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Directory of Africa Resources

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Reformed churches in Africa date from Dutch settlement in South Africa in 1652 as well as from settlements by Huguenot and German Reformed refugees somewhat later. With British occupation in South Africa in 1806 Scots brought Presbyterianism. By the late 20th century half of the Presbyterian and Reformed membership in Africa was in the Republic of South Africa. White Dutch Reformed churches have been closely identified with the government policy of apartheid. At the meeting of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in Ottawa, Can., in 1982 apartheid was declared heresy. Two of the white Reformed denominations then were suspended from the alliance, and the Reverend Allan Boesak, a Colored Reformed pastor and leader of the anti-apartheid forces, was named president of the World Alliance. A confessional statement, the Kairos Document, drawn up in 1985 by Reformed, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, and other church leaders, affirmed a theology unconditionally opposed to the state theology of South Africa. It has been compared to the 1934 Barmen Confession in Germany calling for resistance to the state. Other African nations with large Presbyterian church membership include Madagascar, Kenya, Congo (Kinshasa), Cameroon, Malawi, Egypt, and Ghana. Churches from 16 other African nations belong to the World Alliance.

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