Discrimination and differentiation in the development of worship in the Presbyterian Church of South(ern) Africa

Abstract

Worship as the work of the people of God does not arise in a vacuum. It is contextual and cultural. In the areas of the world, long designated as the mission field, many developments were transported to countries in the global south and imposed on local peoples. This was true of the arrival of Presbyterians who came to settle in southern Africa. Presbyterians imported two differing traditions of worship, the evangelical and the liturgical, and introduced them to the indigenous peoples they encountered. They were adopted without adaptation and have largely followed their European ancestors and contemporaries. Africans have largely followed their missionary mentors but have found ways of subverting these traditions by forming a new tradition by blending aspects of each and adding their own African brand of Spirit inspired and led. worship while their mentors pay only lip service to their African colleagues.

Contribution: This article highlights the historical continuities in the worship of a mainline Church of European Origin (CEO) with their ecclesiastical and ecumenical source(s). This is in discontinuity with the worship traditions of African Christian communities, which are less formal and tend to incline towards the charismatic and Pentecostal traditions with their freedom of expression of faith rather than the more cerebral forms of expression.