In 1977 the Annual Conference of the Methodist Church of South Africa (MCSA) decided to discontinue its practice of sending messages of goodwill to the Heads of State of the Southern African region (including Transkei). The Prime Minister ofTranskei interpreted this resolution as implying the non-recognition ofTranskeian political independence, obtained from the Republic of South Africa in 1976, and expressed his intention to ban the MCSA in Transkei and replace it by the Methodist Church of Transkei (MCT) The thesis presents, in narrative form (Chapter 2), a detailed description of the process of the schism ( 12 January 1978 to 2 June 1978). Chapter 3 analyses the political and ecclesial context of the schism comprehensively by examining three main issues: the Methodist tradition in the Eastern Cape and Transkei, the Methodist tradition of pledging loyalty to the Head of State and the emergence of Transkei as a geo-political state. Chapter 4 focuses on the reaction of the Transkeian Methodists to the dispute between the Transkeian Government and the MCSA. The loyalties which influenced their reaction are identified and analysed. In this study the whole process of the schism is seen as an interplay between and clash of different loyalties. Chapter 5 reviews the different models and typologies used to explain and interpret the African Independent/Initiated Church movement. The aim is to identify the elements in these models which are relevant for an understanding of this schism. Chapter 6 concludes the study by considering five areas of missiological importance highlighted by the 1978 Methodist schism in Transkei, namely: ( 1) the research questions, (2) mission and unity, (3) mission and ethnic issues, (4) prophetic mission, and (5) prophetic ambivalence. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Missiology)

This dissertation examines the political origins of Loyalism in New York City between 1768 and 1778. Anchored by an analysis of political mobilization, this dissertation is structured into two parts. Part I has two chapters. Using a variety of private and public sources, the first chapter analyses how 9,338 mostly white male Loyalists in New York City and the counties of Kings, Queens, Suffolk and Westchester were mobilized. Chapter 1 argues that elites and British forces played a fundamental role in the broad-based mobilization of Loyalists in the province of New York. It also recognises that colonists signed Loyalist documents for many different reasons. The second chapter of Part I is a large-scale prosopographical analysis of the 9,338 identified Loyalists. This analysis was based on a diverse range of sources. This analysis shows that a majority of the province’s Loyalist population were artisans aged between 22 and 56 years of age. Part II of this dissertation examines political mobilization in New York City between 1768 and 1775. In three chapters, Part II illustrates how elite and non-elite white male New Yorkers coalesced into two distinct groups. Chapter 3 concentrates on the emergence of the DeLanceys as a political force in New York, Chapter 4 on their mobilization and coalescence into ‘the Friends to Liberty and Trade’, or ‘the Club’, and Chapter 5 examines the political origins of what became Loyalism by studying the social networks of three members of ‘the Club’. By incorporating an interdisciplinary methodology, Part II illustrates that members of ‘the Club’ developed ties with one another that transcended their political origins. It argues that the partisanship of New York City led members of ‘the Club’ to adopt inward-looking characteristics that affected who they interacted with on an everyday basis. A large proportion of ‘the Club’’s members became Loyalists in the American Revolution. This dissertation argues that it was the partisanship that they developed during the late 1760s and early 1770s that defined their allegiance.