Scielo RSS http://www.scielo.org.za/rss.php?pid=1017-049920220003&lang=en vol. 48 num. 3 lang. en http://www.scielo.org.za/img/en/fbpelogp.gif http://www.scielo.org.za http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-04992022000300001&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article is an offspring of Columba Kirk Session's desire and request to change its name in favour of Reverend Frederick Wele Ngxenge. A discussion of the politics of toponyms, with special reference to Columba Mission, is the central theme of this article. In order to have an understanding of why there was this call for a name change, it is inescapable to not consider some background discussions of Rev. Ngxenge, who ministered in Southern amaGcalekaland, and Saint Columba, the man, who had never set foot in Africa. To that effect, this article presents Rev. Ngxenge within the context of his life and ministering and his connection with, and impact on, the rise and development of Columba Mission in the evangelising crusade. It provides Rev. Ngxenge's contributions to the development of Columba Mission, Centane, from 1922 to 1971. It became clear that Rev. Ngxenge (1895-1971) belonged to Columba; he had spent his ministering life in this mission, where he and his wife, Dorothea Flora (18991974), were interred/laid to rest. It also provides a brief historical background of Columba, the man, as a basis for the elders and congregation to anchor their deliberations on a sound foundation. The author argues that the church, therefore colonial congregations and presbyteries, must tackle and dismantle the hegemony of White, Eurocentric and Western nomenclature and engage in debates around toponyms in favour of renaming their church after eminent personalities. The renaming of colonial congregations is one coin of the wider transformation agenda. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-04992022000300002&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article examines how cultural beliefs and patriarchal practices during the early period of the spread of Christianity promoted intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in the church. The article begins by exploring some cultural and patriarchal beliefs that were practised by the Jews and Giriama people during the pre-evangelistic period that promoted IPV against women through religious and cultural practices to see violence as normal, thus choosing to persevere in violent relationships. New strategies for preventing IPV against women have been discussed. In this descriptive research, data were collected from 52 informants using questionnaires and in-depth interviews. The study interviewed 30 women facing IPV individually. Abused women provided information in focus group discussions. Ten pastors were sampled in order to gather data on how cultural and patriarchal practices with the support of biased biblical interpretation of texts, promoted IPV against Christian women. Twelve questionnaires were administered to six gender officers, three probation officers and three social workers, and the findings were used to supplement data collected from the key informants. This study established that some Bible texts are interpreted and used by wife abusers and pastors offering counselling to the IPV victims to promote and justify IPV. It, therefore, recommended that the church should organise to re-read and re-learn these Bible texts with a view to interpreting them without being biased against women. The church should also re-examine all patriarchal passages in the Bible with a view to facilitating contextual and reasoned scrutiny of the male-controlled beliefs and practices that promote IPV against women. The article established that cultural beliefs and patriarchal practices promote IPV against women. Some pastors and wife abusers interpret some Bible verses to justify spousal abuse; however, if the problem of IPV is to be prevented, the church, the government, and other stakeholders involved in a war against IPV on women must embrace new strategies that are free from cultural and patriarchal beliefs and practices. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-04992022000300003&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en Many rituals in Africa are deeply rooted in the cultural beliefs, traditions and indigenous religions of the continent. The rituals are guided by people's belief in their existence after death, and the role of the living dead or ancestors. These African rituals have been infused by Christian, Muslim and Western concepts. Death rituals and the mourning practices of Africans are varied because of the existence of so many religious and cultural practices on the African continent. Many African families will engage in one way or another in some cleansing rituals after the death of a loved one including a stillborn. In the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA), no records of stillbirth baptism are kept in the Church archives, nor is there any pastoral guidance or liturgy available to assist grieving families regarding stillbirth. It is questionable whether stillbirth baptism should be allowed, in light of the fact that there is no record whatsoever from either the Old Testament or the New Testament which allows for this rite of passage. It is also clear that stillbirth baptism does not have a theological base. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-04992022000300004&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en In the bible, Luke 12:56 talks about the need to interpret the "signs of the times" which herald and represent a new age. This idea can benefit from an intertextual reading of this text with Romans 8:18-23, which gives the understanding that the creation does signal the end times through its groaning. If this perspective is taken in the current historical paradigm it can be telling because the turn into the new millennium, the 21st century, has proved very challenging for the church. This era, together with the advent of the novel Coronavirus disease (Covid-19), which was declared a global pandemic in March 2020, has seen the call for a different approach of doing ecclesiology in order to maintain and enhance its relevancy. In this globalised environment that has been influenced by post-modern values, there has arisen a fresh emphasis on a missional and fluid church. This is seen to be part of the "post-Christendom" ecclesial experience. It is against such an observation that this article will proceed from a conviction that the emergence and effects of the Covid-19 pandemic can be understood to be part of the "signs of the times" which the church must understand. The lessons it has posed for the church are thus relevant for the church as it continues to sail the uncharted waters of post-modernity. In the article, a pastoral cycle methodology will be employed for its interdisciplinary nature. Such questions will be explored as to the "what" of the church and Covid-19 context, and the "why" (hermeneutics of Luke 12:56), that is, the theological meaning and the strategic framework that must proffer the way forward for the church in the 21st century and beyond. The focus of the article is on the church in Southern Africa although the lessons are applicable in many contexts especially in other areas. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-04992022000300005&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article explores the undocumented history of theological institutions belonging to the Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (LCSA) which contributed to South African theological education. The establishment of these institutions was initially managed by the mission societies of the LCSA and later the regional leadership. This development created the necessity for centralised theological training since 1910. Due to the political landscape of South Africa, theological education was adversely affected. The LCSA looked at ways to sustain theological education and as a result of the church's passion, Lutheran Theological education was established. However, the LCSA worked in collaboration with other Christian denominations to achieve its ecumenical vision and establish a solid foundation of theological education. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-04992022000300006&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en The Yawo people of Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania first had linguistic texts produced about their language in the latter half of the nineteenth century. At around the same time, and often by the same individuals, Bible translations into Ciyawo also first surfaced. Some of the earliest translations of the four Gospels were known as Utenga Wambone-the "Good News." This article explores the historical context of Christian mission among the Yawo, before then shifting to a historical overview of linguistic texts that dealt with Ciyawo as a language. Following this, an account of the history of Ciyawo Bible translation is offered, with particular focus on the early translations. This study concludes with a mention of the most recent Ciyawo Bible translations and suggestions for future research. These suggestions include a recommendation to focus on comparisons between the various Ciyawo Bible translations, both those which are older and the more recent publications. Comparing these translations will be valuable for understanding the impact of Bible translation among the Yawo people, and how language has changed. It will also provide an opportunity to determine which translation strategy would be best suited for future Ciyawo Bible translation efforts. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-04992022000300007&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article looks at some lived experiences of five African women in Mohlakeng township, situated in the West Rand District Municipality of Gauteng, South Africa, between 1980 and 2018. Four are Pentecostal pastors and one is an Evangelical pastor. Their biggest challenge was to demonstrate that they were equally capable as their male counterparts in leading a local church and functioning as pastors. These women displayed aspects of African motherhood and Bosadi (womanhood) as three functioned as pastors and two functioned in other non-leadership roles alongside their male counterparts. The article applies a combination of participatory observation and literature review as a research method. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-04992022000300008&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article was written at a time when decoloniality was generating a heated debate at most African universities. The point of departure of the debate is that, since Africans were born into a valid and legitimate religious knowledge system that predates the arrival of Western missionaries on the land, can African Initiated Churches (AICs) acknowledge these valid and legitimate indigenous knowledge systems and still retain the tag "African Christian churches?" These legitimate indigenous religious knowledge systems include, but are not limited to, Africans' way of accessing the divine through oral transmission without reading books and by shunning temples, as they appropriate African traditional shrines for worship. This is so because the dawn and unfolding of Eurocentric modernity, through colonialism and European missionaries, introduced particular ways of accessing the divine through the reading of books (the Bible) and temple gatherings. These, among other factors, gave rise to the emergence of the Johane Masowe Chishanu Church (JMC Church) in Zimbabwe. Since its emergence in the 1930s, the JMC Church has developed a theology that tries to liberate Africans from colonial hegemony by distancing its theology from White missionary inventions such as worshipping in temples and the reading of the Bible in church, as this church prefers open space worship and the utterances of the Holy Spirit (tsanangudzo dzewmeya), among other things. Thus, the JMC Church, like many other AICs, is a reactionary movement that questioned the White man's innovation, Western epistemologies and European cultural imperialism in a bid to romanticise the past. Accordingly, this article discusses the JMC Church as disregarding the Bible with regard to its spirituality in an attempt to free its theology from Eurocentric hegemony. Thus, the main question raised in this article is: Does the written Scripture matter for theology within AICs in the post-colonial period? Or, does this movement retain the tag "an African Christian church" after disregarding the Bible for theology? http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-04992022000300009&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en This article was written at a time when decoloniality was generating a heated debate at most African universities. The point of departure of the debate is that, since Africans were born into a valid and legitimate religious knowledge system that predates the arrival of Western missionaries on the land, can African Initiated Churches (AICs) acknowledge these valid and legitimate indigenous knowledge systems and still retain the tag "African Christian churches?" These legitimate indigenous religious knowledge systems include, but are not limited to, Africans' way of accessing the divine through oral transmission without reading books and by shunning temples, as they appropriate African traditional shrines for worship. This is so because the dawn and unfolding of Eurocentric modernity, through colonialism and European missionaries, introduced particular ways of accessing the divine through the reading of books (the Bible) and temple gatherings. These, among other factors, gave rise to the emergence of the Johane Masowe Chishanu Church (JMC Church) in Zimbabwe. Since its emergence in the 1930s, the JMC Church has developed a theology that tries to liberate Africans from colonial hegemony by distancing its theology from White missionary inventions such as worshipping in temples and the reading of the Bible in church, as this church prefers open space worship and the utterances of the Holy Spirit (tsanangudzo dzewmeya), among other things. Thus, the JMC Church, like many other AICs, is a reactionary movement that questioned the White man's innovation, Western epistemologies and European cultural imperialism in a bid to romanticise the past. Accordingly, this article discusses the JMC Church as disregarding the Bible with regard to its spirituality in an attempt to free its theology from Eurocentric hegemony. Thus, the main question raised in this article is: Does the written Scripture matter for theology within AICs in the post-colonial period? Or, does this movement retain the tag "an African Christian church" after disregarding the Bible for theology?