The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa (REACH-SA), known until 2013 as the Church of England in South Africa (CESA), is a Christian denomination in South Africa. It was constituted in 1938 as a federation of churches. It appointed its first bishop in 1955.[4] It is an Anglican church (though not a member of the Anglican Communion) and 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.[6][page needed]
History
Before 1938
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]
In 1847 an Anglo-Catholic bishop was appointed to lead the church. He was determined to enforce Tractarianism on 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 Anglican clergy remained outside the new body.[citation needed]
1938–present
The synod of the CESA adopted the church's present[update] constitution in 1938. The draft was prepared by Howard Mowll, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney in Australia. The preamble and declaration of the constitution includes the following statement: "The Church of England in South Africa, as a Reformed and Protestant Church, 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 Church of England did disown and reject."[7]
James Hickenbotham made an attempt to unite CESA and the Anglican Church in South Africa in 1953. Hickenbotham presented proposals, known as the Thirteen Points, as a basis for negotiation. The 1954 synod rejected the proposals as their adoption would have placed the CESA in a weakened position compared to the Anglican Church in South Africa.[7] In 1959, Fred Morris of CESA contacted Joost de Blank, the Archbishop of Cape Town (Church of the Province of Southern Africa) suggesting that negotiations take place between the two churches with a view to reconciliation. The CPSA rejected this approach.[8]
Stephen Bradley served as presiding bishop from 1965 to 1984: he was a supporter of apartheid.[9] He was one of three ministers to preside at the funeral of Hendrik Verwoerd, the "Architect of Apartheid".[10][11] In the 1970s and 1980s, the CESA "became a haven for conservative whites fleeing the 'liberal' positions of Desmond Tutu and others in the CPSA".[12]
From the mid-1980s onwards, discrimination in its constitution, national structure and practices were "systematically removed".[10] This included the passing at their 1985 synod of a statement that included the phrase: "Synod totally rejects discrimination on grounds of colour, sex or race as contrary to the Bible."[14] In a 1999 statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, future presiding bishop Frank Retief suggested the denomination's perceived support of apartheid was the result of a number of issues: believing government propaganda, its objection to liberation theology, and that they should remain "a-political" to concentrate on growing their small denomination.[10] He also claimed that senior leaders had met with both P. W. Botha and F. W. de Klerk when they served as State President of South Africa to "express concern about the wrongs in south Africa" but hid these from local leadership and their congregations which "reinforced the view that we were supporters of the government and not critics".[10]
In 2004, the church was described as "most theologically conservative evangelical denomination in South Africa".[12]
At Synod 2013 The Church of England in South Africa voted to change its official operating name to The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa, REACH-SA.[17] At Synod 2014 Desmond Ingelsby resigned as the presiding bishop due to bad health. Synod appointed several bishops to do the work of the presiding bishop until a presiding bishop was appointed. Glen Lyons was appointed the Chairman of the group.[citation needed]
Namibia
Stephen and Aura Quirk moved to Swakopmund Namibia in the 1980's, to work at Rossing Mine. They had become Christians at St. James Church, Kenilworth, Cape Town, under the preaching of Rev. Frank Retief. In Swakopmund the local church had an Arminian Pastor and Stephan found himself at odds with his teaching. Thus Stephan obtained cassette tapes of Franks sermons and bible studies and began CESA Sunday Services and Bible Studies in a garage in Swakopmund. This fledgling church was named St. Timothy's Church. In 1988 St. Timothy's called their first minister, Rev. George van der Westhuizen who was a long distance Curate under Rev. Frank Retief in Kenilworth, Cape Town.
When Rev. George van der Westhuizen accepted a call to Welkom in the Free State to do his second term of Curacy in 1992
Mr Ingo van der Merwe (a youth for Christ worker) took the reins at St. Timothy's Church. George and Ingo were at Bible College together.
The next minister at St Timothy's was Rev Johann van der Bijl
Then Rev. George van der Westhuizen came back to St. Timothy's in 1998
In 2005, St. Timothy's Congregation Chose to leave CESA and join an American Denomination. St. Timothy's no longer exists.[18]
Although REACH-SA 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[citation needed] of the then Archbishop of Canterbury. Several REACH-SA clerics have controversially[20] served in the Church of England.
In 2009, the denomination was composed of just under 200 congregations, with a total of about 120,000 members. All churches must contribute 10% of their income to a central fund, but in practice some churches do not. 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.[citation needed]
George Whitefield College (GWC), the official REACH-SA theological training facility in Cape Town is modelled on Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia. The founding principal of GWC was Broughton Knox; the current principal is Mark Dickson. Another REACH-SA college is the Kwazulu-Natal Missionary Bible College (formerly known as Trinity Academy) in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal.[citation needed]
Anglican realignment
The REACH-SA has been involved in the Anglican realignment and was one of the denominations that participated at the launching of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in South Africa, on 3 September 2009.[23] The Presiding Bishop of REACH-SA, Glenn Lyons, consecrated the Rev. Jonathan Pryke, of Jesmond Parish Church, as an overseas bishop, the first ever in Europe, on 2 May 2017.[24] This was controversial due to REACH-SA's status outside of the Anglican Communion, and because the consecration occurred without the knowledge of the Bishop of Newcastle. It wasn't also officially sanctioned by the GAFCON UK.[25] REACH-SA justified the consecration because their bishops "have regularly stood in to help with ordinations and other episcopal ministry to the Jesmond Parish Church due to its members being in impaired communion with their own diocesan bishop".[26]
^Rt Revd John D. Davies. "Letters to the Editor: CESA's position during the apartheid struggle". Church Times. Retrieved 7 May 2022. The CESA kept separate not only from the CPSA, but from the whole ecumenical fellowship of Churches. With its handful of congregations in white areas of the Western Cape, it kept aloof from the problems of poverty and injustice which oppressed the majority of South Africa's people during the apartheid years; in both theology and practice it was content to be part of the white-supremacy culture. Dr Hendrik Verwoerd was the theoretical architect of the apartheid ideology, and, as Prime Minister, was uncompromising in its application. When, in September 1966, he was assassinated, three ministers officiated at his funeral. Two of these, very appropriately, represented the churches of the powerful Afrikaans-speaking Dutch Reformed communities; the third was Bishop Stephen Bradley, of the CESA, the one English-language church leader who was acceptable to the apartheid administration.
