South African church asked to admit apartheid was a heresy
-20/10/05
A South African church has been told it must publicly recognise that its support for apartheid was heretical before it can be readmitted into the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) from which it was suspended in 1982, writes Stephen Brown for Ecumenical News International.
The Dutch Reformed Church – Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk or NHK – had been excluded from the global Reformed alliance because of its theological and biblical backing for the system under which South Africa was governed from 1948 until the early 1990s. In the year the church was suspended South African anti-apartheid activist the Rev. Alan Boesak, a Reformed cleric, became WARC president.
The NHK has now applied to rejoin the 75-million-strong alliance. But the grouping’s executive committee meeting in Evian, France, last week said that the NHK first needed to demonstrate to the churches in South Africa and the world that it “fully and completely” rejected apartheid.
“This will include a full public recognition of the sinfulness of apartheid and its biblical and theological justification that were used to support it as heretical,” the WARC executive committee, the grouping’s main governing body, stated.
The South African denomination was also urged to strengthen ecumenical ties in South Africa and begin the reconciliation process at local and national levels.
“The NHK needs to demonstrate steps in becoming a key player in contributing to the transformation of South African churches by bringing racial integration and harmony,” the WARC governing body noted. The world alliance is to send a delegation to South Africa to the NHK and WARC’s key partners to discuss the issue with a view to bring a recommendation to the next meeting of the WARC governing body in 2007.
The committee heard that WARC’s member churches in South Africa were divided on whether the NHK should be readmitted or not. Three member churches favoured allowing the suspended denomination in while one opposed such a step. Two members had reserved their position.
A separate South African church, the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (NGK) – whose name is also translated into English as Dutch Reformed Church – also been suspended from WARC in 1982 was readmitted in 1999 after it denounced “apartheid as wrong and sinful, not simply in its effects and operations, but also in its fundamental nature”.
[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]
South African church asked to admit apartheid was a heresy
-20/10/05
A South African church has been told it must publicly recognise that its support for apartheid was heretical before it can be readmitted into the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) from which it was suspended in 1982, writes Stephen Brown for Ecumenical News International.
The Dutch Reformed Church – Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk or NHK – had been excluded from the global Reformed alliance because of its theological and biblical backing for the system under which South Africa was governed from 1948 until the early 1990s. In the year the church was suspended South African anti-apartheid activist the Rev. Alan Boesak, a Reformed cleric, became WARC president.
The NHK has now applied to rejoin the 75-million-strong alliance. But the grouping’s executive committee meeting in Evian, France, last week said that the NHK first needed to demonstrate to the churches in South Africa and the world that it “fully and completely” rejected apartheid.
“This will include a full public recognition of the sinfulness of apartheid and its biblical and theological justification that were used to support it as heretical,” the WARC executive committee, the grouping’s main governing body, stated.
The South African denomination was also urged to strengthen ecumenical ties in South Africa and begin the reconciliation process at local and national levels.
“The NHK needs to demonstrate steps in becoming a key player in contributing to the transformation of South African churches by bringing racial integration and harmony,” the WARC governing body noted. The world alliance is to send a delegation to South Africa to the NHK and WARC’s key partners to discuss the issue with a view to bring a recommendation to the next meeting of the WARC governing body in 2007.
The committee heard that WARC’s member churches in South Africa were divided on whether the NHK should be readmitted or not. Three member churches favoured allowing the suspended denomination in while one opposed such a step. Two members had reserved their position.
A separate South African church, the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (NGK) – whose name is also translated into English as Dutch Reformed Church – also been suspended from WARC in 1982 was readmitted in 1999 after it denounced “apartheid as wrong and sinful, not simply in its effects and operations, but also in its fundamental nature”.
[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]