Orthodox Ecclesiology in Africa: A Study of the ‘Ethiopian’ Churches of South Africa

Abstract

This article gives a brief account of the historic presence of Orthodox Christianity in Africa and of features of Orthodox ecclesiology, particularly episcopacy and apostolic succession, which, in the 19th and 20th centuries, attracted several groups of African Christians, who had initially encountered apostolic succession in the practice of the Anglican Church of the Province of South Africa. Using the ‘Ethiopian Churches’ of South Africa as an example and case study, and with brief comparative reference to the development of Orthodoxy in other countries of East Africa, the article examines the progress and motivations of the ecclesial groups to which the term ‘Ethiopian’ was applied and who were attracted to Orthodoxy by its antiquity, its apostolic succession and its lack of connection with colonialism. Noting the affinity between the holistic nature of Orthodox ecclesiology and African understandings of community, and the continued spread of Orthodoxy in Africa, the author concludes that with so many other ecclesiologies currently in development, many linked to the consumerist gospel of prosperity, and more than 10,000 denominations in South Africa alone, it is impossible to speak of an emerging ‘African ecclesiology’ or to know which forms of ecclesiology will eventually predominate.