Abstract
This article covers the time from 1985 to 1992 in the history of the Swaziland Reformed Church (SRC). In 1985, for the first time in its existence, the SRC had four missionaries working in the four districts of the country. At this stage the SRC formed a presbytery within the synodical region of the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa (DRCA) of Northern Transvaal. In 1989 – at its own request – this church became a regional synod within the DRCA. However, not long thereafter, in 1992, it was forced to become an independent Reformed church, even though it still remained part of the family of Dutch Reformed churches. Making use of original documents, this article records this history of the SRC.
Highlights
In a previous article, Van Wyngaard (2018:1–7) described the history of the Christian church in Swaziland, including how the Swaziland Reformed Church (SRC) was formed and how, by 1985, four missionaries from the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) in South Africa were working in the three congregations of the SRC
The SRC formed a presbytery within the synodical region of the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa1 (DRCA) of Northern Transvaal,2 but it soon became clear that a new structure had to be found to enable the Reformed Church in Swaziland to grow
A letter was sent to the secretary of the church in Botswana, A.B. In his reply on 25 April 1988 he advised the church in Swaziland to rather consider becoming an independent Reformed church. These suggestions were seriously considered by the Church Office Committee (COC) of the presbytery of Swaziland and the following suggestion was formulated to serve before the following meeting of the presbytery: We report to the presbytery that it will be to our advantage to form an independent synod
Summary
The history of the Swaziland Reformed Church (SRC) has never been documented before. This is one of the smallest Reformed churches in the world, with approximately 1500 members (SRC Synod 2017). The article makes use of original documents, including the official minutes of church meetings as well as official correspondence between different church bodies, all of which have never been accessed before in an academic publication.
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