The church in South Africa Past, Present and Future: Lessons from the past, Compromises – Dawid Kuyler

It is sometimes very easy for us to be hard on our ancestors and the decisions that they made.  With hindsight it is easy to criticize them.  As we grow older we realize that when we were young it was easy to criticize our parents, but now when we are parents and grandparents we are milder in our judgment.  Although I do not think that we should condone all the wrongs of the past, we can certainly learn lessons from the past.

I would like to venture into the history of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa and explore some incidents and the lessons we can learn from those incidents.

From 1652 until 1857 there was no formal racial separation in the church in South Africa.  In 1857 a number of white congregants in the District of Graaf-Reinett requested the Synod to be served separated at the Lord´s Table and the infamous decision was taken: “because of the weakness of some” the request was approved and it opened the door for separated churches based on race.  In 1880 the Synod decided to establish a Dutch Reformed Mission Church for the indigenous people.  The first synod of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church was established on 5 October 1881 and functioned for many years like a church colony of the Dutch Reformed Church.  Only on 15 August 1935 Rev AD Andries was ordained as the first indigenous minister.  For many years the Dutch Reformed Mission Church was ruled by white missionaries and racial separation in the church was accepted.  In 1948 the National party came into power with Apartheid as policy.  When they started to implement Apartheid as forced racial segregation and people were forcefully removed from so-called white areas, some indigenous ministers and congregations started to speak out and asked questions about the Scriptural justification of Apartheid.  The Synod of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church in 1950 did not want to get involved in politics and refused to oppose Apartheid.  In a way the church settled for a compromise.  The Gospel of Christ was compromised by the church.  Only a few could not live with the compromise.

Rev Izak David Morkel from the congregation of Rondebosch resigned as minister and a large number of congregants followed him to establish the Calvin Protestant Church.  He was joined later by Rev WA September and Theological Candidate I Theron.  Thirty years later in 1982 the Dutch Reformed Mission Church wrote the Belhar Confession and in 1986 adopted it as a fourth confession.  Apartheid was declared a heresy.  Rev Morkel paid a price for not settling for a compromise.  Does it mean that all the other ministers who did not have the courage to join him were sell outs?  I think the question that we have to ask if in our own time if we have the courage to stand up and go against the many compromises we make in the church.  Racism, economy, ecology, gay and lesbian issues are still part of the agenda of the church.  In many cases we still make compromises.  Are we really so different from our ancestors?  The Belhar Confession calls us in article 5 to obedience: We believe that, in obedience to Jesus Christ, its only Head, the Church is called to confess and to do all these things, even though the authorities and human laws might forbid them and punishment and suffering be the consequence.

Dr Dawid Kuyler serves as Scribe* of the General Synod of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa, a position he has held since 2008.  Kuyler is a church historian, who has become a practical theologian teaching counselling.  He has been in the ministry for 30 years and continues to enjoy its challenges.

*A position that is equivalent to a Stated Clerk of the General Assembly or highest governing body of a denomination