Abstract

DUNCAN, Graham A. The first ten years (1923-1933) of the Bantu Presbyterian Church of South Africa - From mission to church, from church to mission?. Missionalia (Online) [online]. 2018, vol.46, n.3, pp.367-388. ISSN 2312-878X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.7832/46-3-231.

The formation of the autonomous Bantu Presbyterian Church of South Africa (BPCSA) in 1923, as the culmination of the Scottish Presbyterian missionary enterprise, provided a unifying centre for the formation of other black denominations in South Africa by being the first of its kind. Other European sourced churches dealt with integration differently. Still, BPCSA was much criticised for being the result of a racist policy; yet had it not been for racism prevalent in South Africa at the time, its formation might have been unnecessary as part of the missionary outreach of the United Free Church of Scotland (UFCoS). For better or worse it was established and there was no going back. However, its mission through participation in God's mission of reconciliation was hindered by attempts to control it externally by the Scottish church and internally by missionaries and their Mission Council (MC). The first ten years of its history testify to this. Its subsequent history bears witness to the attempt to make it an authentic African missionary church open to the ecumenical scene and is a significant step in the mission history of South Africa and the African continent. The mission became a church but was it fit for purpose for further mission? The article will engage with the missiological concepts of dependency and independency to ascertain whether or not the integrity of the mission was maintained and promoted.

Keywords : Bantu Presbyterian Church (BPC); General Assembly; finance; missionaries; Presbyterian Church of South Africa (PCSA); theological education; United Free Church of Scotland (UFCoS).

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