Open Collections

Bosch, Rozelle

Database of Religious History (DRH)

African Initiated Churches, otherwise also known as African Independent Churches and Pentecostal- Charismatic Churches (see Birgit Meyer) denotes a group of religious individuals brought together by the need to appropriate Christianity with traditional African belief systems. The term 'African Initiated Churches' thus categorises clusters of religious groupings formally termed the Zionist, Ethiopian and Messianic Churches. Since Christianity is expanding rapidly in Africa, recent theorists suggest that the threefold categorisation fails to capture the complexity and vibrancy of said religious groups; distinguishing rather between followers of the 'Book' and the 'Word' (see M Nel). For this entry, we focus primarily on the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) in South Africa. The group derives its name and theological bent from a variety of sources. Historically, the Scottish-Australian minister John Alexander Dowie who went to America and started the city of Zion movement which emphasised healing had a great influence on the formation of the Zionist churches in Africa. For example, Dowie exerted significant influence over the local South African Dutch Reformed missionary, Pieter L Le Roux, who became increasingly interested in the matter of healing after reading Dowie's works and coming across localised testimonies of healing. After resigning from the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), Le Roux started a church for all members in South Africa which included Zulu speaking individuals. As M Nel writes, 'Le Roux's Zionist group was characterised by their accommodation to indigenous habits and beliefs. The worship was lively and loud and the clothing colourful' (See Nel, p. 206). Le Roux is thus credited with starting the Zionist movement in South Africa. A Biblical thematic central to both Dowie and Le Roux was the concept of the cultic centre (see Kelebogile Resane). In Hebrew Scriptures the Mount of Zion represented a centralised place of congregation and worship of God. In many respects it also represented the promises of Yahweh to the Jewish nation. Since Mount Zion also served as a place of ritual and worship, life itself was centred around the holy place. Zion City in Moria, Limpopo, has come to denote a similarly theologically significant place for the believers within the ZCC. Twice yearly all members are encouraged to participate in worship during the Easter festival and in September. The ZCC and its African initiated affiliates were long overlooked in religious and theological inquiry because the emphasis on faith healing and the appreciation of African traditional practices was regarded as functioning outside of the theological. As a result religious phenomenon was relegated to the sociological and anthropological. Recent theological inquiry shows, however, a great wealth of knowledge that is just beginning to be uncovered by modern day scholars. Due to the fact that the ZCC and its annual meetings, in particular, are kept private and rarely opened to media, the information at researchers' disposal is scant.

Other

eng

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0416025

Non UBC

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/