The Walvis Bay Reformed Church is a congregation of the Reformed Churches in South Africa (GKSA) in the town of Walvis Bay, Namibia, but also includes nearby Swakopmund. The Henties Bay Reformed Church broke away in 2006, but the Walvis Bay pastor continues to handle it concurrently. Walvis Bay's membership was 267 in 2015, more or less evenly split between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund. Services are held in both towns every Sunday.
Walvis Bay started as a district of the Usakos Reformed Church, founded in 1953 as a likely offshoot of the Windhoek Reformed Church. Until 1955, services in Walvis Bay were held in the Freemasons' lodge and later in the courthouse, members' houses, and the Emma Hoogenhout Primary School meeting hall. The district acquired two plots of land from the city government for £1. A construction fund was founded with money from the Usakos church council. On October 27, 1956, the area of Walvis Bay, Swakopmund, and Henties Bay was given its own congregation, draining so many members from the Usakos congregation that the latter dissolved four years after.
In 1960, the young congregation hired Jac H. van Zanten as architect and J. Eisenberg as contractor. In 1961, a third of the church building was completed, including the pews and communion altar, and 40 chairs had been purchased. After fundraising and a contribution from a Rev. Bos from the Netherlands, the building was finished according to the original plan in 1970. The Rev. Bos also contributed the pulpit.
On November 8, 2009, the around 100 GKSA worshipers in Swakopmund began to use their own church building. The Sola Gratia church is built atop a flat wing of the local Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK), which had to use the same building at the time.
The Rev. Schutte's tenure
The Rev. Hendrik Willem (Hennie) Schutte was invested in his first congregation, the Walvis Bay Reformed Church, on January 15, 1995, shortly after his graduation in 1994. Shortly before moving to Namibia, he married his childhood sweetheart, Sandra Koorsen of Bloemfontein. The services were rather unique in that each Sunday morning, 2 services were held, one in Walvis Bay at 9:00 AM and one in Swakopmund at 11:00 AM. After his Walvis Bay service, he needed to travel 40 km to Swakopmund on the busy B1 road. This road was nicknamed the "road of death" due to a high accident rate.
On Sunday, May 21, 1995, a fine service in Walvis Bay was followed by the usual coffee klatch of the worshipers with the Schuttes before they left for Swakopmund. It was only 2 weeks after the congregation camp, and everyone was still abuzz over how well the new pastor and his wife had fit in to their new post. That day around 10:25 AM, and barely 3 km out of Walvis Bay in an area known as "the long turn," a vehicle hit their car where Sandra was sitting. Both the other car's occupants died instantly, but so did Sandra. The Rev. Schutte was admitted to the local hospital in critical condition and transferred to intensive care in Bloemfontein, where both his parents and in-laws waited in a month-long vigil for his recovery. Sandra was laid to rest on May 29, 1995 in the cemetery of her parents' congregation, the Berg en Dal Church of the Bloemheuwel Reformed Church (NGK), by its Rev. Hubrecht van Dalsen.
Nadat hy in so ‘n mate herstel het dat hy sy bedieningswerk kon voortsit, keer ds. Hennie laat in 1995 terug na Walvisbaai en bedien die gemeente met baie seën en toewyding tot in 2001, toe hy ‘n beroep na GK Pretoria-Wes aanvaar.
Robinson, Cobus-Brahm, 2014 – 2017 (intogether with Henties Bay)
Zwemstra, dr. H.M. (Heinrich), Sunday, December 3, 2017 – present (together with Henties Bay)
Sources
(af) Harris, C.T., Noëth, J.G., Sarkady, N.G., Schutte, F.M. en Van Tonder, J.M. 2010. Van seringboom tot kerkgebou: die argitektoniese erfenis van die Gereformeerde Kerke. Potchefstroom: Administratiewe Buro.
(af) Schalekamp, Rev. M.E. (chairman: edition commission). 2001. Die Almanak van die Gereformeerde Kerke in Suid-Afrika vir die jaar 2002. Potchefstroom: Administratiewe Buro.
(af) Van der Walt, Dr. S.J. (chairman: almanac deputies). 1997. Die Almanak van die Gereformeerde Kerke in Suid-Afrika vir die jaar 1998. Potchefstroom: Administratiewe Buro.
(af) Venter, Rev. A.A. (chief ed.) 1957. Almanak van die Gereformeerde Kerk in Suid-Afrika vir die jaar 1958. Potchefstroom: Administratiewe Buro.
(af) Venter, Rev. A.A. (chief ed.) 1958. Almanak van die Gereformeerde Kerk in Suid-Afrika vir die jaar 1959. Potchefstroom: Administratiewe Buro.
(af) Vogel, Willem (ed.). 2014. Die Almanak van die Gereformeerde Kerke in Suid-Afrika vir die jaar 2015. Potchefstroom: Administratiewe Buro.
The Reformed Churches in South Africa is a Christian denomination in South Africa that was formed in 1859 in Rustenburg. Members of the church are sometimes referred to as Doppers.
The Reformed Churches in Namibia is a confessional Reformed church in Namibia. Reformed people come from Angola to Namibia in 1929. The Dorslandtrekkers were mostly Reformed people who had settled in Angola but later moved to Namibia. The Dorslandtrekkers were originally from Transvaal, South Africa, and migrated northwestward starting in 1874 in two large and one smaller group, starting the Humpata Reformed Church under the Rev. Jan Lion Cachet. Later in 1930 3 congregations were established. More farmers came and the church grew. Missionary work was started in 1969 under the Bushmans of the Gobabis region, Botswana. It has 2,757 members and 14 congregations, and adheres to the Apostles Creed, Nicene Creed, Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession and the Canons of Dort.There's no women ordination. Official languages are Afrikaans, Bushman, Gobabis-Kung.
Hendrik (Hennie) Johannes Jacob Bingle (1910–2007) was a Calvinist, educator and Rector of the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education in Potchefstroom, South Africa.
The Reformed Church Windhoek is the oldest of the three Dutch Reformed churches in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.
The Reformed Church Windhoek-South is the second-oldest of the three Reformed Churches in South Africa (GK) congregations in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, and the largest of that denomination in the entire country by number of professed members.
The Aranos Reformed Church was a congregation of the Reformed Churches in South Africa (GKSA) in Aranos in eastern Namibia. It left the denomination in 2016. With 16 confirmed and five baptized members at the end of 2014, it was the second smallest Reformed Church in Namibia, after the Karasburg Reformed Church, which had 12 confirmed and two baptized members. In 2015, the Aranos congregation grew to 19 confirmed and six baptized members.
The Biermanskool Reformed Church was a congregation of the Reformed Churches in South Africa (GKSA) in Namibia, until 2016 when it left the denomination. The congregation is based in the oldest GKSA building still in use in Namibia.
The Gobabis Reformed Church is the oldest congregation of the Reformed Churches in South Africa (GKSA) in Gobabis in eastern Namibia. At the end of 2015, according to a poll of 300, it was the second-largest traditional Reformed Church congregation in the country.
The Grootfontein Reformed Church is a congregation affiliated with the Reformed Churches in South Africa (GKSA) and located in Grootfontein, Namibia. It was officially founded on May 29, 1943, and celebrated its 75th anniversary the weekend of May 26–27, 2018.
The Keetmanshoop Reformed Church is a congregation of the Reformed Churches in South Africa (GKSA) in southern Namibia, headquartered in the town of Keetmanshoop but also embracing members from the towns of Aroab, Aus, Bethanie, Koës, Lüderitz, and Rosh Pinah. Since the congregation is paired with the Mariental Reformed Church, where the Rev. Johan Dunn is the current pastor since 2017, it also serves members from Mariental, Kalkrand, Maltahöhe, Stampriet, and Gochas. The collective Keetmanshoop-Mariental area is enormous, almost the size of the United Kingdom. The distance between Lüderitz and Stampriet is 500 km, and the even the distance between the two congregational seats, Keetmanshoop and Mariental, is 230 km.
The Mariental Reformed Church is a congregation of the Reformed Churches in South Africa (GKSA) with its seat in the city of Mariental, Namibia, but the congregation members also hail from the towns of Kalkrand, Maltahöhe, Stampriet and Gochas. The congregation was founded in 1966, the same year as the Karasburg Reformed Church, and as of 2015 was the eleventh oldest GKSA congregation in Namibia.
The Otjiwarongo Reformed Church is the eighth oldest congregation of the Reformed Churches in South Africa (GKSA) in Namibia. At the end of 2008, it belonged with five other Namibian congregations to the denomination's Klassis Waterberg, while another 13 congregations belonged to the exclusively Namibian Klassis Etosha. However, in 2015, the Otjiwarongo congregation returned to the Klassis Etosha. Confirmed membership went down from 58 in 2014 to 44 in 2015, and baptized membership went down from 18 to 6 in the same year.
The Keetmanshoop Reformed Church is a congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) in southern Namibia. It is the third oldest NGK congregation in the country after Mariental and Otjiwarongo. Up until the founding of the Keetmanshoop congregation, the entire area known then as South West Africa (SWA) was divided between the two mother churches.
The Omaruru Reformed Church is a congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) in the town of Omaruru, Namibia. It is the oldest daughter church of the Otjiwarongo Reformed Church (NGK), from whence all the NGK congregations north and west of Windhoek, capital of Namibia, directly or indirectly descend. Omaruru separated from Otjiwarongo on March 1, 1941, and services were held in Omaruru, Karibib, Usakos, Swakopmund, Walvis Bay, and Kalkfeld. Still large and difficult to serve, the Omaruru congregation let the Usakos Reformed Church (NGK) go in 1946.
The Usakos Reformed Church is a congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) in Namibia, established in 1946 and serving as the mother church to all five congregations of the Namibian coast, except for the Lüderitz Reformed Church (NGK).
The Johannesburg Reformed Church (GKSA) was the second congregation of the Reformed Churches in Southern Africa (GKSA) on the Witwatersrand after the Krugersdorp Reformed Church (GKSA), founded only a month earlier.
The Turffontein Reformed Church was a congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) in southern Johannesburg, Transvaal. It was founded in 1906 and for years had a large membership, at times exceeding 3,000.
The Potchefstroom Theological School (TSP) is the seminary of the Reformed Churches in South Africa (GKSA). It began as the Burgersdorp Theological School, founded in 1869 and moved to Potchefstroom, South Africa, at the end of 1904, opening the following year.
The Rustenburg Reformed Church is the oldest congregation of the Reformed Churches in South Africa (GKSA), founded in February 1859 by the denomination’s pioneer, Rev. Dirk Postma.
The Burgersdorp Reformed Church is the oldest congregation of the Reformed Churches in South Africa, formerly the Cape Province. It was founded on 21 January 1860, about 11 months after the Church's foundation in Rustenburg on 11 February 1859.
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.
