Abstract
According to the 2011 census there are 45 million Christians in South Africa. If only a third of these individuals are regular churchgoers, it would mean that clergy have a weekly contact with approximately 15 million people. This is bigger than the support of most political parties in this country. Times of worship are nevertheless still defined along racial lines, especially in the denomination in which I serve as a seconded minister, the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. One would expect that if there were one place in society where differences of culture and skin color were bridged, it would be in the church, but this is not the case.
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Notes
Charles Villa-Vicencio, Between Christ and Caesar: Classic and Contemporary Texts on Church and State (Cape Town: David Philip, 1986), p. 216.
Charles Villa-Vicencio, A Theology of Reconstruction: Nation-Building and Human Rights (Cape Town: David Philip, 1992), p. 42.
John W. de Gruchy, Christianity and Democracy (Cape Town: David Philip, 1995), p. 169.
Walter Wink, Violence and Nonviolence in South Africa: Jesus’ Third Way, (Philadelphia, PA: New Society Publishers, 1987), p. 82.
John van de Laar, The Hour That Changes Everything: How Worship Forms Us into the People God Wants Us to Be (Cape Town: Sacredise Publishing, 2010), p. 58.
Wessel Bentley, “Is Love Enough? Towards a Theology of Nonviolence in South Africa,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 144, (November 2012): 205–220.
Based on Daniel Erlander, Manna and Mercy: A Brief History of God’s Unfolding Promise to Mend the Entire Universe (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1992).
Mark, W. Stamm, Let Every Soul be Jesus’ Guest: A Theology of the Open Table (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006), p. 216.
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© 2014 R. Drew Smith, William Ackah, and Anthony G. Reddie
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Bentley, W. (2014). Ministry as Bridge Building: Facilitating Culturally Diverse Faith Communities in South Africa. In: Smith, R.D., Ackah, W., Reddie, A.G. (eds) Churches, Blackness, and Contested Multiculturalism. Black Religion / Womanist Thought / Social Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137386380_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137386380_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
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