Revisiting the Message to the People of South Africa: 1968-2018

The year 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Message to the People of South Africa in 1968, the same year in which the 4th Assembly of the World Council of Churches was held in Uppsala. The Message was the first major South African ecumenical statement that rejected apartheid a...

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Bibliographic Details
Subtitles:‘Behold, I Make All Things New’ 1968 and the Churches
Main Author: De Gruchy, John W. 1939- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell [2018]
In: The ecumenical review
Year: 2018, Volume: 70, Issue: 2, Pages: 272-282
IxTheo Classification:CG Christianity and Politics
KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
KBN Sub-Saharan Africa
KDJ Ecumenism
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Volltext (doi)
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Summary:The year 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Message to the People of South Africa in 1968, the same year in which the 4th Assembly of the World Council of Churches was held in Uppsala. The Message was the first major South African ecumenical statement that rejected apartheid as unbiblical and unchristian, a "false gospel." At the time it was likened to the Barmen Declaration of the Confessing Church in Germany (1934). It also set in motion a process of ecumenical opposition to apartheid that prepared the way for declaring its theological justification a heresy and its practice a sin that had to be rejected and resisted. This article sets out the background to the Message, describes the process which led to its publication, outlines its content, and considers its significance looking back after 50 years.
ISSN:1758-6623
Contains:Enthalten in: The ecumenical review
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/erev.12356