The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Southern Africa) was born after the GAFCON 1 meeting in Jerusalem in 2008, with the aim of standing for biblical orthodoxy. FCA has two constituent parties, members of the Church of England in South Africa (CESA) and members of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA).
Among the Dioceses of the ACSA, Port Elizabeth Diocese, the Diocese of St. Mark the Evangelist, Zululand and Niassa Dioceses would count themselves as evangelical. So are clusters of parishes in Kwazulu Natal. In the Western Cape about 4-5 parishes, including the very big St. John’s Wynberg, a conglomerate of seven churches, are evangelical and charismatic in varying degrees. A good strong parish within the diocese of Cape Town is St. Martin’s Bergvliet. In Johannesburg there are 4-5 strongly evangelical parishes, generally the larger ones.
The situation at present
In Southern Africa the narratives of liberation and reconciliation have been effective bases from which to engage the idol of apartheid and with the challenge of social reconstruction. However they have proven totally inadequate to cope with new idols and false gospels currently threatening the church in Africa. Gnostic anthropology reinforced by narcissistic Western individualism is brought by American and Canadian bishops and missionaries coming into our midst who are welcomed at conferences. This is in stark contrast to the Anglican churches of East and West Africa who have recognised the threat of a false gospel and the power it has to deconstruct the institutions of family and church and to unravel the very fabric of African community.
Because of this gradual undermining of orthodox faith and ministry, it is imperative that doctrinally sound training in a genuinely Reformed Anglican tradition is provided.
Our strategy
Another major weakness in our church is biblical illiteracy among the laity despite a genuine thirst among many of them for a deeper knowledge of God’s Word. We have inherited a maintenance based and inwardly focused church. So we have formed a voluntary mission society to develop theological training especially for the laity. These programmes are discipleship based and mission focused and impart a vision of the church’s mission in which every member is involved. This society, the Southern Mission Society (SMS), is under the oversight of bishops from Anglican Provinces in the Global South.
Church plants under SMS
As church planting and community development are two of the fundamental aims of the SMS mission we have encouraged those who are planting new churches and are trying to help them with resources. The Franschhoek Fellowship is one such church plant in the Western Cape. This congregation continues to grow in numbers and ministry to the local community. They are presently negotiating to buy a property to convert into a worship sanctuary and youth centre.
In late June we offered the first SMS course in Mission and Ministry to 18 enthusiastic people in the diocese of Port Elizabeth. This is the first in a ten-module course to equip people with a sound biblical foundation, and skills in practical ministry (e.g. preaching, church planting and leading Bible studies) and Christian leadership. This course is available at certificate level or fully accredited degree level.
SMS offers training with its partners at both the lay and ordained levels. This training is done on a distance learning model, including intensive ‘contact times’. This dramatically reduces the cost and allows candidates to continue in ministry while being trained. This can result in the advantage of mentorship by senior clergy while getting quality, practice-focussed theological training.
Stellenbosch Theological Institute
STI is a joint initiative between SMS /FCA SA , the Oxford Centre for Religion in Public Life and the Shofar Church (an independent charismatic church). It offers high quality evangelical theological courses at postgraduate level which are fully accredited. This year we have 25 registered students. These courses are distance learning courses offered online — we hope that African Provinces to the north of us will consider taking advantage of these mission-oriented courses.
Through all these means we are seeking to develop a new generation of biblically grounded, doctrinally sound, faithful Anglicans.
