During the period 1884-1925 Ethiopian-type schisms from mission churches
occurred for a number of reasons. Generalisations of these reasons have been
made by numerous authors. By generalising the causes of schism the particular
reasons why each independent church 1 eader 1 eft the mission church are
ignored. The thesis shows how each schism was due to unique circumstances in
the mission church as well as to factors, for example, the personal feelings
of the independent church leader. In each case there was a point of no return
when the founder of the independent church no longer felt he could accept the
status quo.
There were two government commissions that investigated the independent or
"separatist" churches during these years - the South African Native Affairs
Commission of 1903-1905 and the 1925 South African Native Affairs Commission
which investigated the "Separatist Churches". The testimony of the white
government officials and missionaries and the black church leaders has been
compared with the findings in the reports.
Four case studies are investigated to show how general causes of schism may
occur for a number of years until a reason, peculiar to the particular
independent church, manifests itself and leads to the formation of an
independent church. The case studies are the Ethiopian Church and related
independent groups, the independent churches which joined the African
Methodist Episcopal Church in 1896 with the Ethiopian Church but later left
to form their own churches, for example the Order of Ethiopia, schisms from
the Presbyterian Church during the 1890' s and the Independent Methodist
Church. / Christian, Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th (Church History)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:umkn-dsp01.int.unisa.ac.za:10500/17459 |
| Date | 06 1900 |
| Creators | Millard, J. A. |
| Contributors | Pillay, G.J. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (335 leaves) |
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