ORGANISATION AND GOVERNMENT.

v*The Presbyterian Churchy is governed by a series of Church Courts, of which the

supreme, and only legislative court in the Church is the General Assembly. Under it the whole territory served by the Church’ is^divided into seven regional courts known

V as Presbyteries. These are sometime s*«llmed after the area they serve, sometimes after a principle centre within it . Without listing their boundaries, the names sufficient! indicate their sphere of authority: they are the Presbyteries of Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, King William’ s Town, Natal, Orgnge River, Transvaal ,and Rhodesia. It is PDrposed as future policy, chiefly in connection with union negotiations at oresent

I under consideration, to introduce the Synod" as a court intermediate between General ^ Assembly and Presbytery. The effect of this would be to relieve General Assembly of

certain types of business in a larger 8hurch and to give corresoondingly greater a w t w i autonomy within large regions of the Church. The proposed Synods would be four in number covering the following areas: Cape, Natal and Transkei, Transvaal and O .F .S .,

\/ and Rhodesia. As a pilot scheme in this development the proposed Synod of Rhodesia, which is the most urgent because of the great area involved, is being created over

jy the three-year period 1963-66, with three new Presbyteries, of Bulawayo, Salisbury, and Lusaka.

The last and lowest of the Church courts is not territorial but congregational, the Session, which is the governing body of each congregation within each Presbytery.In the composition, functions and powers of these courts there is an attemot to effect a balance between authority and democracy, as also between clergy and laity. Thus the members of each higher court are appointed by the immediately lower court, but their aopointment must be sustained by the higher court itself, and once they are members they are not delegates, and cannot be instructed by the lower court from which they come.

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The Session is composed of elders who are elected by the members of the congregation: but once their election has been sustained by the Session itself they are ordained for life , and cannot be deposed from office by the members, save by

V/ judicial appeal to a higher court. In every Church court the chairman is known as the Moderator, and in the Session the minister of the church is Moderator, its remaining members being laymen who have been duly ordained as elders. There is no fixed number of members, this depending on what is necessary for the oversight of the congregation.

t, V f Each Session may commission one of its members to Presbytery, the largerI congregations being allowed two commissioners. The minister of every congregation,

and any ministers without charge, are normally members of Presbytery. The number of ministers and elders in Presbytery is thus roughly, though not exactly, equal. Presbytery has full administrative and disciplinary authority over congregations.Only Presbytery ca» croatea new Session, and Presbytery may if it see fit disband a Session and call for a new election. In practice the Session, and congregation, enjoys a fair amount of autonomy in its local affairs, but is very definitely under Presbytery authority in all major matters.

Each Presbytery commissions an equal number of ministers and elders to General Assembly. The number permitted is fired by General Assembly and may vary, provided that it remains proportional to the number of congregations in each

J Presbytery. At present, and for many years, the number has been one minister and one elder for every two congregations. As in the case of election from Sessions to Presbytery, these commissioners must be sustained by Assembly itself and cannot be instructed by the Presbytery commissioning them. In Presbytery and Assembly the

•J Moderator is annually elected: either an elder or a minister may be chosen, and while elders have occasionally served in both courts, the Moderator is normally a minister. The new and the retiring Moderators, and the two clerks of Assembly, both of whom are

ministers, are ex officiis members of that court, thus in Assembly ministers outnumber elders by the small margin of three or four.

On any decision of a church court there is the right of appeal by all church members from Session to Presbytery, and from Presbytery to Assembly. Against a decision of Assembly there is no appeal, but any legislatior of Assembly altering the discipline, government, doctrine or worship of the Church cannot become law until it has received the approval of a majority of Presbyteries by constitutional means.All decisions in Church courts are reached by a simple majority of those present and voting.

General Assembly meets regularly once per yearjrf though special meetings are very occasionally called for matters of sufficient importance. It has an

Executive Commission, numbering about twenty members and representative of all Presbyteries/

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Presbyteries, empowered to deal with matters of urgency arising between Assemblies, but subject to confirmation at the next regular meeting of the court. Presbyteries and Session meet more frequently, and fix the number of their meetings according to their need. These would normally be not less frequently than quarterly and not more

frequently than monthly.

Some points should be noted as to the inter-racial implications of this

form of Shurch government.

First as to the general character and composition of the Church. In round

figures its present membership is 33,500 Europeans, 17,500 Africans, 500 Coloureds and 100 Indians. The following are the chief historical factors affecting these figures. When the Bantu Presbyterian Church was founded in 1923 from the Mission of the Free Church of Scotland, our African congregations were given the option to join the new segregated Church and some elected to do so. Since then we have had an

agreement with this Church not to operate in competition with it in certain areas, hence there are large areas, such as the Transkei, in which we have attempted no African work. Our Coloured work has always been slight. Throughout most of the area in which we function, the Congregational Union of S. A ., with which jute have very

close and friendly relations, has a large and prior work among the Coloured people* ThtcrCompetitlon with which we have avoided entering.,. Our work among the Indian

people is of very recent date.

It is regarded by ojjr Church as one of its most significant attributes that

it is in no sense a national Church. The Church functions among all races in Northern and Southern Rhodesia as well as in the Republic of South Africa. This has two important effects on its character. On the one hand any Church has to operate within the laws of the country in which it exists, and it is also deeply affected by social and cultural assumptions of the community. This means that especially at the level of the congregation and the individual member there are certain diffierences of attitude in different areas of the Church. On the bther hand, not because of these differences and the territorial extent of the Church, it does not feel itself too closely linked to, or dominated by, the social, cultural or political assumptions

of any one community.

Against this background it is to be noted that the Presbyterian form of government makes the Church completely inter-racial at the level of its Church courts. All races are represented in Presbyteries and Assembly roughly according to their numbers. There are no reservations or escape clauses in its constitution which in any way limit the implications of one man one vote in the government of the

Church,

As to how this works out in practice the following can be said. Since the Church cannot aim to be an exclusive body on the baiis of social or political opinions its membership comprises every shade of political thought, and on the question of race relationships includes every dhade of opinion from complete integration to complete segregation. In its official policy statements the Church is quite clear on the issue of race relations. In a long policy statement on the subject, the

General Assembly of I960 deciired:

"We re-affirm the historical position of our Church, There is no barrier on the grounds of colour or race, to attendance at worship or to membership in any congregation, but we follow the Reformation principle of the right to worship in one*s mother-tongue and the freedom to develop forms of worship appropriate to different cultural backgrounds. Language and residence have led to the formation of separate congregations, but members of all races meet together in Presbytery and General Assembly. We believe this arrangement, for practical purposes, to be conformable to the Will of God, and acceptable to our members of all racial groups. We must nonetheless be constantly alert that this natural division does not produce real alienation between groups within

the Church."

There is no doubt that at congregational level separation on the basis of

the language used in worship is the overwhelming desire of Church membership. The fact that this means also division by race and colour has its obvious dangers, since it can be a naaxstDcka: convenience for those who desire separation for other than linguistic reasons. It is therefore worth examing how far the Church is seeking to

increase or to minimise this natural separation.

First in the matter of government, how far does equality exist only on

paper/

paper, and how far is it being implemented in fact, A visiting African minister from another Church commented in addressing the Assembly of 1963 that he had not attended as a fraternal delegate for about a dozen years, and that his chief impression was of the larger number of Africans present and of the greater part taken by them in debates.

The following facts emphasise this tendency. Assembly’ s business is mainly done through Standing Committees, which function throughout the year and report annually. A dozen years ago very few Africans served on any standing committees; now they are represented on most of the major committes, Life and Work, Church

, Extension, Youth, Bills and Business, Selection, Church and ^ation, and Training for ■J the Ministry. Few Africans have as yet served in positions of leadership. There

has never been an African Moderator of Assembly, and only ance an African Moderator of Presbytery. Africans have held convenerships of Assembly and Presbytery J committees, though in relatively few cases. It is fair to say that this is due, notto prejudice, but to two other factors.i First, convanargMpa usually call for___ariministrative ability, which is not the special gift which the majority of Africans

bring to Church life . Second, the Church is still experiencing an African preference Tor European leadership. As a clear instance of this, the Orange River Presbytery has had since 1955 an African majority in its membership. It has not so far had an African Moderator, its succession of European Moderators having held office by the free vote of an African majority.

Until some five or six years ago, the attitude of the Church to its African membership was frankly "missionary". All new congregations of any race are under a dertain tutelage until they reach what is termed "full status". With the European congregation this process could be relatively rapid, and the restrictions placedon them were not great. On the other hand the "mission congregation", while it could theoretically reach full status, had in no instance done so, and the measure of external control was much greater. Different regulations governed the development of European and of African congregations. Over the last ten years the following changes have taken plaCe in this situation. When full rights of representation in Presbytery and Assembly were given to European congregations not yet in full status,

y this was at the same time extended to mission congregations, thus bringing many more Africans into the government of the Church, The term "mission" was dropped some years ago, it being recognised that we were not undertaking a "mission" to anyone, but were in fact extending the African section of the Church. In recent years a growing number of African congregations are reaching full status, in which they manage all their affairs. New work which requires some tutelage is now as likely to be placed in the oversight of an African congregation as of a European. The part of the Church's constitution concerned with the development of congregations

vJ has been re-written so that identical provisions apply to all congregations of any race. Formerly four Assembly committees nqmerxissri, with separate budgets, rapndE supervised the development of new work in the various racial groups: these have now

7 been consolidated into one department, operating one budget for the overall needs of

the Church.

African ministers were formerly paid on a rather different system from \A Europeans and the financial gap was very great. Similarly in his conditions of

service the African minister was much more under control by European committees than •j 1 the European minister. The financial gap remains very great, but all ministers have IMnow been placed on the same basis of payment, and European stipends have been pegged l\]until such time as the gap may be considerably narrowed. Conditions of service have

\ been made idnetical.R.ELrtT/oNSHlPS IN T H E CHURCH

As to actual relationships outside of the governmental framework of the Church, the position varies in different places and is much affected by language and

-f- cultural factors. In few, if any, congregations of any race would members of another ^ race be other than welcome at worship, but because of language barriers few avail

themselves of this. 1} In the few cases where it occurs there is no record of any difficulty. In some places joint services are from time to time organised for special occasions, and are normally well attended. European ministers have for many

/ years preached much in African pulpits, and in recent years African ministers are

coming to occupy European pulpits from time to time.

In Northern Rhodesia congregations are now moving towards integration on a w j/very wide basis. Also in 1961 the Church inaugurated the first/deliberately )I multi-racial congregation of any denomination within the Republic.'"" This continues * as a vital eDqxnriam experiment, but its very small numbers testify to the lack of

o \j demand for it among our people and the inherent difficulties of worship and Church

f lif^across language barriers.

The majority of Church members are not interested very significantly in

any/

/ ‘any part of the Church’ s life beyond their own congregation. If one asks whether there is much fraternising between members and organisations of European And African

^ congregations, the answer is that there is not very much fraternising between different European congregations. On the other hand, study retreats for European and African elders and ministers are being increasingly and successfully held, 1 beginning has been made to inter-racial youth camp§. The Women's Association of the Church is organised in congregational branches, hence African or European; but for many years there has probably not been any European branch within reasonable proximity of an African branch which has not had representatives who attend the African branch meeting

ft WOU- ta^bT i^a so sS t ffe ' 'tcT’say that a l l ^ ^hese\contacts, official andI unofficial, do not affect the bulk of the membersnip~of''Sll races, and that within fi that majority of all races are many who do not personally desire closer contacts.' This is frequently the subject of t irades by those to whom progress may seem too slow, or who may be unaware o f what is actaully happening in various areas of the Church.

J . On the other hand it seems clear that the official policy of the Church has steadily Of ■JJ} I gained ground in every sphere in which the Church is able to wrfiMg enforce or of] ̂ encourage it .

VEXTERNAL RELATIONS.

The Church maintains regular ecumenical contacts through its membership of the / World Council of Churches, the World Presbyterian Alliance, the Christian Council of

South Africa, the Christian Conference of Southern Rhodesia, and the Christian Council

of Northern Rhodesia.

Negotiations towards union with the °antu Presbyterian Church of South Africa y and with the Tsonga Presbyterian Church are in an advanced state. A basis of union

is in process of drafting and will be presented to the Churches in 1964* Thetwo other Churches are entirely African, the former having a membership of about A.0,000, the latter of 10,000. Both churches are autonomous, the former deriving from the mission of the Free Church of Scotland, the latter from the joint missionary work

of the Swiss Presbyterian Churches.

Conversations towards union were commenced some four years ago with the Church of the ^rovince of South Africa. These have so far produced a joint statement approved by the Churches, expressing the desirability of organic union.

An invitation has recently been extended to open union conversations to the Congregational Union of South Africa, and has been warmly received.

The Church has through various channels maintained cordial relations with the Dutch Reformed Churches in South Africa and the Rhodesias.

Collection Number: AD1715

SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF RACE RELATIONS (SAIRR), 1892-1974

PUBLISHER: Collection Funder:- Atlantic Philanthropies Foundation

Publisher:- Historical Papers Research Archive

Location:- Johannesburg

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