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The Ecumenical Struggle in South Africa: The Role of Ecumenical Movements and Organisations in Liberation Movements to 1965

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2015

Graham A Duncan  and
Anthony Egan
Graham A Duncan
Affiliation:
Emeritus Professor, Church History/Polity, University of Pretoria
Anthony Egan
Affiliation:
Steve Biko Bioethics Centre, University of the Witwatersrand
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Abstract

When we contemplate ecumenism in South Africa in the twentieth century, we often automatically think of the outstanding work of the South African Council of Churches during the years of apartheid. However, it had two precursors in the General Missionary Conference of South Africa (1904–36) and the Christian Council of South Africa (1936–68). Parallel yet integral to these developments we note the significant contribution of the South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference. These did not originate or exist in a vacuum but responded to the needs and currents in society and were active in the midst of para-movements such as the Christian Institute.

Keywords

Black Consciousnessblack theologyChristian Council of South AfricaSouth African Council of Churches
Type
Articles
Information
Ecclesiastical Law Journal , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , September 2015 , pp. 269 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2015 

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References

1 T Borer, Challenging the state: churches as political actors in South Africa, 1980–1994 (Notre Dame, IN, 1998).

2 University of Fort Hare, Howard Pym Africana Library, Presbytery of Kaffraria Minute Book, Meeting of 15 April 1898, P Mzimba, letter of resignation.

3 D Thomas, Christ divided: liberalism, ecumenism and race in South Africa (Pretoria, 2002), pp 61–62.

4 See G Duncan, Lovedale – coercive agency: power and resistance in mission education (Pietermaritzburg, 2003).

5 Ibid, pp 102–106.

6 R Elphick, Equalising the believers: Protestant missionaries and the racial politics of South Africa, (Pietermaritzburg, 2001), pp 110 ff.

7 General Missionary Conference of South Africa (GMCSA), Report of the Proceedings of the First General Missionary Conference of South Africa, Held at Johannesburg, July 13–20, 1904 (Johannesburg, 1905), pp 109–133.

8 GMCSA, Report of the Proceedings of the Second General Missionary Conference of South Africa Held at Johannesburg, July 5–11, 1906 (Morija, 1907), p 129.

9 C Villa-Vicencio, Trapped in Apartheid: a socio-theological history of the English-speaking churches (Cape Town, 1988), p 72.

10 Thomas, Christ divided, p 118.

11 See ibid, pp 14–15.

12 J Cochrane, Servants of Power: the role of the English-speaking churches, 1903–1930 (Johannesburg, 1987).

13 Villa-Vicencio, Trapped in apartheid.

14 Ibid, p 73.

15 Ibid, p 76.

16 W Brown, The Catholic Church in South Africa, from its Origins to the Present Day (London, 1960); G Abraham, The Catholic Church and Apartheid: the response of the Catholic Church in South Africa to the first decade of National Party rule, 1948–1957 (Johannesburg, 1989).

17 Brown, Catholic Church in South Africa; Abraham, Catholic Church and Apartheid.

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21 Brown, The Catholic Church in South Africa; Abraham, The Catholic Church and apartheid.

22 This was reminiscent of nineteenth-century Protestant thinking: for example, that of Dr James Stewart, a prominent and influential Free Church of Scotland missionary statesman, the principal of Lovedale Missionary Institution and a founder-member of the GMCSA, who expressed the vision which led to the foundation of the South African Native College at Fort Hare in 1916.

23 Kearney, Guardian of the light, pp 66–68.

24 H Chamberlain, M Pavlecivic and B Tiernan, ‘Catholic education’ in Brain and Denis, Catholic Church in Contemporary Africa, pp 190–195; B Flanagan, ‘Education: policy and practice’, in A Prior (ed), Catholics in apartheid society (Cape Town, 1982), pp 85–88; D Bixby, ‘The Roman Catholic Church and apartheid in education: a study of the African school system’, BA Honours research essay, University of Cape Town, 1977.

25 SACBC, The Bishops Speak, vol 1 (Pretoria, undated), pp 13–17, available at <http://www.sacbc.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/STATEMENT-ON-APARTHEID-.pdf>, accessed 18 June 2015.

26 Ibid, p 14, emphasis added.

27 Ibid, p 15.

28 M Abrahams, ‘The Second Vatican Council’, in Brain and Denis, Catholic Church in Contemporary Africa, pp 213–245; A Egan, ‘How Vatican II renewed South African Catholicism: as perceived by The Southern Cross, 1962–1968’, paper presented to the Joint Conference on Religion and Theology, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, June 2012.

29 Abrahams ‘Second Vatican Council’, pp 219, 224; P Denis, The Dominican Friars in Southern Africa: a social history (Leiden, 1998) pp 184–185.

30 P Denis (ed), Facing the Crisis: selected texts of Archbishop Denis E. Hurley (Pietermaritzburg, 1997), pp 25–47.

31 Egan, ‘How Vatican II renewed South African Catholicism’, p 2.

32 Ibid, p 6.

33 Denis, Facing the crisis, pp 58–76.

34 Ibid, p 62.

35 Ibid, pp 74–75.

36 B Hinwood, ‘Ecumenism’, in Brain and Denis, Catholic Church in Contemporary Africa, p 352.

37 Ibid; G Daniel, ‘Ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue: the work of the SACBC from 2002–2012’, in S Bate and A Egan (eds), A Story Worth Telling: essays in honour of Cardinal Napier (Pretoria, 2013), pp 59–77.

38 MacQueen, I, ‘Resonances of youth and tensions of race: liberal student politics, white radicals and black consciousness, 1968–1973, (2013) 65:3South African Historical Journal 365–382CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 Thomas, Christ divided, p xix.

40 Ibid, pp xx–xxi.

41 C Ryan, Beyers Naudé: pilgrimage of faith (Cape Town, 1990) pp 102–103.

42 Thomas, Christ divided, p xxv.

43 Ibid, p 16.

44 Ibid, p 90.

45 R Birley, ‘Introduction’ in International Commission of Jurists, Geneva (ICJ) (eds), The trial of Beyers Naudé: Christian witness and the law (London, 1975), p 9.

46 Ibid, p 11.

47 ICJ, Trial of Beyers Naudé, p 55.

48 Villa-Vicencio, Trapped in apartheid, p 75; Thomas, Christ divided, p 95.

49 Ibid, p 97.

50 Birley, ‘Introduction’, p 11.

51 Birley, ‘Introduction’, p13.