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THE MISSION STATEMENT OF
THE METHODIST CHURCH OF SOUTHERN AFRICA
‘God calls the Methodist people to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ for healing
and transformation’
OUR VISION:
‘A Christ-healed Africa for the healing of Nations’
OUR CONTINUING TRANSFORMATION CALLS:
We believe the Church is called to:
A deepening spirituality.
A resolve to be guided by God’s mission.
A rediscovery of ‘every member ministry’, or the priesthood of all believers.
A commitment ‘to be one so that the world may believe’.
A re-emphasis of servant-leadership and discernment as our model for ministry.
A redefinition and authentication of the vocation of the clergy in our Church.
A recommitment to environmental justice
OUR FOUR IMPERATIVES OF MISSION
Evangelism and Church Growth
Spirituality
Justice and Service
Human and Economic Development and Empowerment
SOUTHERN AFRICAN METHODISM
Methodism arrived in South Africa with British soldiers in 1806 but the mission was launched by Barnabas Shaw who reached the Cape in 1816 and William Shaw (unrelated) who accompanied the British settlers of 1820. Barnabas Shaw established a mission among the Khoi at Leliefontein in Namaqualand and colleagues ventured across the Orange River into present-day Namibia and what are now the northern provinces of South Africa. William Shaw established Methodism throughout the British settlement in Albany and rapidly planted a chain of mission stations between the Cape Colony and Natal. In the late nineteenth century mission work was extended into the gold-mining area in Gauteng and north through modern Limpopo into Zimbabwe. Six missionary districts of the Wesleyan Methodist church became an affiliated Conference in 1883. An independent Conference was constituted in 1927 and enlarged in 1931 to include the Transvaal Missionary District of the British Conference and the small Primitive Methodist Mission. The Connexion operates today in six countries – Botswana, Lesotho, Mocambique, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. Khoi and African helpers worked with the missionaries from early days but an indigenous ordained ministry only came into being in the late 1860’s.
The work and witness of indigenous ministers, evangelists and laity established Methodism firmly in many parts of South Africa, but leadership remained firmly in white hands. This was an important factor in a number of schisms which resulted in such bodies as the Ethiopian Church and the South African branch of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The last major schism took place in 1978 when the Methodist Church of Southern Africa was banned in the Transkei homeland and replaced by the United Methodist Church of S A. Most ministers and members returned to the MCSA when the ban was lifted in 1988.
The Methodist Church rejected the apartheid ideology from the beginning and was a vocal critic of government policy throughout the Nationalist supremacy. Faced by strong government pressure to divide along racial lines, the 1958 Conference declared “its conviction that it is the will of God for the Methodist Church that it should be one and undivided, trusting to the leading of God to bring this ideal to ultimate fruition”. Six years later the Rev Seth Mokitimi became the first African to serve as President of Conference. Although leadership has been deracialised, the ideal of a one and undivided Church has still to be realised at the congregational level. The Methodist Church was a major role-player in African education before the introduction of Bantu Education in 1955. Institutions such as Healdtown, Kilnerton, Clarkebury, Moroka, Indaleni and Wesley House, Fort Hare were alma mater to many African leaders, including Nelson Mandela. A small but significant medical mission was also taken over by the apartheid government.The Methodist Church of Southern Africa was a foundation member of the World Council of Churches and has provided leadership for the South African Council of Churches, the Church Unity Commission and the All Africa Conference of Churches. It is an increasingly active participant in the World Methodist Council.The direction of mission in the MCSA has been greatly influenced in recent years by a number of convocations which have brought together laity and clergy to seek God’s will for the Church. Obedience’81 set the Church’s course in South Africa’s most troubled decade. The Journey to a New Land in 1992, followed by the 1995 Convocation and the 2004 Mission Congress, have shaped its mission policy in the challenging context of the new South Africa.
D G L CraggApril 2005
Methodism arrived in South Africa with British soldiers in 1806 but the mission was launched by Barnabas Shaw who reached the Cape in 1816 and William Shaw (unrelated) who accompanied the British settlers of 1820. Barnabas Shaw established a mission among the Khoi at Leliefontein in Namaqualand and colleagues ventured across the Orange River into present-day Namibia and what are now the northern provinces of South Africa. William Shaw established Methodism throughout the British settlement in Albany and rapidly planted a chain of mission stations between the Cape Colony and Natal. In the late nineteenth century mission work was extended into the gold-mining area in Gauteng and north through modern Limpopo into Zimbabwe. Six missionary districts of the Wesleyan Methodist church became an affiliated Conference in 1883. An independent Conference was constituted in 1927 and enlarged in 1931 to include the Transvaal Missionary District of the British Conference and the small Primitive Methodist Mission. The Connexion operates today in six countries – Botswana, Lesotho, Mocambique, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. Khoi and African helpers worked with the missionaries from early days but an indigenous ordained ministry only came into being in the late 1860’s.
The work and witness of indigenous ministers, evangelists and laity established Methodism firmly in many parts of South Africa, but leadership remained firmly in white hands. This was an important factor in a number of schisms which resulted in such bodies as the Ethiopian Church and the South African branch of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The last major schism took place in 1978 when the Methodist Church of Southern Africa was banned in the Transkei homeland and replaced by the United Methodist Church of S A. Most ministers and members returned to the MCSA when the ban was lifted in 1988.
The Methodist Church rejected the apartheid ideology from the beginning and was a vocal critic of government policy throughout the Nationalist supremacy. Faced by strong government pressure to divide along racial lines, the 1958 Conference declared “its conviction that it is the will of God for the Methodist Church that it should be one and undivided, trusting to the leading of God to bring this ideal to ultimate fruition”. Six years later the Rev Seth Mokitimi became the first African to serve as President of Conference. Although leadership has been deracialised, the ideal of a one and undivided Church has still to be realised at the congregational level. The Methodist Church was a major role-player in African education before the introduction of Bantu Education in 1955. Institutions such as Healdtown, Kilnerton, Clarkebury, Moroka, Indaleni and Wesley House, Fort Hare were alma mater to many African leaders, including Nelson Mandela. A small but significant medical mission was also taken over by the apartheid government.The Methodist Church of Southern Africa was a foundation member of the World Council of Churches and has provided leadership for the South African Council of Churches, the Church Unity Commission and the All Africa Conference of Churches. It is an increasingly active participant in the World Methodist Council.The direction of mission in the MCSA has been greatly influenced in recent years by a number of convocations which have brought together laity and clergy to seek God’s will for the Church. Obedience’81 set the Church’s course in South Africa’s most troubled decade. The Journey to a New Land in 1992, followed by the 1995 Convocation and the 2004 Mission Congress, have shaped its mission policy in the challenging context of the new South Africa.
D G L CraggApril 2005
THE MESSAGE OF OBEDIENCE '81
We, the Methodist people of Southern Africa who have gathered for the largest and most representative assembly in the 165 years of our Church's history, share with our fellow Methodists what we believe God has been saying in and through the Obedience '81 Conference.
For seven days we met as a people bound by a common covenant, committed to participate fully in all the proceedings and to search our hearts for what the Lordship of Jesus Christ means to us as Methodists in Southern Africa in the eighties.From the outset we have joy in declaring that we serve a mighty God. Ours was no easy journey together. Yet He was always there, leading us forward to see His truth and to receive His love and power.
As we were reminded of our heritage with its roots firmly in the Bible, the Wesleys and Africa. He was there.As we wrestled with our diversity and division, we became angry and hurt, the seeds of our own violence and fear exploded to the surface redoubling our pain. Yet He was there. God in Christ was in the midst and He brought us to repentance.
He opened our eyes to our sin and to the wounds inflicted on each other by our insensitivity, bitterness and fear. We cried out for His forgiveness and redeeming grace.While there is much for which we still need to repent we now celebrate with you that He did not abandon us but illuminated our way with the light of His living Spirit. Out of this costly journey, we share the hope we have found together:God has a vital and immediate task for the Methodist Church. We reaffirmed that within our beliefs are embraced the central elements of the Christian Faith, and within our family belong the broadest spectrum of people. God challenged us to give priority to the proclamation of salvation in Jesus Christ and to demonstrate His grace in visible social action.God expects us to be whole people healed by His forgiveness and filled with His Spirit. He challenges our lack of prayer, our failure to earth our lives in Scripture, and our compromises with personal sin. We accepted His promise of power, where in the past we argues about the Holy Spirit instead of opening our loves to Him. These failings in obedience to Christ's example have imprisoned the Church and we call upon all our people to claim now the 'full, free and present salvation', which is in Jesus Christ and is the mark of every true Methodist.God commands His Church to be a pattern of His way of Love, proclaiming salvation, demonstrating unity, expressing acceptance of one another in and beyond our own cultural and racial group. This Church, from its local congregation level, is to be an undivided community practising deep and costly reconciliation. The whole Church is to proclaim and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ with clarity and conviction, to offer caring ministries, which can recognize and heal the pain of His suffering people. The Church is to be God's living visible Good News in a fragmented society. Trust between ministers and confidence in the laity is to be the cement of its programme. Truth, not expediency is to direct its course. Love is to permeate its every structure. Essentially we are a Church of Africa and we must discover afresh the implications of our unique heritage.God Seeks a free South Africa, delivered from the violence of oppression, revolution and war. In listening to the cries of those in our body who endure our land's apartheid laws and other discriminatory practices and attitudes, we know that we have touched only the edge of their pain. What we have heard convicts us that every Methodist must witness against this disease, which infects all our people and leaves none unscathed in our Church and country. We call upon every Methodist to reject apartheid. We have experienced how hard it is to abandon long-held prejudice and long-felt bitterness. But we have seen God work this miracle in us. It happened because we continued to search for each other even at our time of deepest division and despair.There has been no mistaking the hand of God in the proceedings of Obedience '81. Individual loves were transformed and resolute views surrendered as the Holy Spirit moved amongst us. Perhaps the greatest sense of foreboding was that in spite of all the painful lessons of the past, we might fail yet again to move from resolution to action. There can be no compromising the immediacy of this message nor its urgency. If we are to be true to Jesus, now is the time for us to move forward together to claim this destiny and become obedient followers of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man.We now declare to all South Africans that there is a better way where people who have discovered their love for each other translate it into justice for all. We believe it to be the way of the Cross. We choose it knowing that we cannot walk it unless we receive from Him through the indwelling Holy Spirit the weapons of courage, compassion and commitment.Our hearts and attitudes have been touched and changed by the Holy Spirit's work at Obedience '81. We have experienced a healing which has lifted us from the very agony of division and despair to the joy of unity and praise.Therefore, promise before Almighty God and each other that we will henceforth live and work to bring into reality the concept of an undivided Church and a free and just Southern Africa.THE METHODIST CHURCH OF SOUTHERN AFRICA This message was unanimously adopted by 800 Methodist people at the Obedience '81 Conference held in Johannesburg in July 1981 and confirmed by a standing vote of the Methodist Conference in October 1981.
We, the Methodist people of Southern Africa who have gathered for the largest and most representative assembly in the 165 years of our Church's history, share with our fellow Methodists what we believe God has been saying in and through the Obedience '81 Conference.
For seven days we met as a people bound by a common covenant, committed to participate fully in all the proceedings and to search our hearts for what the Lordship of Jesus Christ means to us as Methodists in Southern Africa in the eighties.From the outset we have joy in declaring that we serve a mighty God. Ours was no easy journey together. Yet He was always there, leading us forward to see His truth and to receive His love and power.
As we were reminded of our heritage with its roots firmly in the Bible, the Wesleys and Africa. He was there.As we wrestled with our diversity and division, we became angry and hurt, the seeds of our own violence and fear exploded to the surface redoubling our pain. Yet He was there. God in Christ was in the midst and He brought us to repentance.
He opened our eyes to our sin and to the wounds inflicted on each other by our insensitivity, bitterness and fear. We cried out for His forgiveness and redeeming grace.While there is much for which we still need to repent we now celebrate with you that He did not abandon us but illuminated our way with the light of His living Spirit. Out of this costly journey, we share the hope we have found together:God has a vital and immediate task for the Methodist Church. We reaffirmed that within our beliefs are embraced the central elements of the Christian Faith, and within our family belong the broadest spectrum of people. God challenged us to give priority to the proclamation of salvation in Jesus Christ and to demonstrate His grace in visible social action.God expects us to be whole people healed by His forgiveness and filled with His Spirit. He challenges our lack of prayer, our failure to earth our lives in Scripture, and our compromises with personal sin. We accepted His promise of power, where in the past we argues about the Holy Spirit instead of opening our loves to Him. These failings in obedience to Christ's example have imprisoned the Church and we call upon all our people to claim now the 'full, free and present salvation', which is in Jesus Christ and is the mark of every true Methodist.God commands His Church to be a pattern of His way of Love, proclaiming salvation, demonstrating unity, expressing acceptance of one another in and beyond our own cultural and racial group. This Church, from its local congregation level, is to be an undivided community practising deep and costly reconciliation. The whole Church is to proclaim and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ with clarity and conviction, to offer caring ministries, which can recognize and heal the pain of His suffering people. The Church is to be God's living visible Good News in a fragmented society. Trust between ministers and confidence in the laity is to be the cement of its programme. Truth, not expediency is to direct its course. Love is to permeate its every structure. Essentially we are a Church of Africa and we must discover afresh the implications of our unique heritage.God Seeks a free South Africa, delivered from the violence of oppression, revolution and war. In listening to the cries of those in our body who endure our land's apartheid laws and other discriminatory practices and attitudes, we know that we have touched only the edge of their pain. What we have heard convicts us that every Methodist must witness against this disease, which infects all our people and leaves none unscathed in our Church and country. We call upon every Methodist to reject apartheid. We have experienced how hard it is to abandon long-held prejudice and long-felt bitterness. But we have seen God work this miracle in us. It happened because we continued to search for each other even at our time of deepest division and despair.There has been no mistaking the hand of God in the proceedings of Obedience '81. Individual loves were transformed and resolute views surrendered as the Holy Spirit moved amongst us. Perhaps the greatest sense of foreboding was that in spite of all the painful lessons of the past, we might fail yet again to move from resolution to action. There can be no compromising the immediacy of this message nor its urgency. If we are to be true to Jesus, now is the time for us to move forward together to claim this destiny and become obedient followers of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man.We now declare to all South Africans that there is a better way where people who have discovered their love for each other translate it into justice for all. We believe it to be the way of the Cross. We choose it knowing that we cannot walk it unless we receive from Him through the indwelling Holy Spirit the weapons of courage, compassion and commitment.Our hearts and attitudes have been touched and changed by the Holy Spirit's work at Obedience '81. We have experienced a healing which has lifted us from the very agony of division and despair to the joy of unity and praise.Therefore, promise before Almighty God and each other that we will henceforth live and work to bring into reality the concept of an undivided Church and a free and just Southern Africa.THE METHODIST CHURCH OF SOUTHERN AFRICA This message was unanimously adopted by 800 Methodist people at the Obedience '81 Conference held in Johannesburg in July 1981 and confirmed by a standing vote of the Methodist Conference in October 1981.
THE SIX CALLS OF THE JOURNEY TO THE NEW LAND (1992 & 1995)
February 1990 was a watershed in the political history of South Africa. In the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa President F.W. de Klerk announced the unbanning of the liberation movements and the release of Nelson Mandela from prison. “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ Great things indeed the Lord did for us and we rejoiced.” Psalm 126:1-3The MCSA began to ask how we move from a theology of protest and of resisting apartheid oppression to sharing in South Africa’s reconstruction ?From this question there flowed six calls for the MCSA:For deepened spirituality for all our people in the life of our church.That the life and work of the church be directed towards mission rather than maintenance.The rediscovery of every member ministry or the priesthood of all believers.To truly express what it means “to be one so that the world may believe.”To re-emphasise servant leadership and discernment as our model for leadership and decision making.To set ordained ministers free for their primary vocation of preaching, teaching and spiritual guidance.To these six calls have been added the Four Imperatives of Mission.Our Four Imperatives of Mission:Evangelism and Church Growth – inviting people to personal faith in Christ and His gospel and to belonging in the community of faith as disciples; planting new faith communities especially in informal settlements and new urban multi-cultural congregations. Spirituality – connecting to the life giving resources of faith that make for moral regeneration and becoming a holy people in the worldJustice and Service – to promote the values of justice, unity and reconciliation and the healing of national ills, physical, environmental and social and to be Christ’s compassionate, outstretched hands to all humanity.Human and Economic Development and Empowerment – the care and growth of children, the plight of the poor, education, quality of life, nation building.
February 1990 was a watershed in the political history of South Africa. In the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa President F.W. de Klerk announced the unbanning of the liberation movements and the release of Nelson Mandela from prison. “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ Great things indeed the Lord did for us and we rejoiced.” Psalm 126:1-3The MCSA began to ask how we move from a theology of protest and of resisting apartheid oppression to sharing in South Africa’s reconstruction ?From this question there flowed six calls for the MCSA:For deepened spirituality for all our people in the life of our church.That the life and work of the church be directed towards mission rather than maintenance.The rediscovery of every member ministry or the priesthood of all believers.To truly express what it means “to be one so that the world may believe.”To re-emphasise servant leadership and discernment as our model for leadership and decision making.To set ordained ministers free for their primary vocation of preaching, teaching and spiritual guidance.To these six calls have been added the Four Imperatives of Mission.Our Four Imperatives of Mission:Evangelism and Church Growth – inviting people to personal faith in Christ and His gospel and to belonging in the community of faith as disciples; planting new faith communities especially in informal settlements and new urban multi-cultural congregations. Spirituality – connecting to the life giving resources of faith that make for moral regeneration and becoming a holy people in the worldJustice and Service – to promote the values of justice, unity and reconciliation and the healing of national ills, physical, environmental and social and to be Christ’s compassionate, outstretched hands to all humanity.Human and Economic Development and Empowerment – the care and growth of children, the plight of the poor, education, quality of life, nation building.
THE MISSION CHARTER (2004)
The mission charter (2004) completes this trilogy of faith and action.
CHARTER OF THE MISSION CONGRESS OF THE MCSA ADOPTEDIN MTHATHA IN NOVEMBER 2004
Where there is no vision the people perishWhere there is no passion the vision diesGod has given us the vision of “A Christ healed Africa for the healing of nations.”We have been challenged to share more deeply God’s passion for healing and transformation.As members of the Methodist family we came to Mthatha to face this challenge.We found direction as the Holy Spirit inspired us to continue the pilgrimage which has led us through Obedience 81 and the Journey to the New Land to the present day.We recognise the vital importance of the local church and rejoice in the many Circuits and Societies where life-giving mission is taking place.In trust and obedience we commit ourselves anew to the Four Imperatives of Mission in our time -A deepened spirituality as individuals and a Christian community,Justice and service in church and societyEvangelism and church growth which build up the people of God,Empowerment and development which give dignity and new purpose to those who have been deprived.We resolve to take intentional and sustained action to implement these imperatives in such areas as:The healing ministry; deepening our understanding of African and other spiritualities; co-ordinated programmes of Christian education, information and communication; building meaningful relationships that transcend racism, sexism and all other forms of discrimination; a vigorous response to the crisis of HIV and AIDS; informing our prophetic ministry by research into socio-economic issues; identifying land for sustainable livelihood; sacrificial giving; becoming a church in solidarity with the poor; providing training in evangelism; training ministers for the African context; implementing anti-bias training; becoming a more youth and child centred church.We invite the people of God throughout Botswana, Lesotho, Mocambique, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland, to join us as we put ourselves at God’s disposal to carry forward God’s mission in this sub-continentLet us each renew our personal commitment to Jesus Christ and seek to grow in grace and in love for God, one another and the world.Let us ensure that our mission of healing and transformation is holistic, embracing all the imperatives for mission.Let us participate in God’s mission in ways that are appropriate to our local contexts and in partnership with the wider church and community.Let us celebrate our diversity and the gifts God has given to each of us; support each other; challenge each other and pray for each other.Finally, we encourage every Circuit to set aside the last Sunday in May to celebrate what God is doing among us and to commit ourselves again to our high calling in Christ.God bless this Africa which is our homeGive us grace to followJesus the healerJesus the peacemakerJesus the Saviour of the worldJesus the Lord of all life.Restore us and make your face shine on us that we may be saved
The mission charter (2004) completes this trilogy of faith and action.
CHARTER OF THE MISSION CONGRESS OF THE MCSA ADOPTEDIN MTHATHA IN NOVEMBER 2004
Where there is no vision the people perishWhere there is no passion the vision diesGod has given us the vision of “A Christ healed Africa for the healing of nations.”We have been challenged to share more deeply God’s passion for healing and transformation.As members of the Methodist family we came to Mthatha to face this challenge.We found direction as the Holy Spirit inspired us to continue the pilgrimage which has led us through Obedience 81 and the Journey to the New Land to the present day.We recognise the vital importance of the local church and rejoice in the many Circuits and Societies where life-giving mission is taking place.In trust and obedience we commit ourselves anew to the Four Imperatives of Mission in our time -A deepened spirituality as individuals and a Christian community,Justice and service in church and societyEvangelism and church growth which build up the people of God,Empowerment and development which give dignity and new purpose to those who have been deprived.We resolve to take intentional and sustained action to implement these imperatives in such areas as:The healing ministry; deepening our understanding of African and other spiritualities; co-ordinated programmes of Christian education, information and communication; building meaningful relationships that transcend racism, sexism and all other forms of discrimination; a vigorous response to the crisis of HIV and AIDS; informing our prophetic ministry by research into socio-economic issues; identifying land for sustainable livelihood; sacrificial giving; becoming a church in solidarity with the poor; providing training in evangelism; training ministers for the African context; implementing anti-bias training; becoming a more youth and child centred church.We invite the people of God throughout Botswana, Lesotho, Mocambique, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland, to join us as we put ourselves at God’s disposal to carry forward God’s mission in this sub-continentLet us each renew our personal commitment to Jesus Christ and seek to grow in grace and in love for God, one another and the world.Let us ensure that our mission of healing and transformation is holistic, embracing all the imperatives for mission.Let us participate in God’s mission in ways that are appropriate to our local contexts and in partnership with the wider church and community.Let us celebrate our diversity and the gifts God has given to each of us; support each other; challenge each other and pray for each other.Finally, we encourage every Circuit to set aside the last Sunday in May to celebrate what God is doing among us and to commit ourselves again to our high calling in Christ.God bless this Africa which is our homeGive us grace to followJesus the healerJesus the peacemakerJesus the Saviour of the worldJesus the Lord of all life.Restore us and make your face shine on us that we may be saved
