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
A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity that comprises all church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadership, theological doctrine, wors ...
in South Africa. It was constituted in 1938 as a federation of churches. It appointed its first bishop in 1955.
It is an
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
church (though not a member of the
Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...
) and it relates closely to the
Sydney Diocese of the
Anglican Church of Australia
The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion. It is the second largest church in Australia after the ...
, to which it is similar in that it sees itself as a bastion of the
Reformation and particularly of
reformed doctrine.
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.
In 1847 an
Anglo-Catholic
Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage and identity of the various Anglican churches.
The term was coined in the early 19th century, although movements emphasising the Catholic nature of Anglican ...
bishop was appointed to lead the church. He was determined to enforce
Tractarianism
The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of ...
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
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 l ...
), these
evangelical Anglican
Evangelical Anglicanism or evangelical Episcopalianism is a tradition or church party within Anglicanism that shares affinity with broader evangelicalism. Evangelical Anglicans share with other evangelicals the attributes of "conversionism, a ...
clergy remained outside the new body.
1938–present
The synod of the CESA adopted the church's constitution in 1938. The draft was prepared by
Howard Mowll
Howard West Kilvinton Mowll (1890–1958) was the Anglican Bishop of Western China from 1925 to 1933, and Archbishop of Sydney from 1933 until his death in 1958.
Biography
Mowll was born in Dover and attended Dover College until 1903 and l ...
, the
Anglican Archbishop of Sydney
The Archbishop of Sydney is the diocesan bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, Australia and ''ex officio'' metropolitan bishop of the ecclesiastical Province of New South Wales.
From 1814 to 1836 the colony of New South Wales was part o ...
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."
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. In 1959,
Fred Morris of CESA contacted
Joost de Blank
Joost () was an Internet TV service, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (founders of Skype and Kazaa). During 2007–2008 Joost used peer-to-peer TV (P2PTV) technology to distribute content to their Mozilla-based desktop player; in la ...
, 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.
Stephen Bradley served as presiding bishop from 1965 to 1984: he was a supporter of
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid wa ...
. He was one of three ministers to preside at the funeral of
Hendrik Verwoerd
Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd (; 8 September 1901 – 6 September 1966) was a South African politician, a scholar of applied psychology and sociology, and chief editor of '' Die Transvaler'' newspaper. He is commonly regarded as the architect ...
, the "Architect of Apartheid".
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".
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
The Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman is a diocese in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, and encompasses the area around Kimberley and Kuruman and overlaps the Northern Cape Province and North West Province of South Africa. It is presided ove ...
, representing the Episcopal Synod of the
Anglican Church of Southern Africa
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 l ...
, attended the consecration. Despite the conciliatory tone at Foord's consecration, the Presiding Bishop of CESA was not invited to attend the
Lambeth Conference
The Lambeth Conference is a decennial assembly of bishops of the Anglican Communion convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The first such conference took place at Lambeth in 1867.
As the Anglican Communion is an international association ...
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.
From the mid-1980s onwards, discrimination in its constitution, national structure and practices were "systematically removed".
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." In a 1999 statement to the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...
, 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.
He also claimed that senior leaders had met with both
P. W. Botha
Pieter Willem Botha, (; 12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006), commonly known as P. W. and af, Die Groot Krokodil (The Big Crocodile), was a South African politician. He served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and ...
and
F. W. de Klerk
Frederik Willem de Klerk (, , 18 March 1936 – 11 November 2021) was a South African politician who served as state president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 and as deputy president from 1994 to 1996 in the democratic government. As South ...
when they served as
State President of South Africa
The State President of the Republic of South Africa ( af, Staatspresident) was the head of state of South Africa from 1961 to 1994. The office was established when the country became a republic on 31 May 1961, albeit, outside the Commonweal ...
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".
On 25 July 1993,
St James Church Kenilworth was attacked by the
armed wing of the
Pan Africanist Congress
The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (known as the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)) is a South African national liberation Pan-Africanist movement that is now a political party. It was founded by an Africanist group, led by Robert Sobukwe, that ...
. Eleven were killed but the three attackers were later granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
In 2004, the church was described as "most theologically conservative evangelical denomination in South Africa".
At Synod 2013 The Church of England in South Africa voted to change its trading name to The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa, REACH-SA. 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.
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 reigns 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.
Right Reverend
Lukas Katenda is the current Bishop of REACH Namibia after Bishop
Kalangula Peter, the first bishop.
Organisation
Although REACH-SA has been excluded from the
Lambeth Conference
The Lambeth Conference is a decennial assembly of bishops of the Anglican Communion convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The first such conference took place at Lambeth in 1867.
As the Anglican Communion is an international association ...
, 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 of the then
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Jus ...
. Several REACH-SA clerics have controversially
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.
Presiding Bishops
Source:
:*
G. Frederick B. Morris, (1955–1965)
:*
Stephen Carlton Bradley, (1965–1984)
:*
Dudley Foord, (1984–1987)
:*Joe J. Bell, (1989–2000)
:*Frank J. Retief, (2000–2010)
:*Desmond Inglesby, (2010–2014)
:*Glenn Lyons, (2015–present)
Interchurch organisations
The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa is a member of the
World Reformed Fellowship.
Practices
The church's canons allow for
lay presidency
Lay presidency is a form of celebrating the Lord's Supper (sometimes called the Eucharist) whereby the person presiding over the sacrament is not an ordained minister of religion. Similarly, when the celebrant is a deacon rather than a presbyter, ...
at
Holy Communion and also the use of grape juice instead of fermented wine. All references to
baptismal regeneration
Baptismal regeneration is the name given to doctrines held by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican churches, and other Protestant denominations which maintain that salvation is intimately linked to the act of bap ...
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
The Apostles' Creed (Latin: ''Symbolum Apostolorum'' or ''Symbolum Apostolicum''), sometimes titled the Apostolic Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles, is a Christian creed or "symbol of faith".
The creed most likely originated in 5th-century Ga ...
).
Training colleges
George Whitefield College
George Whitefield College (abbrev GWC) is a Christian theological college in Muizenberg, Cape Town, South Africa.
History
The college is named after the 18th-century English evangelist George Whitefield.
The inception of the George Whitfield ...
(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
Pietermaritzburg (; Zulu: umGungundlovu) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its Zulu name umGungundlovu ...
, KwaZulu-Natal.
Anglican realignment
The REACH-SA has been involved in the
Anglican realignment
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 was one of the denominations that participated at the launching of the
Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in South Africa, on 3 September 2009. The Presiding Bishop of REACH-SA, Glenn Lyons, consecrated the Rev. Jonathan Pryke, of
Jesmond Parish Church
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 ...
, as an overseas bishop, the first ever in Europe, on 2 May 2017.
This was controversial due to REACH-SA's status outside of the
Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...
, and because the consecration occurred without the knowledge of the
Bishop of Newcastle. It wasn't also officially sanctioned by the
GAFCON
The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (branded as GAFCON or Gafcon) is a global network of conservative Anglican churches that formed in 2008 in response to an ongoing theological crisis in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Conservative ...
UK. 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".
The REACH-SA was part of the
South African delegation that attended
GAFCON III on 17-22 June 2018 in
Jerusalem.
GAFCON III largest pan-Anglican gathering since Toronto Congress of 1963, Anglican Ink, 20 June 2018
/ref>
References
Bibliography
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External links
Official website
Church of England in Namibia
{{Authority control
Christian organizations established in 1938
Anglican denominations established in the 20th century
Religion in the British Empire
Members of the World Reformed Fellowship
1938 establishments in South Africa
Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa