1938–present

The synod of the CESA adopted the church's present constitution in 1938. The draft was prepared by Howard Mowll, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney in Australia. The preamble and declaration of the constitution includes the following statement: "The Church of England in South Africa, as a Reformed and Protestant Church, doth hereby reaffirm its constant witness against all those innovations in doctrine and worship, whereby the primitive faith hath been from time to time defaced or overlaid, and which at the Reformation, the Church of England did disown and reject." [7]

James Hickenbotham made an attempt to unite CESA and the Anglican Church in South Africa in 1953. Hickenbotham presented proposals, known as the Thirteen Points, as a basis for negotiation. The 1954 synod rejected the proposals as their adoption would have placed the CESA in a weakened position compared to the Anglican Church in South Africa. [7] In 1959, Fred Morris of CESA contacted Joost de Blank, the Archbishop of Cape Town (Church of the Province of Southern Africa) suggesting that negotiations take place between the two churches with a view to reconciliation. The CPSA rejected this approach. [8]

Stephen Bradley served as presiding bishop from 1965 to 1984: he was a supporter of apartheid. [9] He was one of three ministers to preside at the funeral of Hendrik Verwoerd, the "Architect of Apartheid". [10] [11] In the 1970s and 1980s, the CESA "became a haven for conservative whites fleeing the 'liberal' positions of Desmond Tutu and others in the CPSA". [12]

In 1984, Dudley Foord was appointed by Synod as Presiding Bishop. He was consecrated by the Archbishop of Sydney, Australia before taking up his episcopal duties in South Africa. George Alfred Swartz, the Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman, representing the Episcopal Synod of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, attended the consecration. Despite the conciliatory tone at Foord's consecration, the Presiding Bishop of CESA was not invited to attend the Lambeth Conference held in 1988 either as a bishop of the Anglican Church or as a bishop of a church in full communion with the Anglican denomination. [13]

From the mid-1980s onwards, discrimination in its constitution, national structure and practices were "systematically removed". [10] This included the passing at their 1985 synod of a statement that included the phrase: "Synod totally rejects discrimination on grounds of colour, sex or race as contrary to the Bible." [14] In a 1999 statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, future presiding bishop Frank Retief suggested the denomination's perceived support of apartheid was the result of a number of issues: believing government propaganda, its objection to liberation theology, and that they should remain "a-political" to concentrate on growing their small denomination. [10] He also claimed that senior leaders had met with both P. W. Botha and F. W. de Klerk when they served as State President of South Africa to "express concern about the wrongs in south Africa" but hid these from local leadership and their congregations which "reinforced the view that we were supporters of the government and not critics". [10]

On 25 July 1993, St James Church Kenilworth was attacked by the armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress. [15] Eleven were killed but the three attackers were later granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. [16]

In 2004, the church was described as "most theologically conservative evangelical denomination in South Africa". [12]

At Synod 2013 The Church of England in South Africa voted to change its official operating name to The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa, REACH-SA. [17] At Synod 2014 Desmond Ingelsby resigned as the presiding bishop due to bad health. Synod appointed several bishops to do the work of the presiding bishop until a presiding bishop was appointed. Glen Lyons was appointed the Chairman of the group.[ citation needed ]

Namibia

Stephen and Aura Quirk moved to Swakopmund Namibia in the 1980's, to work at Rossing Mine. They had become Christians at St. James Church, Kenilworth, Cape Town, under the preaching of Rev. Frank Retief. In Swakopmund the local church had an Arminian Pastor and Stephan found himself at odds with his teaching. Thus Stephan obtained cassette tapes of Franks sermons and bible studies and began CESA Sunday Services and Bible Studies in a garage in Swakopmund. This fledgling church was named St. Timothy's Church. In 1988 St. Timothy's called their first minister, Rev. George van der Westhuizen who was a long distance Curate under Rev. Frank Retief in Kenilworth, Cape Town. When Rev. George van der Westhuizen accepted a call to Welkom in the Free State to do his second term of Curacy in 1992 Mr Ingo van der Merwe (a youth for Christ worker) took the reins at St. Timothy's Church. George and Ingo were at Bible College together. The next minister at St Timothy's was Rev Johann van der Bijl Then Rev. George van der Westhuizen came back to St. Timothy's in 1998 In 2005, St. Timothy's Congregation Chose to leave CESA and join an American Denomination. St. Timothy's no longer exists. [18]

Right Reverend Lukas Katenda is the current Bishop of REACH Namibia after Bishop Kalangula Peter, the first bishop. [19]

Organisation

Although REACH-SA has been excluded from the Lambeth Conference, its ministerial orders are recognised by the Anglican Communion, and these orders derive from Bishop Fred Morris, a former Anglican missionary bishop in North Africa, who moved in 1955 to South Africa, much to the irritation[ citation needed ] of the then Archbishop of Canterbury. Several REACH-SA clerics have controversially [20] served in the Church of England.

In 2009, the denomination was composed of just under 200 congregations, with a total of about 120,000 members. All churches must contribute 10% of their income to a central fund, but in practice some churches do not. Christ Church, Midrand; Christ Church, Pinetown; and St James Church, Kenilworth all have memberships of several thousand, with attendances on Sunday morning services at about 1000. The average church size is about 150.[ citation needed ]

Presiding bishops

Source:[ citation needed ]

Interchurch organisations

The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa is a member of the World Reformed Fellowship [21] and the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. [22]

Practices

The church's canons allow for lay presidency at Holy Communion and also the use of grape juice instead of fermented wine. All references to baptismal regeneration and absolution have been eliminated from the denomination's alternative prayer book, as has the word catholic in the creeds (Nicene Creed and Apostles' Creed).[ citation needed ]

Training colleges

George Whitefield College (GWC), the official REACH-SA theological training facility in Cape Town is modelled on Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia. The founding principal of GWC was Broughton Knox; the current principal is Mark Dickson. Another REACH-SA college is the Kwazulu-Natal Missionary Bible College (formerly known as Trinity Academy) in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal.[ citation needed ]

Anglican realignment

The REACH-SA has been involved in the Anglican realignment and was one of the denominations that participated at the launching of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in South Africa, on 3 September 2009. [23] The Presiding Bishop of REACH-SA, Glenn Lyons, consecrated the Rev. Jonathan Pryke, of Jesmond Parish Church, as an overseas bishop, the first ever in Europe, on 2 May 2017. [24] This was controversial due to REACH-SA's status outside of the Anglican Communion, and because the consecration occurred without the knowledge of the Bishop of Newcastle. It wasn't also officially sanctioned by the GAFCON UK. [25] REACH-SA justified the consecration because their bishops "have regularly stood in to help with ordinations and other episcopal ministry to the Jesmond Parish Church due to its members being in impaired communion with their own diocesan bishop". [26]

The REACH-SA was part of the South African delegation that attended GAFCON III on 17-22 June 2018 in Jerusalem. [27]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free Church of England</span> UK Christian denomination

The Free Church of England (FCE) is an episcopal church based in England. The church was founded when a number of congregations separated from the established Church of England in the middle of the 19th century.

Since the 1990s, the Anglican Communion has struggled with controversy regarding homosexuality in the church. In 1998, the 13th Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops passed a resolution "rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture". However, this is not legally binding. "Like all Lambeth Conference resolutions, it is not legally binding on all provinces of the Communion, including the Church of England, though it commends an essential and persuasive view of the attitude of the Communion." "Anglican national churches in Brazil, South Africa, South India, New Zealand and Canada have taken steps toward approving and celebrating same-sex relationships amid strong resistance among other national churches within the 80 million-member global body. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has allowed same-sex marriage since 2015, and the Scottish Episcopal Church has allowed same-sex marriage since 2017." In 2017, clergy within the Church of England indicated their inclination towards supporting same-sex marriage by dismissing a bishops' report that explicitly asserted the exclusivity of church weddings to unions between a man and a woman. At General Synod in 2019, the Church of England announced that same-gender couples may remain recognised as married after one spouse experiences a gender transition. In 2023, the Church of England announced that it would authorise "prayers of thanksgiving, dedication and for God's blessing for same-sex couples."

The Continuing Anglican movement, also known as the Anglican Continuum, encompasses a number of Christian churches, principally based in North America, that have an Anglican identity and tradition but are not part of the Anglican Communion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of South India</span> United Protestant church in South India

The Church of South India (CSI) is a united Protestant Church in India. It is the result of union of a number of Protestant denominations in South India that occurred after the independence of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesmond Parish Church</span> Evangelical church in Newcastle upon Tyne, England

Jesmond Parish Church is a parish church in the Church of England situated in Brandling Village in the Jesmond suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The church's official name is the Clayton Memorial Church and is unusual among Anglican parish churches in not being named after either a saint who appears in the church's calendar or a person of the Trinity. This reflects the church's conservative Evangelical roots. It is a grade II listed building.

The Anglican Church of Southern Africa, known until 2006 as the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, is the province of the Anglican Communion in the southern part of Africa. The church has twenty-five dioceses, of which twenty-one are located in South Africa, and one each in Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Saint Helena. In South Africa, there are between 3 and 4 million Anglicans out of an estimated population of 45 million.

The Church of Bangladesh is a united Protestant church formed by the union of various Protestant churches in Bangladesh, principally the Anglican and Presbyterian denominations. The Church of Bangladesh is a member of the Anglican Communion and World Communion of Reformed Churches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Church of South America</span> South American religious congregation

The Anglican Church of South America is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers six dioceses in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.

The Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada. Two of the major events that contributed to the movement were the 2002 decision of the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada to authorise a rite of blessing for same-sex unions, and the nomination of two openly gay priests in 2003 to become bishops. Jeffrey John, an openly gay priest with a long-time partner, was appointed to be the next Bishop of Reading in the Church of England and the General Convention of the Episcopal Church ratified the election of Gene Robinson, an openly gay non-celibate man, as Bishop of New Hampshire. Jeffrey John ultimately declined the appointment due to pressure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches</span> Ecclesiastical conference

The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), formerly known as Global South (Anglican), is a communion of 25 Anglican churches, of which 22 are provinces of the Anglican Communion, plus the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Church in Brazil. The Anglican Diocese of Sydney is also officially listed as a member.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Church in North America</span> Anglican realignment province

The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba. Headquartered in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, the church reported 977 congregations and 124,999 members in 2022. The first archbishop of the ACNA was Robert Duncan, who was succeeded by Foley Beach in 2014.

The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) is a series of conferences of conservative Anglican bishops and leaders, the first of which was held in Jerusalem from 22 to 29 June 2008 to address the growing controversy of the divisions in the Anglican Communion, the rise of secularism, as well as concerns with HIV/AIDS and poverty. As a result of the conference, the Jerusalem Declaration was issued and the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans was created. The conference participants also called for the creation of the Anglican Church in North America as an alternative to both the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada, and declared that recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury is not necessary to Anglican identity.

The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans is a communion of conservative Anglican churches that formed in 2008 in response to ongoing theological disputes in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Conservative Anglicans met in 2008 at the Global Anglican Future Conference, creating the Jerusalem Declaration and establishing the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), which was rebranded as GAFCON in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ordination of women in the Anglican Communion</span> Women becoming Anglican clergy

The ordination of women in the Anglican Communion has been increasingly common in certain provinces since the 1970s. Several provinces, however, and certain dioceses within otherwise ordaining provinces, continue to ordain only men. Disputes over the ordination of women have contributed to the establishment and growth of progressive tendencies, such as the Anglican realignment and Continuing Anglican movements.

Nceba Bethlehem Nopece is a South African Anglican bishop. He was the bishop of Port Elizabeth in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa from 2001 to 2018. He is a theological conservative, the leading name of the Anglican realignment in his church and also the chairman of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in South Africa, launched in 2009.

The Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa/New Zealand (CCAANZ) is an evangelical Anglican denomination in New Zealand. It is not a member of the Anglican Communion as recognised by the current Archbishop of Canterbury, but is recognised by the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON). The church consists of 17 parishes, some of which consist of clergy and church members who left the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia after it allowed bishops to authorise blessings of same-sex marriages, and some of which were newly established at the time of the formation of the church.

Stephen Carlton Bradley was an Anglican bishop who served as presiding bishop of the Church of England in South Africa from 1965 to 1984.

The Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE) is a small Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition with churches in Europe. Formed as part of the worldwide Anglican realignment, it is a member jurisdiction of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON) and is under the primatial oversight of the chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council. ANiE runs in parallel with the Free Church of England (RECUK). GAFCON recognizes ANiE as a "proto-province" operating separately from the Church of England, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church in Wales and other Anglican Communion jurisdictions in Great Britain and the European continent. ANiE is the body hierarchically above the preexisting Anglican Mission in England; the former is the equivalent of a province whilst the latter is a convocation, the equivalent of a diocese.

Frank J. Retief is a retired Anglican clergyman. He served as Presiding Bishop of the Church of England in South Africa from 2000 to 2010.

Siegfried John Ngubane is a South African Anglican bishop. He is the first indigenous African presiding bishop of the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa (REACH-SA).

References

  1. ↑ "Regions Archive | Zimbabwe". CESA. 9 August 2012. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  2. ↑ "Regions Archive | Namibia". CESA. 9 August 2012. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  3. ↑ "Regions Archive | Malawi". CESA. 8 August 2012. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 Inglesby, Desmond. "Presiding Bishop's Charge – 2011" (PDF). Church of England in South Africa. Retrieved 18 December 2011.
  5. ↑ "Church Denominations in South Africa". SA Christian. Retrieved 18 December 2011.
  6. ↑ Ive 1992.
  7. 1 2 Long 1996, p. 10.
  8. ↑ Long 1996, p. 11.
  9. ↑ "REACH Speeds Past GAFCON". The Living Church. 16 May 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Church of England in South Africa. Testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, East London, 17 November 1999" (PDF). University of Cape Town. Archived from the original (pdf cite web) on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  11. ↑ Rt Revd John D. Davies. "Letters to the Editor: CESA's position during the apartheid struggle". Church Times. Retrieved 7 May 2022. The CESA kept separate not only from the CPSA, but from the whole ecumenical fellowship of Churches. With its handful of congregations in white areas of the Western Cape, it kept aloof from the problems of poverty and injustice which oppressed the majority of South Africa's people during the apartheid years; in both theology and practice it was content to be part of the white-supremacy culture. Dr Hendrik Verwoerd was the theoretical architect of the apartheid ideology, and, as Prime Minister, was uncompromising in its application. When, in September 1966, he was assassinated, three ministers officiated at his funeral. Two of these, very appropriately, represented the churches of the powerful Afrikaans-speaking Dutch Reformed communities; the third was Bishop Stephen Bradley, of the CESA, the one English-language church leader who was acceptable to the apartheid administration.
  12. 1 2 Balcomb, Anthony (2004). "From Apartheid to the New Dispensation: Evangelicals and the Democratization of South Africa". Journal of Religion in Africa . 34 (1/2): 5–38. doi:10.1163/157006604323056705. ISSN   0022-4200. JSTOR   1581479.
  13. ↑ Long 1996, p. 12.
  14. ↑ Joe Bell (18 July 1997). "CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN SOUTH AFRICA: From the Presiding Bishop" (PDF). University of Cape Town. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  15. ↑ "The St. James' Massacre". Sydney Anglicans. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  16. ↑ "Decision AC/98/0018". Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa. Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa). 11 June 1998.
  17. ↑ "About us - Denomination". REACH-SA. REACH South Africa. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  18. ↑ Memories of George van der Westhuizen
  19. ↑ "Anglican bishop consecrated for Namibia | Anglican Ink © 2022". anglican.ink. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  20. ↑ "Bishop revokes licence of rogue Evangelical". ekklesia.co.uk. 10 November 2005. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  21. ↑ "Members of the World Reformed Fellowship". Archived from the original on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  22. ↑ "New General Secretary for GAFCON". Anglican Ink. 10 November 2023. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  23. ↑ Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans launched in South Africa, GAFCON Official Website, 3 September 2009
  24. ↑ Holloway, David (May 2017). "JPC Press Statement – New Style English Bishop". Print & Audio. The Jesmond Trust. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  25. ↑ Jesmond Parish statement on Pryke consecration, Anglican Ink, 9 May 2017
  26. ↑ Statement on the Jesmond Consecration, REACH-SA Official Website, 12 May 2017
  27. ↑ GAFCON III largest pan-Anglican gathering since Toronto Congress of 1963, Anglican Ink, 20 June 2018

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.