Everything about Anglican Church Of Southern Africa totally explained
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa is the
Anglican province in the southern part of
Africa, including 23
dioceses in
Angola,
Lesotho,
Mozambique,
Namibia,
Saint Helena,
South Africa and
Swaziland. The
primate is the
Archbishop of
Cape Town. The current archbishop is
Thabo Makgoba. His predecessor was
Njongonkulu Ndungane.
Arguably the most recognisable primate was
Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Desmond Tutu.
The province has an
Anglo-Catholic ethos and is regarded as the most liberal Anglican province in Africa, particularly on issues such as
ordination of women and
homosexuality.
Official name
Once known as the
Church of the Province of Southern Africa, this name was dropped to avoid historic confusion as to its ambiguous name. The church changed its name to the Anglican Church of Southern Africa in 2006.
History
The first Anglican clergy to minister regularly at the Cape were
military chaplains who accompanied the troops when the British occupied the
Cape Colony in
1795 and then again in
1806. The second British occupation resulted in a growing influx of civil servants and settlers who were members of the
Church of England, and so civil or colonial chaplains were appointed to minister to their needs. These were under the authority of the governor.
The first missionary of the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) arrived in
1821. He was the Revd William Wright. He opened a church and school in
Wynberg, a fashionable suburb of Cape Town.
Allen Gardiner, a missionary of the
Church Missionary Society (CMS) went to
Zululand, and arranged for a priest,
Francis Owen to be sent to the royal residence of King
Dingane. Owen witnessed the massacre of
Piet Retief, the
Voortrekker leader, and his companions, who had come to negotiate a land treaty with Dingane, and left soon afterwards.
The Anglican Church in Southern Africa at this time was under the
Bishop of Calcutta, whose diocese effectively included the
East Indies and the entire
Southern Hemisphere. Bishops en route for
Calcutta sometimes stopped at the Cape for
confirmations, and occasionally
ordination of clergy, but these visits were sporadic. It became apparent that a bishop was needed for South Africa, and in
1847 Robert Gray was consecrated as the first bishop of Cape Town in
Westminster Abbey. The new bishop landed in
Cape Town in
1848.
Some Church of England parishes in the then Cape Colony refused to join the Church of the Province of South Africa when it was constituted in 1870. These parishes expanded throughout South Afica calling themselves the
Church of England in South Africa
(CESA). CESA is evangelical in its Churchmanship and drew up its own constitution in 1938. In the 1950s CESA managed to secure episcopal oversight from a retired Anglican bishop and CESA ordinations are recognised by the Anglican Communion. However CESA hasn't been invited to the Lambeth Conference. It is a separate church body of conservative evangelical orientation and isn't part of the Anglican Communion although it's strongly supported by and has close ties with the Anglican
Diocese of Sydney.
Desmond Tutu rose to
worldwide fame during the
1980s as an opponent of
apartheid. Tutu was elected and ordained the first black South African Anglican
Archbishop of
Cape Town, South Africa, and
primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. He received the
Nobel Peace Prize in
1984, the
Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, and the Magubela prize for liberty in 1986.
Membership
Today, there are at least 2.4 million Anglicans out of an estimated population of 45 million.
Structure
The polity of the Church of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa is
Episcopalian church governance, which is the same as other
Anglican churches. The church maintains a system of geographical
parishes organized into
dioceses. The Province is divided into 23 dioceses and each is led by its own bishop:
Diocesan bishops
The Most Revd Thabo Makgoba - Archbishop of Cape Town
The Right Revd Andre Soares - Bishop of Angola
The Right Revd Peter Lee - Bishop of Christ the King
The Right Revd Mervyn Castle - Bishop of False Bay
The Right Revd Patrick Glover - Bishop of the Free State
The Right Revd Donald Harker - Bishop of George
The Right Revd Thabo Makgoba - Bishop of Grahamstown
The Right Revd David Beetge - Bishop of Highveld
The Right Revd Brian Germond - Bishop of Johannesburg
The Right Revd Ossie Swartz - Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman
The Right Revd Dinis Sengulane - Bishop of Lebombo
See is Vacant - Bishop of Lesotho
The Right Revd Molopi Diseko - Bishop of Matlosane
The Right Revd Leslie Walker - Bishop of Diocese of Mpumalanga
The Right Revd Nathaniel Nakwatumbah - Bishop of Namibia
The Right Revd Rubin Philip - Bishop of Natal
The Right Revd Mark van Koevering - Bishop of Niassa
The Right Revd Bethlehem Nopece - Bishop of Port Elizabeth
The Right Revd Jo Seoka - Bishop of Pretoria
The Right Revd Raphael Hess - Bishop of Saldanha Bay
The Right Revd John Salt, OGS - Bishop of St Helena
The Right Revd Sitembela Mzamane - Bishop of of St John's
The Right Revd Martin Breytenbach - Bishop of St Mark the Evanglelist
The Right Revd Meshack Mabuza - Bishop of Swaziland
The Right Revd Mlibo Ngewu - Bishop of Umzimvubu
The Right Revd Dino Gabriel - Bishop of Zululand
Worship and liturgy
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa embraces three orders of ministry: deacon, priest, and bishop. A local variant of the Book of Common Prayer is used. The Church is known for having Anglo-Catholic leanings.
Doctrine and practice
The center of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa's teaching is the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The basic teachings of the church, or catechism, includes:
Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God. He died and was resurrected from the dead.
Jesus provides the way of eternal life for those who believe.
The Old and New Testaments of the Bible were written by people "under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit". The Apocrypha are additional books that are used in Christian worship, but not for the formation of doctrine.
The two great and necessary sacraments are Holy Baptism and Holy Eucharist
Other sacramental rites are confirmation, ordination, marriage, reconciliation of a penitent, and unction.
Belief in heaven, hell, and Jesus's return in glory.
The threefold sources of authority in Anglicanism are scripture, tradition, and reason. These three sources uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way. This balance of scripture, tradition and reason is traced to the work of Richard Hooker, a sixteenth century apologist. In Hooker's model, scripture is the primary means of arriving at doctrine and things stated plainly in scripture are accepted as true. Issues that are ambiguous are determined by tradition, which is checked by reason.
Social issues
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa is regarded as the most liberal Anglican province in Africa, particularly on issues such as ordination of women and homosexuality. Gene Robinson's appointment as bishop of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America prompted warnings of a possible schism in the Anglican Communion. Retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu stated that he didn't see what "all the fuss" was about, saying the election wouldn't roil the Church of the Province of Southern Africa.
Ecumenical relations
Unlike many other Anglican churches, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa is not a member of the ecumenical World Council of Churches.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Anglican Church Of Southern Africa'.
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