| The Church of England in South Africa | |
| Classification | Protestant |
|---|---|
| Orientation | Anglican and Reformed |
| Geographical areas | South Africa |
| Origin | 1938 |
| Separated from | Anglican Church of Southern Africa (then the Church of the Province of Southern Africa) |
| Congregations | 150 [1] |
| Members | 100,000[2] |
| Official website | The Church of England in South Africa |
The Church of England in South Africa (CESA) was constituted in 1938 as a federation of churches. It appointed its first Bishop in 1955.[3] It is an Anglican church but it is not a member of the Anglican Communion. However, it relates closely to the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, to which it is similar in that it sees itself as a bastion of the Reformation and particularly of reformed doctrine.
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The first Church of England service on record in South Africa was conducted by a Naval Chaplain in 1749. After the British occupation of the Cape in 1806, congregations were formed and churches were built. [4]
However, when in 1833 an Anglo-Catholic Bishop was appointed to lead the Church, there were those who preferred to follow the Reformation principles and teachings of the Church of England. Thus, when in 1870 Bishop Gray formed the Church of the Province of SA (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa), these evangelical churchmen remained outside the new body. [5]
The present Constitution of the CESA was adopted by the Synod in 1938. The draft was prepared by Archibishop Howard Mowl of Sydney, Australia. The Preamble and Declaration of the Constitution includes the following statement: "The Church of England in South Africa, as a Reformed and Protestant, doth hereby reaffirm its constant witness against all those innovations in doctrine and worship, whereby the primitive faith hath been from time to time defaced or overlaid, and which at the Reformation, the Chruch of England did disown and reject". [6]
James Hickenbotham made an attempt to unite CESA and the Anglican Church in South Africa in 1953. Hickenbotham's proposals, known as the Thirteen Points, were presented as a basis for negotiation. The 1954 Synod rejected the proposals as their adoption would have place the CESA in a weakened position compared to the Anglican Church in South Africa. [7]
In 1959 Bishop Fred Morris of CESA contacted Archbishop Joost de Blank (Anglican Church in South Africa) of Cape Town suggesting that negotiations take place between the two churches with a view to reconciliation. This appoach was rejected by the Anglican Church in South Africa. [8]
In 1984 Dudley Foord was appointed Presiding Bishop. He was consecrated by the Archbishop of Sydney, Australia before taking up his episcopal duties in South Africa. Present at the consecration was the Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman representing the Episcopal Synond of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Despite the conciliatory tone of Dudley Foord's consecration, the Presiding Bishop of CESA was not invited to attend the Lambeth Conference held in 1988 either as a Bishop of the Anglican Church or as a Bishop of the church in full communion with the Anglican denomination. [9]
Although the CESA has been excluded from the Lambeth Conference, its ministerial orders are recognised by the Anglican Communion, and these orders derive from Bishop Fred Morris, a former Anglican missionary bishop in North Africa, who moved in 1955 to South Africa, much to the irritation of the then Archbishop of Canterbury. Several CESA clerics have served in the Church of England.
The CESA in 2009 was composed of just under 200 congregations, with a total of about 120,000 members. All churches contribute 10% of their income to a central fund. Christ Church, Midrand; Christ Church, Pinetown; and St James Church, Kenilworth all have memberships of several thousand, with attendances on Sunday morning services at about 1000. The average church size is about 150.
Presiding Bishops since 1955:
G. Frederick B. Morris 1955 to 1965
Stephen Carlton Bradley 1965 to 1984
Dudley Foord 1986 to 1989
Joe J. Bell 1989 to 2000
Frank J. Retief 2000 to 2010
Desmond Inglesby 2010 to present.
The Church canons allow for lay presidency at Holy Communion and also the use of grape juice instead of fermented wine. All references to baptismal regeneration and absolution have been eliminated from the denomination's alternative Prayer book, as has the word "Catholic" in the creeds.
George Whitefield College (GWC), the official CESA theological training facility in Cape Town is modelled on Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia. The founding principal of GWC was Dr Broughton Knox; the current principal is Dr David Seccombe. Two other CESA colleges are the Johannesburg Bible College and the Kwazulu-Natal Missionary Bible College (formerly known as Trinity Academy) in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu