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From Resistance to National Reconciliation: The Response and Role of the Ecumenical Church in South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

John W. de Gruchy
John W. de Gruchy*
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
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Extract

Scattered through the history of the Christian Church are seminal moments that have shaped the future course of Christianity whether for good or ill. When later historians of Christianity will write about the twentieth century, I anticipate that they will refer to the role of the Churches in Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa as paradigmatic both in terms of success and failure. They might also refer to the role of the Christian Church in the transition to democracy in both countries in similar terms. In what follows I will offer some reflections on the South African side of the story, briefly tracing the response and role of what I have termed the ‘Ecumenical Church’ in South Africa to African resistance, democratic transition and national reconciliation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 40: Retribution, Repentance, and Reconciliation , 2004 , pp. 369 - 384
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2004

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References

1 Luthuli, Albert, Let My People Go! (London, 1962), 231 Google Scholar.

2 Mandela, Nelson, ‘Second Court Statement, 1964’, in idem, The Struggle is My Life (London, 1990), 160 Google Scholar.

3 The day on which Boer trekkers routed the Zulu army at the Battle of Blood River in 1838. This event was later regarded as the formative moment in the rise of Afrikaner Nationalism, and celebrated as the ‘Day of the Vow’.

4 Mandela, ‘Second Court Statement, 1964’, 160.

5 Karis, Thomas G. and Gerhart, Gail M., eds, From Protest to Challenge: a Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa, 1882–1990, vol. 5: Nadir and Resurgence, 1964–1979 (Pretoria, 1997), 356 Google Scholar.

6 Cottesloe Consultation: the Report of the Consultation among South African Member Churches of the World Council of Churches, 7–14 Dec. 1960 at Cottesloe, Johnannesburg, ed. Leslie A Hewson (Johannesburg, 1961).

7 de Gruchy, John W., The Church Struggle in South Africa (Grand Rapids, MI, 1979), 62–8, 103–14 Google Scholar.

8 Ibid., 115ff.

9 Catholic Institute for International Relations and British Council of Churches, eds, The Kairos Document: a Theological Comment on the Political Crisis in South Africa (London, 1986), art 3.1,9.

10 See the discussion in the Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 58 (March 1987); de Gruchy, John W., ‘The Struggle for Justice and the Ministry of Reconciliation’, in Niirnberger, Klaus and Tooke, John, eds, The Cost of Reconciliation in South Africa (Cape Town, 1988), 166–80 Google Scholar.

11 The remarkable story of these talks is told in Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom the Autobiography of Nelson Mandela 0ohannesburg, 1994), 506–11.

12 de Gruchy, John W., Christianity and Democracy: a Theology for a Just World Order (Cambridge, 1995), 205–24 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 The Truth WillSet You Free, SACC Brochure (1995), 24.

14 Asmal, Kadar, Asmal, Louise and Roberts, Ronald Suresh, Reconciliation through Truth: a Reckoning of Apartheid’s Criminal Governance (Cape Town, 1996), 49 Google Scholar.

15 See Cochrane, James C., de Gruchy, John W. and Martin, Stephen, eds, Facing the Truth: South African Faith Communities and the Truth & Reconciliation Commission (Cape Town, 1999)Google Scholar; for a personal account by one of the TRC Commissioners and a Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (NGK, i.e. the Dutch Reformed Church) theologian, see Meiring, Piet, Chronicle of the Truth Commission: a Journey through the Past and Present – into the Future of South Africa (Vanderbijlpark, 1999), 265ff Google Scholar.

16 See the discussion in de Gruchy, John W., Reconciliation: Restoring Justice (London, 2002)Google Scholar.

17 This description was given by President Thabo Mbeki in his address on the occasion of the opening of Parliament in 1998.

18 Hayner, Priscilla B., Unspeakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocity (New York, 2001), 169 Google Scholar.

19 Mosala, Itumeleng J., ‘The Meaning of Reconciliation: a Black Perspective’, Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 59 (June 1987), 22 Google Scholar.