The EMS Partner church in South Africa

The Moravian Church in South Africa
The origins of the Moravian Church in South Africa (MCSA) go back to the work of the Moravian missionary Georg Schmidt, who landed in 1737. He founded the mission station of Genadendal. When missionary work extended to the Eastern Cape, the General Synod in Herrnhut decided in 1869 to divide the areas of work into a Xhosa-speaking region in the Eastern Cape, and an Afrikaans-speaking region in the Western Cape. These two regions developed into the two church provinces of the Moravian Church in South Africa. Members in the Eastern province were mostly black people whereas the majority of members in the Western province was coloured. During the apartheid era, this division became very questionable. As a result, there have been moves towards reconciliation between East and West since the middle of the 1950's. But it was not before the Synod in 1992 that reunification of the church was finally agreed at canonical level, and it was only in 1993 that its implementation was celebrated solemnly.

The church is headed by delegates from the twelve church districts and an executive office consisting of three people who are elected by the Synod. Unifying the two churches poses a major financial and organisational challenge to the MCSA - not least because of the enormous distances in the country. The MCSA has nearly 100.000 members in 89 parishes and tries to live a holistic creed by combining preaching, social work and education. The church is severely affected by the economic problems of the country. Especially the parishes of the Eastern Cape are very poor. Another challenge for the mission stations is the issue of land ownership. The process of land reform that has been started has been postponed time and again. For several years, the MCSA has been trying to stop people from drifting off to the charismatic movement. In an attempt to solve this, the church has launched programmes promoting church renewal. The year 2004 was proclaimed as the "Year of Church Renewal", and this was also the motto of the Synod that took place in September 2004.

The church lives off the associations for men's and women's work, Sunday school and youth organised by the reunified church. Music plays an important part. There are many choirs and brass bands. Some of the important social institutions and church programmes include the "Elim Home", a home for multiply handicapped children in the Western Cape, the "Sive School" for the deaf in Mvenyane, and the "Masangane AIDS Programme". The last was one of the first church-funded AIDS programmes to treat the afflicted with anti-retroviral medicine. The MCSA is founder member of the South African Council of Churches (SACC).