A history of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) as a federative denomination (1924-2015)

[摘要] This study is about the history of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) as a federative denominationin South-Central Africa. This denomination comprises five synods that are more or less independent of each otherand function in a kind of federation known as the General Assembly.The research issue was identified by observing that following the Presbyterian system of church government,one would expect that the church's courts would continue to become stronger and more powerful from the sessionto the General Assembly. However, what one actually sees on the ground is that real administrative andecclesiastical power ends with the synods, so much so that the General Assembly appears to be a kind of umbrellaorganisation of no real significance. This is so despite the transformation of the constitution of the GeneralAssembly in 2002, which aimed at giving more power to the General Assembly over and above the synods. Thismeans that despite the CCAP clergy's intention to give more power to the General Assembly, the autonomy of thesynods makes them more powerful than the General Assembly itself.The aim of this research was to investigate the history and nature of the CCAP as a federative denomination.The study makes a conscious departure from most research activities on the CCAP which confine themselves tothe histories of individual synods and or issues related to them without trying to engage with a composite historyof the synods together with their General Assembly. This study therefore makes an original contribution toknowledge in the area of Church History and Polity by engaging with an integrated history of the synods andGeneral Assembly of one of the mainline Protestant churches in South-Central Africa, thereby enriching ourknowledge of Church History in this region.The research was done through gathering of material from archival sources and contemporary documents andconducting informal and formal in-depth interviews with key informants. The material gathered from theseactivities was analysed systematically following the procedures of qualitative research.The study shows that the CCAP Synods share their theological and historical roots all the way to theReformation through the life and ministry of John Calvin in Geneva. The study also shows that the CCAP is achild of revivals as the missions that gave birth to the denomination were actually influenced by the spirit ofrevivals. It has been shown that during the formation of the CCAP there was much cooperation among themissionaries, indicating that the synods have always been one in cooperation and not in competition with oneanother, at least in their early history. However, things began to change with the actual process of the formationof the CCAP as the different attitudes of missionary personnel from the three original missions began to manifest.The result of such differences was that the formation of the CCAP endured many compromises for the sake of thesuccess of its unity. Consequently, many things were not ironed out during the formative years of this federativedenomination. Besides, the emerging African leadership did not play a significant role in the formation of theunion and yet they were the ones to be entrusted with its future life. Consequently, the indigenous leadership ofthe CCAP has had to struggle with an elusive unity of the denomination over the course of its history.The study validates the research hypotheses that the CCAP, with its ongoing inner wrangles and its ownleadership's recognition of lack of real unity, has lost its denominational bearings, having become in fact a looseumbrella body of five distinct 'denominations.' The study further demonstrates that the original intention of thefounding fathers of the CCAP to retain Synodical autonomy in respect of the mother churches arrested thedevelopment of the CCAP into a single and fully united denomination.In view of these observations it follows that whatever unity the future of the CCAP holds, it must first of all beacknowledged that there is actually no one CCAP denomination but five denominations. It must also be realisedthat the CCAP has actually never been a single denomination before, except in assumption.The efforts of the CCAP to move forward in its unity have often been hampered by references to a history thatcannot be fully apprehended as it was beyond the grasp of African leadership to take full control of the CCAPwhile the missionaries, who were the initiators of the project, belonged to their own exclusive camps. The onus istherefore on the current leadership to re-orientate the denomination since current developments show that thedenomination has reached a stage where a drastic landmark decision in its history is supposed to be made. I arguethat this re-orientation of the denomination can only be successful if the leaders of the synods are concerned morewith the future of the CCAP and its contribution to the Kingdom of God than with current divisions or the gloriouspast of the missionary era from whence the CCAP synods have come.

[发布机构] University of the Free State