South African Christian News: Telling the God Stories of Africa
The Pretoria High Court on Friday refused the application by the Alliance Defending the Autonomy of Churches in South Africa (ADACSA), asking the court to clarify its judgment in Gaum vs General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church. More particularly, ADACSA wanted clarity on whether the court’s judgment, which declared […]
By Michael Swain, executive director of Freedom of Religion South Africa How greater levels of voluntary and self-regulatory accountability can effectively resolve problems It seems that every day there is another article or TV exposure of some so-called pastor or prophet doing something that is either outright criminal or borderline at […]
The Alliance Defending the Autonomy of Churches in South Africa (ADACSA), who appeared as a Friend of the Court in the case of Gaum versus General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church, has filed an application with the Pretoria High Court to obtain clarity from the judges regarding their recent […]
The Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) synod has decided to abide by a controversial Pretoria High Court ruling ordering the church to allow ministers in same-sex relationships and the solemnisation of same-sex civil unions. The decision followed a vote in which a “significant majority” of 48 synod members supported a proposal […]
Originally published in CBN News The Shi’ite Muslim majority country of Azerbaijan recently invited more than a dozen evangelical pastors on an official visit to the nation. But why would the president of that country be interested in evangelical Christians? Azerbaijan is located on the Caspian Sea, bounded on the […]
The South African government must wisely choose new commissioners for the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Rights (CRL) in order to regain the trust of religious communities, says religious freedom scholar Professor Christof Sauer. “The actions and attitudes of the Commission in the past five years […]
Last Friday a full bench of the Pretoria High Court ruled that a 2016 decision by the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) Synod to reverse its 2015 decision to remove the celibacy requirement for homosexual ministers and to solemnise same-sex civil unions, was both procedurally and constitutionally unlawful. While technically nothing […]
In a major turnaround, a proposal which would have criminalised parents spanking children has been removed from the latest draft of the Children’s Amendment Bill which will be submitted to Parliament for consideration. Unlike previous versions of the Bill, the latest draft makes no mention of “chastisement” or “discipline”, which […]
At a national summit for religious and church leaders at Rhema Church (Rhema Summit) two weeks ago, the CRL Rights Commission threatened church leaders that if they did not come up with solutions for the abuses and malpractices in the religious sector (and particularly in the church) on that day, […]
More than 800 delegates attended a historic, national summit of religious leaders at Rhema Church, Randburg, yesterday to address the need for a self-regulation process to prevent religious abuses. The vast majority of the leaders represented the Christian church, with most of the major denominations, independent and indigenous structures well […]