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Challenges for Reformed Churches in Africa: A Contemporary Narrative

2008; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 8; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14742250802347018

1747-0234

Dirkie Smit,

Pentecostalism and Christianity Studies

Abstract Arguing that Reformed churches are faced with very characteristic challenges and opportunities in Africa today, the article illustrates this claim with a narrative rooted in recent South African experiences. It tells the story of the birth of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa in the struggle against apartheid in society and church and of some of the ways in which this story continued on African soil. It uses four strategic moments in this story, linked to the name of four places in Africa – Belhar, Braamfontein, Kitwe and Elmina – to reflect on four characteristics of Reformed ecclesiology that are again experienced as challenges and opportunities for Reformed churches in Africa, today. These moments deal respectively with the challenge to be a confessing church, to embody the confession, to face injustice and destruction, and to faithfully practise these convictions in the social form and everyday life of the church. Keywords: Reformed ecclesiologyapartheid ecclesiologySouth African church struggleBelhar ConfessionKitwe DeclarationAccra Declaration on covenanting for justiceElminaWorld Alliance of Reformed ChurchesUniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa Notes 1This has been the case since the beginning and all over the Reformed world. For recent South African controversies, see Boesak & Fourie, Vraagtekens; also Smit, ‘Reformed theology’ and ‘Adventures and misfortunes’. 2Theologians from other Christian traditions are often critical of the seeming lack of interest in Reformed thought in many of the traditional institutional questions of ecclesiology, for example questions regarding the structures of the church, notions and forms of authority, and the ministries, especially the ministry of oversight. In ecumenical discussions, these differences often cause serious disagreement. For studies of Reformed ecclesiology that have been influential in Reformed circles in South Africa, see Alston, Living God and Berkouwer, Church. 3The expression ‘a way of being the church in the world’ comes from the helpful study on the Reformed tradition, Leith, Introduction; see also his valuable Reformed Imperative, for an instructive discussion of the Reformed vision. 5Opitz, ‘Machtkritik’, 13, freely translated. [‘Es gehört zu den charakteristischen Eigenarten besonders der reformierten Reformation, dass sie ihr Verständnis des Evangeliums im Kontext der Machtfrage expliziert, und damit diese oft erst benennt und thematisiert. Die Frage sowohl nach religiöser wie nach sozialer und politischer Macht ist ihr nicht lediglich ein Sekundärproblem, welches sich aus einer fundamental ‘entweltlichten’ Existenz, aus dem religiösen Selbstverständnis eines zwar noch ‘In-der-Welt-Seins’, im Grunde aber nicht mehr ‘Von-der-Welt-Seins’ (vgl. Joh 15,19) ergibt. Sie ist vielmehr ein ihrer Evangeliumsverkündigung immanentes Problem, das ihr als immer neu zu lösendes gleichsam in die Wiege gelegt ist, das aber auch von Anfang an, und erst recht in den vielfältigen Ausprägungen und Ausgestaltungen des reformierten Protestantismus, in unterschiedlichen Weise angegangen wurde. Dabei geht es sowohl um aus dem Evangelium abgeleitetete Machtkritik wie um das Einbringen des Evangeliums als Gestaltungsmacht.’] 6Opitz, ‘Machtkritik’, 27, freely translated. [‘An die bleibende Aufgabe eines sich auf die protestantische Tradition berufenden Denkens und Handelns kann ein Blick auf diese Anfänge allerdings erinnern: die Aufgabe, sich der Faktizität von Macht und Mächten zu stellen, und in der je eigenen Situation in actu zwischen legitimer und illegitimer Macht, zwischen ‘Gottesdienst’ und ‘Götzendienst’ – innerhalb wie außerhalb die Gemeinde – zu unterscheiden, ohne die Spannung in theoretisch vielleicht befriedigender, die Machtkonstellationen aber zugleich verharmlosender Weise aufzulösen. Man könnte geradezu formulieren: Ein ihrer Erbe treuer Protestantismus besteht nur dort, wo der diesbezügliche Streit lebendig ist.’] 4An authority on the Swiss Reformation, he is also known for his important study on Calvin's hermeneutics, Calvins theologische Hermeneutik. The essay referred to here is ‘Machtkritik und Gestaltungsmacht. Zum Verständnis des “Evangeliums”’. 7Pelikan, Reformation, 217: ‘The most characteristic difference between Lutheran and Calvinist views of obedience to the word and will of God, however, lay in … the question of whether, and how, the law of God revealed in the Bible … was to be obeyed in the political and social order. That difference … applied to the life of nations, was to be of far-reaching historical significance, for it decisively affected the political and social evolution of the lands that came under the sway of Calvinist churchmanship and preaching’. 8Calvin, Selections, 41. 9It seems that this expression itself is not from the earliest time of the Reformation – some claim it is from Voetius, so for example Willem A. Visser ‘t Hooft, Renewal, 76; some claim that it was coined by Schneemelcher and Steck for the 1952 Festschrift for Ernst Wolf. In spite of this, almost everyone agrees that the idea behind the expression indeed goes back to the very nature of the Reformation itself; see for example Frey, ‘Ecclesia semper reformanda’, Oberdorfer, ‘Ecclesia semper reformanda’, and Nebelsick, ‘Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda’, 59–63. 10This is for example the spirit of earlier studies like Graham, Constructive Revolutionary and Wallace, Calvin, Geneva, and the Reformation; but also Benedict's more comprehensive recent social history, Christ's Churches, although he deals with Calvin only as one figure within the much broader movement. 11Dutch Reformed Mission Church, Belhar Confession. 12For instructive detail, Loff, Bevryding tot eenwording. 13See Adonis, Afgebreekte skeidsmuur; Boesak, Black and Reformed; Mofokeng, Crucified; Ntoane, A cry for life; De Gruchy, Church struggle; Kinghorn, NG Kerk en apartheid. 14See Boesak, Tenderness. 15See the discussion in Smit, Status Confessionis. 16In an Accompanying Letter, intended to be read always together with the Confession, Synod explained the attitude, authority, purpose and expectations of Belhar. For the thrust of this Letter, see Smit ‘No other motives’. The text of the 1982 Draft, together with this official letter, was published in Cloete and Smit, eds, Moment of truth, with essays discussing the background and the content. Since then, many other publications, including reports of church negotiations, ecclesial studies, dissertations and books have dealt with Belhar, for example Botha & Naudé, Op pad met Belhar. 17 Belhar consists of an introduction and a conclusion with three articles in between. The introduction summarizes what was ultimately at stake. For many years already isolated theological voices in the Reformed churches had argued that the Church is not an association of like-minded individuals organizing themselves religiously with those with whom they prefer to be, but that it was called into and kept in existence by the Triune God – as expressed in classical Reformed confessional documents. This ecclesiological question finally divided those who used liberal theology in a romantic-nationalistic form to support separate churches for separate ‘races’ (later ethnic groups) and those who believed that the Church is one, created by the living Triune God. When the introduction of Belhar therefore claims that the Church is not the product of free human choice, but of the divine call to a different form of freedom, the words explicitly allude to the Reformed confessional tradition. The three articles then deal, respectively, with living unity, true reconciliation and compassionate justice. These three convictions together formed the reason why members of the DRMC for many years rejected the ideology of apartheid. Belhar was very consciously not an attempt to formulate anything new, but rather to search for words that would express what the members of this church already believed. The church was not called to believe a confession, but to confess its faith. It is important that these three articles belong intrinsically together. Any attempt to separate them would indeed lose the meaning, the original intention and impact of the Confession. South African Reformed theologians like Allan Boesak, Russel Botman and Nico Koopman have often stressed these crucial inter-relationships between unity, reconciliation and justice, see Koopman, ‘Reconciliation’. 18See Church Order and Regulations of the General Synod of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa. Since then, many Reformed churches in the world have been studying Belhar with a view to the challenges of their own situations, and several have made Belhar part of their confessional basis, for example the Protestant Church in Belgium, several Reformed churches in Germany and the Reformed Church in America (RCA), while the Presbyterian Church of the United States (PCUSA) is also studying it for five years, before a final decision. 19For an instructive view of the history until this re-unification, see Loff, Bevryding tot eenwording; for earlier works related to this context, see also Adonis, Afgebreekte skeidsmuur; Boesak, Farewell to Innocence; and Durand, Una Sancta Catholica. 20See Calvin, Gestalt und Ordnung. 21For example, ‘Die Frage nach den Kirchenordnungen gehört für die reformierten Bekenntnisschriften eindeutig zum Bekenntnis der Kirche’, Jacobs, Theologie Reformierter Bekenntnisschriften, 118. Also ‘Nach reformierter Lehre trägt auch die Ordnung der Kirche bekenntnismässigen Charakter … Die Kirche bezeugt mit ihrem Bekenntnis wie mit ihrer Ordnung, daß Jesus Christus ihr Herr ist’, Niesel, Bekenntnisschriften und Kirchenordnungen, ‘Vorwort’; also the discussion by Weerda, Ordnung zur Lehre. This fundamental Reformed conviction, that confessions should also become embodied in the visible form and life of the church, was at the heart of many of the ecclesiological conflicts during the apartheid time (see for example Jonker's very important critique on apartheid ecclesiology, in his Sendingbepalinge; Aandag; Om die regering; and Selfs die kerk). 22All the so-called ‘black member churches of the Dutch Reformed Church family’, including the (‘African’) Dutch Reformed Church in Africa, the (‘Indian’) Reformed Church in Africa and the DRMC have long histories of strong support for full and visible church unity. It is not without reason that Loff calls his doctoral thesis Bevryding tot Eenwording (Liberation for Unity). The vision was always one of full and visible unity, and the practices of these member churches over many years demonstrated this fact, albeit sometimes within the limitations allowed by the rules laid down by the DRC, the so-called ‘mother’. Adonis, in Die afgebreekte skeidsmuur, 112–24, aptly described these prescriptions for the member churches as ‘rebuilding the wall of separation that had been torn down’ – referring to Ephesians 2. Several theologians (originally) from the DRC also rejected these policies and pleaded for visible church unity over many decades, well-known amongst them Beyers Naudé, Ben Marais, Willie Jonker and Flip Theron. See for example Theron's instructive scholarly study, Kosmies-eskatologiese teken. 23See Church Order, article 4. 24On this point, for example, there seems to be an important ecclesiological difference between Lutheran and Reformed understandings of the unity of the church. During the apartheid years, both world communities declared a status confessionis regarding the situation in South and Southern Africa. After the fall of apartheid, it seems that the Lutheran world – based on the important notion of satis est in the Lutheran confession, namely that pure preaching and celebration of the sacrament together is sufficient for the Church to be present and therefore also for the unity of the Church – did not expect any further visible unity between the divided churches in Southern Africa, while the Reformed world stressed that visible unity – in the sense of some form of structural re-unification – remained the ‘acid test’. For Reformed churches in Africa, this aspect is of crucial importance. It involves the radical challenge to Reformed churches to overcome their internal divisions and lack of visible unity – not merely for the sake of being better able to work and serve together, but precisely because the lack of visible unity already contradicts the witness of the Church and deprives its proclamation of credibility. For Reformed ecclesiology, the visible and living unity of the Church is – and should be – of utmost importance. This obviously also remains a major challenge to the still divided churches in South Africa itself. 25See Church Order, Article 12. 26Busch told this story in a discussion during an international consultation at the John Knox Centre in Geneva, co-hosted by the Theological Faculty of Geneva and the WARC, on ‘The impact of Calvin's economic and social thought on Reformed witness’. For the statement published afterwards, see Reformed World, Vol 55/1, March 2005: 3–7. The statement was intended as an appeal to Reformed churches worldwide to consider their own economic and social activities critically in the light of the faith tradition in which they stand. 27For the text of the document, the so-called Kitwe Declaration, see Southern African Alliance of Reformed Churches, Kitwe Declaration. For discussion of the background, see Smit ‘Time for confession?’ and ‘Theologische Ansätze’. 28For detail on this background, Opocensky, ‘Processus Confessionis’. 29For Debrecen, see Opocensky, Debrecen; see also Reformed World, vol. 47/3 & 4, September & December 1997. Apart from the well-known decision on a process of confession, the Council also issued a powerful ‘covenantal litany’ to all the member churches, inviting them to use the litany during worship. The litany was built around the refrain ‘we are not our own’ – so characteristic of the Reformed tradition since Calvin and the Heidelberg Catechism, up to the twentieth-century Theological Declaration of Barmen and the more recent Brief Statement of Faith of the PCUSA. 30Hope is a theme of crucial importance for many African theologians, an important example being Russel Botman, former President of the South African Council of Churches, and at the time of Kitwe also the President of the Southern African Alliance of Reformed Churches and a leading figure during the Consultation. As professor of Missiology, he gave his inaugural lecture on the theme of hope (see for example Botman, ‘End of hope’ and ‘Cry for life’). Since he became Rector of Stellenbosch University in South Africa, he has made a ‘pedagogy of hope’ the framework of his future vision for the University. Another important example would be the work of Samuel Kobia, Secretary General of the World Council of Churches (see his two instructive volumes, Courage and Called). 31Ernst Conradie, a theologian from the URCSA, has published several influential works, such as Home on earth, on ecology and on ecological justice. For recent South African contributions on resisting the exclusion and dehumanization of globalization, see also Le Bruyns & Ulshöfer, Humanization. 32See World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Covenanting for Justice. For a recent consultation of African church leaders on the implications of Accra, see World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Africa Consultation. 33The document consists of four sections, namely a brief but important introduction; a second section called ‘Reading the Signs of the Times’, providing crucial claims concerning the nature of our world today and how it is to be interpreted; and then two important sections with respectively a faith stance expressed in confessional style entitled ‘Confession of Faith in the Face of economic Injustice and ecological Destruction’ and some practical commitments and calls under the heading ‘Covenanting for Justice’. In a way, it therefore follows a similar logic to the Kitwe Declaration. 34World Alliance of Reformed Churches, ‘Letter from Accra’. The following quotations all come from that source.