Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar

Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar
Classification Protestant
Theology Reformed
Governance Presbyterian
Moderator Lala Rasendrahasina[1]
Associations World Communion of Reformed Churches, World Council of Churches
Origin 1968
Madagascar
Branched from London Missionary Society
Congregations 5,800
Members 3.5 million

The Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (Malagasy: Fiangonan'i Jesoa Kristy eto Madagasikara) (FJKM) is the second-largest Christian denomination in Madagascar. The FJKM is the national church of Madagascar, but it is not the established church of the state.

History

Founded in 1968 as a Reformed Protestant denomination by the union of 3 churches which arose from the work of the London Missionary Society, the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society and the Friends Foreign Missionary Association, the FJKM today has 3.5 million adherents in approximately 5,800 congregations and 56 Synods nationwide and runs 552 schools.[2][3]

The fact that former Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana is a member of the church and concurrently served as an elected lay vice-president of the church during his presidential term has led to concerns of church and state interests being "not kept entirely separate" in Madagascar.[4]

In 2002, a schism in the church occurred, and the New Protestant Church in Madagascar was formed with 300,000 former members of the FJKM.[4]

Following the 2009 Malagasy protests, the leader of the FJKM, Pastor Lala Rasendrahasina, was taken into custody by army soldiers along with five generals who were selected by Ravalomanana as members of a proposed military directorate that would have run the executive branch after his resignation but instead had transferred power over to the opposition leader, Andry Rajoelina, (a Roman Catholic); Rasendrahasina, a cousin of Ravalomanana's wife and supporter of Ravalomanana, was seen as being too close to the former president.[5]

Theology

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-08-28. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  2. ↑ "Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM)". oikoumene.org.
  3. ↑ Council for World Mission: The Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar.
  4. 1 2 U.S. Department of State, "International Religious Freedom Report 2006: Madagascar" Archived 2012-01-21 at WebCite.
  5. ↑ "Five army generals, one church leader arrested by soldiers_English_Xinhua". xinhuanet.com.
  6. ↑ "Address data base of Reformed churches and institutions". reformiert-online.net.
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